Surely, I could not be the only one disappointed with certain aspects of the prequels, particularly with the very first movie of the trilogy, "The Phantom Menace."
Frankly, that movie remains almost unwatchable to me even to this day, and mostly, because of one particular element that is hard to overlook. It is likely no mystery what aspect of the movie I am referring to: Jar Jar Binks. This was supposed to be the comic relief character of the movie. Instead he is a source of irritation from beginning to end, and makes watching this move in it's entirety a bit of a chore. Again, I hesitate to watch the movie even to this day, more than twenty years later. George Lucas came up with some great stuff in his body of work, but Jar Jar Binks has to be considered on the other extreme of it. Some believed him to be (and perhaps still believe him to be) a racist stereotype. Not sure on my end whether he is or not (although I can understand those who believe him to be that), but there is no question in my mind that he is a horrible character, quite likely the worst fairly prominent character in major motion picture history, and that is saying something.
There is another aspect of "The Phantom Menace" that always bothered me, though. The very best character to emerge from the movie is Darth Maul. He is one of the greatest villains ever, and maybe a notch or two at most below Darth Vader, in terms of intrigue. Yet, he seemed to die at the end. As it turns out, he did not die, and indeed, comes back in the animated movies, as well as in one off-shoot movie, "Solo."
Still, there felt just like glimpses of what had once promised to be a great character with a lot of promise. In other words, one of the greatest Star Wars villains felt almost wasted, barely lasting as the main villain for one full movie. Personally, I felt that he should have been saved, at the very least, for a second prequel movie, if not, perhaps somehow, the third and final one. Alas, it was not to be.
Apparently, though, George Lucas did have some bigger and better ideas for Darth Maul. He was supposed to make it to future movies, just not the prequels. In fact, he was supposed to be there for the sequels as the main villain, even though the sequels are supposed to take place more than half a century after the events of the first prequel trilogy take place. Remember, maybe 13 years are supposed to have passed from "The Phantom Menace" to "Revenge of the Sith." Then, another twenty to thirty years between that and the original trilogy, and then another nearly 30 years or so until the end of the most recent sequel movies.
It would have been interesting to see how he would have been portrayed, if he would have aged in a manner similar or foreign to the other characters, or if he managed to stay a bit younger and more athletic, and as such, deadly. The martial arts abilities of the actor made for some of the most impressive lightsaber duel scenes in Star Wars history.
Ah, what might have been! Or, if George Lucas gets his way, what might still be, if they do indeed give him a shot at creating the final trilogy, as there is now talk of. Whatever criticisms people had of the prequel movies, the fact of the matter is that they had more of a story to them then the ones that were released, and which lacked a general story arc.
Here, below, is the link to the article about how Darth Maul was set to be the main villain of the original final trilogy in the Skywalker saga, as envisioned by George Lucas:
George Lucas’ Star Wars Sequels Had Darth Maul As Main Villain by Jonathan Wright, December, 2020:
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