George Lucas, who has directed and written several highly regarded, lucrative films, once dreamed of bringing an epic space opera to the big screen in a galaxy far, far away. His friends, however, were skeptical of his vision and referred to him as “Poor George” after seeing the original Star Wars’ footage. Little did they know that those very doubters would soon be proven wrong and that Lucas’ Space Saga would eventually become one of the greatest and most influential franchises in cinematic history.
Rewind to the 1970s, when Lucasfilm’s founder was an enthusiastic and determined filmmaker. Having already achieved success with his film American Graffiti, Lucas set out to create what would eventually come to be known as Star Wars (1977). His fascination with science fiction in the film—which is set “a long time ago”—inspired him to write a story that takes place in a galaxy far, far away.
George Lucas’ Star Wars Was Initially Met With Skepticism And Doubt
With six Academy Awards, Star Wars—often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever produced—became a cultural phenomenon. The epic space opera film, starring Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, had a difficult production but turned out to be a surprise hit.
But George Lucas’ radical vision for Star Wars raised eyebrows, earning him skepticism from his friends. They were unimpressed with what they saw in the early footage and called him “poor George”. For those who were not familiar with the fine details Lucas had envisioned, the story appeared unclear. For them, the chances of such a daring endeavor succeeding were slim. According to Yahoo, the California-born director once said:
“I showed it to all of my friends early on, but it was mostly [filled with] stock footage of old war movies, and all kinds of stuff,”. “They saw it and [said] ‘Poor George.’ ‘What were you thinking?’”
Lucas also initially viewed Star Wars as an “experiment” to test the limits of filmmaking technology. He reportedly informed Not My Star Wars:
“I had an idea doing this crazy 1930s serial action-adventure film, and the idea was it would be very fast-paced and very exciting. I added in these mythological motifs and I made Star Wars. It was really kind of an experiment, in a way. I had to push the technology of the film medium in order to make this movie work..”
He maintained that he did not create Star Wars with the intention of making it popular or profitable. He only wanted to focus on the film’s global appeal. He once shared in a Wired interview:
“None of the films I’ve done was designed for a mass audience, except for Indiana Jones..”
After accounting for inflation, Star Wars becomes the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time and the second-highest-grossing movie in North America, trailing Gone with the Wind.
Who Was the Only Person to Expect Star Wars’ Success?
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have been friends for ages. Both belonged to a group of young friends who were filmmakers in the 1970s and 1980s known as the ‘Movie Brats’, and they supported each other’s filmmaking aspirations (via CinemaBlend). Spielberg was probably the friend of Lucas who had the strongest faith in Star Wars. The latter admitted (via Yahoo):
“Steven had jumped up, and said, ‘This is going to be the biggest movie of all time’. Everybody in the room looked up at Steven and [said], ‘Poor Steven’.”
Even after the movie came out, it took Lucas some time to realize how big the Star Wars universe had gotten. He added:
“I turned on the news, and they had this huge story on the sensation of Star Wars, and lines around the block. Everybody was going berserk about it.”
Read more: Star Wars: Why Did George Lucas Start the Franchise With Episode 4?
According to the New York Times, Spielberg thought the film’s “marvelous innocence” was great and said:
“That movie is going to make $100 million, and I’ll tell you why — it has a marvelous innocence and naїveté in it, which is George, and people will love it.”
Despite being teased as “Poor George” because of Star Wars‘ initial footage, Lucas’ faith in his vision led him to establish one of the most remarkable and lucrative franchises in film history. The film brought in $775.8 million globally against a $11 million budget.
Star Wars is streaming on Disney+.
