Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was still shooting in the Tunisian desert outside the city of Tozeur when disaster struck. On the night after the third day of filming there, an unexpected sandstorm tore through the Mos Espa set. It wrecked props and structures the crew had built to represent Anakin Skywalker's home. Production staff scrambled to repair the damage, and remarkably, the shoot still left Tunisia on schedule. That resilience set the tone for a production George Lucas had delayed for years before he ever picked up a camera. Why did Lucas wait so long to return to the galaxy he created? How did a film that split critics still become one of the year's defining hits? And how does one boy's fate end up shaping an entire galaxy's future? This documentary follows the long road that led to that desert set, and everything that came after it.

• 2. The Long Way Back

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  While writing the original Star Wars film in 1977, George Lucas judged his story too big for a single movie. He negotiated a contract allowing two sequels and built out an elaborate backstory to guide his writing. That backstory later revealed, in The Empire Strikes Back, that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight turned traitor. By Return of the Jedi in 1983, Vader had been redeemed through a final act of sacrifice for his son Luke.

  Throughout the 1980s, Lucas maintained he felt no pull back toward the franchise. By the time of Return of the Jedi, he had scrapped his planned sequel trilogy. The early 1990s changed that. A resurgence built around Dark Horse's comic line and Timothy Zahn's trilogy of novels reignited interest in the saga. Seeing an audience ready for a prequel trilogy, Lucas reconsidered directing the film himself. Computer generated imagery had finally advanced enough for the effects he wanted.

  In October 1993, Variety and other outlets announced that Lucas would make the prequels. He began outlining a story built around Anakin Skywalker rather than Obi-Wan Kenobi, framing the trilogy as a tragedy tracing Darth Vader's origins. Anakin would grow up on Tatooine, just as his son Luke had, a detail left over from Lucas's earliest plans. The prequels' new timeline stretched all the way from Anakin's childhood to his death, turning the franchise into one continuous saga.

  Lucas began writing the Star Wars prequel trilogy on the 1st of November 1994, working from a fifteen-page outline he had written back in 1976. That original document had been meant only to track characters and events preceding the first trilogy. Anakin was first written as a twelve-year-old, but Lucas dropped his age to nine. He believed a younger boy would feel his mother's absence more sharply. The working title was The Beginning, and it changed to The Phantom Menace only shortly before the film was finished. The new title nodded to Palpatine, who hid his true identity as a Sith Lord behind a public servant's mask.

  Padme Amidala lives a double life in the film, posing as a handmaiden while secretly ruling as queen. Lucas pointed to this as one thread of duality in the story, alongside Palpatine also playing both sides of the coming war. Balance mattered just as much to him. Anakin is supposedly "the one" fated to bring balance to the Force. Lucas explained that "Anakin needed to have a mother, Obi-Wan needed a Master, Darth Sidious needed an apprentice." Without that interaction, he argued, "you wouldn't have drama."

  In November 2015, Ron Howard confirmed that Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg had also been approached to direct the film. Both directors told Lucas the project was "too daunting" and that he should direct it himself. Before Lucas wrote a single scene of dialogue, his producing partner Rick McCallum was already at work preparing the production.

• 3. Building A Galaxy

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  In April 1994, Rick McCallum began searching art, architecture and design schools for new talent. By mid-year he was scouting locations with production designer Gavin Bocquet. McCallum drew on lessons from his earlier work on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He favored long-term deals with actors and soundstages, the hiring of recent film school graduates, and building sets and landscapes with digital technology. Industrial Light and Magic art director Doug Chiang impressed McCallum most of anyone he met and was hired as design director. Chiang's team began its art development in January 1995, spending nearly two years reviewing thousands of designs for the film.

  Chiang said the film needed to feel "richer and more like a period piece," since it captured the history leading up to A New Hope. The story unfolds across three planets, each given a distinct visual identity grounded in something real. Naboo's Gungan city drew on an Art Nouveau look. Mos Espa took its cues from old Tunisian hotels and buildings instead, set apart from A New Hope's Mos Eisley by touches like a marketplace. Coruscant's design, and in particular one metropolis, became the basis for the Senate chamber.

  Terryl Whitlatch, who brought a background in zoology and anatomy to the project, led the design of the film's creatures. Many of the aliens combine features borrowed directly from real animals. Whitlatch sometimes built out entire food chains, even though only a fraction of each would ever appear on screen. She also drew detailed skeletons for the major characters and the facial muscles Jar Jar Binks needed as a reference for ILM's animators. Every creature reflected its home world. Naboo's animals turned out more beautiful, since the planet is lush and animal friendly. Tatooine's creatures wore rough, weather-beaten, leathery skin suited to the desert, and Coruscant favored bipedal, human-looking aliens.

  Stunt coordinator Nick Gillard was recruited to invent a new Jedi fighting style for the prequel trilogy. He compared it to a chess game, "with every move being a check." Because lightsabers are short-range weapons, Gillard blended sword styles like kendo and kenjutsu with swinging motions borrowed from tennis and tree chopping. While training Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor, he wrote choreography that ran about sixty seconds and typically built five or six sequences per duel. Lucas later described the Jedi as "negotiators" rather than high-casualty soldiers, favoring hand-to-hand combat that gave the order a spiritual and intellectual bent. Because wire work looked unconvincing to Gillard, the production used air rams to launch actors and stuntmen into the air instead.

  Designer Trisha Biggar and her team created more than 1,000 costumes drawing on a range of world cultures. Biggar worked with concept designer Iain McCaig to build a color palette for each planet. Tatooine kept the sun-bleached sand tones of A New Hope. Coruscant wore grays, browns and blacks. Naboo's humans dressed in green and gold, while its Gungans wore what McCaig called "a leathery look, like their skin." A wardrobe department at Leavesden Film Studios produced more than 250 costumes for the main cast and 5,000 for background performers.

  Iain McCaig initially sketched Darth Maul as a cross "between a ghost and a serial killer." Lucas had handed him a script page reading "give me your worst nightmare." When Lucas saw the result, it actually terrified him. He closed the book and told McCaig, "give me your second worst nightmare." McCaig then based the character's final design on Bozo the Clown. Lucas described Sebulba, Anakin's podracing rival, as "a spider crossed with an orangutan crossed with a sloth." He gave the character a camel-like face and clothing inspired by medieval armor.

  Principal photography ran from the 26th of June to the 30th of September 1997, based primarily at Leavesden Film Studios in England. The production leased the studio for two and a half years, so its sets could stay standing between shoots. The Naboo forest scenes were filmed at Cassiobury Park in Watford, Hertfordshire. Italy's Caserta Palace, closed to visitors for four days, stood in for the interior of Theed Palace. After Lucas screened a rough cut for friends and colleagues in May 1998, the crew shot additional pickups between August 1998 and February 1999. Roger Christian's second unit handled most of the action and stunts. Cinematographer David Tattersall lit sets built for extensive chroma key blue-screen work. Visual effects supervisor John Knoll developed software to strip the resulting blue reflections off shiny floors.

  These blueprints and designs meant nothing without performers to fill them, and casting had already begun before some of the sets were even finished.

• 4. Casting Against Type

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  Liam Neeson landed the role of Qui-Gon Jinn even though Lucas had originally pictured an American actor in the part. Lucas cast the Irish actor anyway. He called Neeson a "master actor, who the other actors will look up to, who has got the qualities of strength that the character demands."

  A shortlist of fifty actors, each compared against photographs of a young Alec Guinness, led producers to Ewan McGregor as a believable younger Obi-Wan Kenobi. McGregor took on a vocal coach and studied several of Guinness's old performances to bring his voice closer to the original. "We had a lot of work to do to establish the plot and set up the saga as a whole," McGregor said.

  More than two hundred actresses auditioned for the role of Padme Amidala, the fourteen-year-old Queen of Naboo. Production notes for the film described exactly what was needed. "A young woman who could be believable as the ruler of that planet, but at the same time be vulnerable and open." Lucas said he wanted "someone who was young, strong, along the lines of Leia," and found that Natalie Portman "embodied all those traits and more." Portman had never followed Star Wars before her casting, yet she grew enthusiastic once she realized she would play a role model. "It was wonderful playing a young queen with so much power," Portman said. "I think it will be good for young women to see a strong woman of action who is also smart and a leader."

  Producers tested hundreds of child actors across the UK, Ireland, Canada and the United States before choosing Jake Lloyd to play the nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker. Lucas felt Lloyd met his requirements as "a good actor, enthusiastic and very energetic." Producer Rick McCallum described Lloyd as "smart, mischievous, and loves anything mechanical, just like Anakin."

  Casting director Robin Gurland spotted Ahmed Best performing with the percussion group Stomp in San Francisco and brought him in for Jar Jar Binks. Best was originally hired only to provide motion capture data, but his offer to voice the character was accepted as well. On set he wore a suit of foam and latex so the other actors would have something to react to. His filmed performance was later replaced entirely by a computer-generated character. Best often improvised movements to make Jar Jar look as clumsy and comedic as the part demanded.

  In a 1998 interview for Star Wars Insider, Ian McDiarmid said he was surprised when Lucas approached him about reprising Palpatine. The approach came sixteen years after Return of the Jedi, and McDiarmid had assumed a younger actor would take over the part.

  Samuel L. Jackson had told Lucas he wanted to appear in a Star Wars film in any role, even as a Stormtrooper. Lucas cast him as Mace Windu without telling him until his first day on set. Tupac Shakur had also been considered for the same role. Joseph Fiennes auditioned for Obi-Wan Kenobi and nearly won the part. He was turned down only after Lucas's daughter met him during a later round of auditions. Benicio del Toro was initially cast as Darth Maul before leaving the project once the character's dialogue was cut. Michael Jackson had wanted to play Jar Jar Binks in prosthetic makeup, but Lucas intended to render the character in CGI instead.

  Ray Park, a martial arts champion, had joined the film as a member of the stunt crew. He won the role of Darth Maul after stunt coordinator Nick Gillard filmed him demonstrating lightsaber technique. Park's voice was judged "too squeaky" and was dubbed over afterward by Peter Serafinowicz. Keira Knightley's parents tried to talk her out of auditioning, but she pursued the part of Sabe anyway as a lifelong fan of the franchise. She later said she "cried every single day" over how uncomfortable the wardrobe was. She was cast partly because of her striking resemblance to Natalie Portman. Sofia Coppola, daughter of Lucas's longtime friend Francis Ford Coppola, joined the royal entourage as Sache. She was preparing the script for her own directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides, at the time.

  None of these actors, though, would carry the film's most demanding performances. Those belonged to puppets, animatronics, and, for the first time at this scale, characters built entirely out of code.

• 5. Bringing The Impossible To Life

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  Frank Oz voiced and largely performed Yoda through a puppet designed by Nick Dudman, based on Stuart Freeborn's original creation. Oz controlled the mouth while other puppeteers worked separate parts by remote control. Lucas built his shooting schedule for Yoda's scenes around Oz's other commitment, promoting the film In and Out. Two distant shots used a fully computer-generated Yoda instead. Warwick Davis had played the Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi. He stepped into the role physically for the scene where Obi-Wan becomes a Jedi Knight. Beginning with the 2011 Blu-ray release, a CG Yoda replaced the puppet across the entire film.

  Fans campaigned online before production began to keep Kenny Baker inside the R2-D2 suit, and Lucas confirmed the actor would reprise the role. Nine separate R2-D2 units were built in total. One was for Baker to climb into, and seven came from Industrial Light and Magic, fitted with wheelchair motors strong enough to move 440 pounds. One final pneumatic version, built by the British effects department, could shift between two and three legs to drive over sand. C-3PO, meanwhile, existed on screen without his usual metal covering, prompting R2-D2 to call him "naked." Industrial Light and Magic's Michael Lynch wore camouflage matching the background, in a technique resembling the Japanese Bunraku puppet theater. He manipulated a skeletal C-3PO frame while Anthony Daniels read the lines off camera, and the puppeteer was digitally erased afterward.

  About 1,950 of the film's shots carry visual effects. Only one sequence, the toxic gas released on the Jedi, needed no digital alteration at all. Three visual effects supervisors split the workload. John Knoll oversaw on-set production along with the podrace and space battle sequences. Dennis Muren handled the underwater sequence and the ground battle. Scott Squires led the lightsaber effects alongside teams working on miniatures and character animation. Knoll reviewed 3,500 storyboards ahead of filming. He later admitted that hearing Lucas explain some of the planned shots left him unsure how to accomplish them.

  Knoll's team wrote new software, including cloth simulators, to give the film's digital characters realistic-looking clothing. To combine live performers with computer-generated cast members convincingly, Lucas would first block a scene using the voice actors on set. Those actors were then removed so the live-action cast could perform the same scene alone. A CGI character was added afterward to complete the conversation. Lucas also used CGI at times to adjust actors' physical positioning within a shot.

  Nick Dudman's creature effects team built practical masks and animatronics for characters that were cheaper to realize that way. These included the Neimoidians and background aliens seen in Mos Espa, the Jedi Council and the Galactic Senate. The Neimoidian suits, originally meant to be digital, arrived only a day before they were needed on set. To research the podracing vehicles, the visual effects crew visited a jet aircraft junkyard outside Phoenix, Arizona, and scavenged four Boeing 747 engines. Life-sized replicas were then built and shipped to Tunisia as visual references. Aside from Jake Lloyd inside a hydraulically controlled cockpit and a handful of practical podracer models, the entire podrace sequence is computer-generated. Lucas directed the effects team to study Formula One crashes, where high kinetic energy sends vehicles spinning apart on impact. That reference led to custom software built just to shatter the pod engines on cue.

  Animatic supervisor David Dozoretz spent nearly three years on the podrace sequence alone. He assembled a twenty-five-minute cut of the race at one point, though only nine minutes made the final film. Digital pre-visualization essentially meant building three-dimensional animated storyboards by computer. The production used this for dozens of scenes, but first and most extensively for the podrace.

  The Phantom Menace would be the last Star Wars film shot mainly on 35 millimeter film until The Force Awakens arrived in 2015. A handful of scenes, including Qui-Gon drawing a blood sample from Anakin, were captured on high-definition digital video instead. Lucas and McCallum saw the format as the next logical step for the compositing process. Editing took two years given the sheer volume of visual effects. Paul Martin Smith handled dialogue-heavy scenes in England, while sound editor Ben Burtt cut the action sequences under Lucas's supervision. The final sound mix was finished in March 1999, and the film was completed the following month once its last visual effects shots arrived.

  All of that technical ambition served a story built on myths and symbols reaching back centuries, folded quietly into a galaxy far away.

• 6. Myths Hidden In Plain Sight

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  Like earlier Star Wars films, The Phantom Menace draws on the hero's journey, a mythic template shaped by comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. It also echoes historical events and films Lucas watched growing up. The podrace sequence borrows heavily from the 1959 film Ben-Hur, echoing that film's chariot race. Anakin's rivalry with Sebulba mirrors the falling-out between Ben-Hur and his former friend Messala. The closing celebration scene likewise echoes a Roman parade from Ben-Hur.

  Darth Maul's red skin and horns draw heavily on traditional depictions of the devil, feeding into the film's Christian undertones. Anakin fills the role of the "Chosen One," prophesied to bring balance to the Force after being conceived of a virgin birth. Unlike Jesus, though, Anakin will eventually fall from grace and fail to fulfill that destiny. The prophecy is only realized later, in Return of the Jedi.

  Scholars have argued that Korean and Japanese culture shaped The Phantom Menace. Akira Kurosawa's 1958 film The Hidden Fortress had shaped the original Star Wars in much the same way. Historians Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska wrote that the costume work "favour a mixture of the gothic and the oriental over anything very futuristic." They pointed to Darth Maul's "demonic horns and the red and black make-up mask" as borrowing from Japanese demon imagery. The pair also read Qui-Gon's ponytail and Obi-Wan's position as an apprentice as an echo of the Samurai tradition. They described Amidala's formal outfits and sculpted hair as carrying "a Japanese cast." The Jedi's own Zen-like meditation and martial arts practice recalls the ancient Samurai in the same way.

  Qui-Gon's very name adapts qigong, a Chinese discipline built around meditation and cultivating the vital energy known as qi for healing, health and combat. The Chinese qi, the Korean gi, the Japanese ki and the Indian term prana all describe the same universal energy. Each traces that energy back to what Chinese philosophy calls the Tao, the presumed source flowing through every living thing. Taoist thought holds that yin and yang, opposing but complementary forces, emerge from the Tao. The ancient Persian philosophy of Zurvanism, by contrast, cast light and dark as locked in eternal conflict. Both were treated as two aspects of a single force tied to time itself. Themes of family and hope, familiar from earlier Star Wars films, run through The Phantom Menace as well.

  In the Disney Gallery episode of The Mandalorian titled "Legacy," Dave Filoni explained the meaning behind one key track. "Duel of the Fates," played during the lightsaber duel against Darth Maul, represents the fight for Anakin Skywalker's fate. Filoni described Qui-Gon as acting like a father figure to Anakin, having taken the boy from his mother. He believed the Jedi should not reject love and care. Qui-Gon's death costs Anakin that father figure. Obi-Wan takes on the role of master to honor his dying wish. Filoni noted he never becomes a father to Anakin, a gap that helps seal Anakin's fate alongside the Jedi's own indifference.

  None of these mythic echoes, though, explain why watching the film feels different for an audience that had already seen what came next.

• 7. What The Audience Already Knew

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  Because the original trilogy reached theaters first, many in the audience for The Phantom Menace already knew things its characters did not. Palpatine's true nature as the saga's main antagonist was one such secret. So were the future Clone Wars and the Great Jedi Purge. Ben Kenobi would later describe both, along with the fall of the Republic, to Luke Skywalker. C-3PO's role in this film is smaller, yet the audience already knows he will meet R2-D2 again and later serve Anakin's own children.

  Darth Vader's breathing and the Imperial March both feature in the end credits. They remind the audience that Anakin's innocent portrayal here will eventually give way to his transformation into the Sith Lord. The Battle of Naboo looks like a clear victory for the film's heroes. The audience knows it is really a step forward in Darth Sidious's plan for galactic domination. Obi-Wan defeats Darth Maul, yet the true antagonist behind the invasion is never even identified within the film.

  Maul's death costs Sidious his assassin. The Sith Master's survival, though, leaves him free to keep posing as a benign politician and manipulate the galaxy's coming events. The film also establishes what becomes Anakin's defining weakness: his fear of losing the people he loves. Sidious will later exploit that fear in Revenge of the Sith. Anakin is freed from slavery by a Jedi in this film. By the end of the prequel trilogy, though, he becomes a slave to the Sith Lord instead.

  "It's like poetry, sort of: they rhyme," George Lucas said of the parallels between Anakin and Luke Skywalker while reflecting on the saga. Darth Sidious first appears via hologram in both the prequel and original trilogies. That detail was later referenced in the opening crawl of The Rise of Skywalker. Qui-Gon's relationship with Anakin mirrors Ben Kenobi's later relationship with Luke. Both The Phantom Menace and A New Hope begin a young Skywalker's journey toward becoming a Jedi on the same planet, Tatooine.

  Anakin hesitates to leave his mother behind. Luke loses his aunt and uncle, yet still accepts change and moves forward. In doing so he unknowingly lives out the same lesson about loss that his grandmother once gave Anakin. At the end of Return of the Jedi, the redeemed Anakin finally accepts that same lesson from his mother. He asks for his helmet to be removed as he dies. Obi-Wan's reaction to Qui-Gon's death mirrors Luke's reaction to Obi-Wan's own death later, since both watch their mentor fall to a Sith apprentice of Sidious. Anakin's destruction of the Droid Control Ship in this film echoes Luke's destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope. R2-D2 rides along with a young Skywalker piloting a starfighter in both space battles. Both films close on a victory celebration, even though Sidious remains undefeated in each.

  Philosophy professor John C. McDowell extended the parallels beyond Anakin and Luke. He noted that Padme and Leia both display courage and wisdom beyond their years. The Gungans and Ewoks alike help the heroes triumph over a more advanced military force. Darth Maul's ship, the Scimitar, and Vader's TIE Advanced starfighter share a manufacturer, Sienar Fleet Systems. During the Republic era of The Phantom Menace, that company was known as Republic Sienar Systems.

  None of it mattered yet to a marketing campaign that was already breaking records of its own, months before the film reached theaters.

• 8. Breaking Every Record

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  Lucasfilm spent heavily on the advertising campaign for The Phantom Menace and struck promotional licensing deals with Hasbro, Lego, Tricon Global Restaurants and PepsiCo. The studio also backed the Star Wars fan club's own Star Wars Celebration event. It was held in Denver, Colorado, between the 30th of April and the 2nd of May 1999. Anthony Daniels helped organize guests and stage sessions for the event alongside Dan Madsen.

  The first teaser trailer appeared on selected screens alongside Meet Joe Black on the 17th of November 1998. It drew crowds who paid full admission just to watch it before films like The Waterboy, The Siege and A Bug's Life. A second trailer debuted on the 12th of March 1999, ahead of Wing Commander screenings, and a bootlegged copy leaked online that same day. Once the studio posted it officially the next morning, its servers were quickly overwhelmed. The trailer logged more than a million downloads in its first twenty-four hours. That set a record which stood until The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring broke it in April 2000. The theatrical trailer later screened at the ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas and aired on Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood.

  A teaser poster showing Anakin's shadow forming Darth Vader's silhouette appeared on the 10th of November 1998. Artist Drew Struzan, who had illustrated the Special Edition posters, was commissioned for the theatrical release. His artwork was unveiled on the 11th of March 1999. Lucasfilm required foreign distributors to use only Struzan's illustration, unaltered apart from text. The teaser posters also reused a slogan from the 1998 Godzilla campaign.

  The film opened at 12:01 am on the 19th of May 1999, in 2,010 theaters across the United States and Canada. Another 960 theaters screened it later that same day. Roughly 120 theaters, including the Ziegfeld in New York and the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, ran it continuously from opening day. Lucasfilm had moved the release up two days, from the 21st to the 19th of May. The change let fans see it during the week before families came out on the weekend. Advance ticket sales only began on the 12th of May 1999, capped at twelve per customer. Lucasfilm had reached that arrangement after meeting with the National Association of Theatre Owners. Some scalpers still resold tickets at prices a distribution chief called "horrible."

  Eleven charity premieres were staged across the United States on the 16th of May 1999. They included a Los Angeles event benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Others supported children's hospitals in Dallas, New York and Washington, D.C. Employment consultant firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas estimated that 2.2 million full-time employees missed work altogether to see the film. The UK premiere came later, staged as the Royal Film Performance on the 14th of July 1999 at the Odeon Leicester Square. Prince Charles attended, and the event raised 225,000 pounds for the Film and TV Charity.

  Critics gave The Phantom Menace mixed reviews on release, praising the visual effects and action sequences. They criticized its exposition and characters, particularly Jar Jar Binks. None of that dented ticket sales. The film grossed $924 million worldwide during its initial theatrical run. That made it the highest-grossing film of 1999 and, at the time, the second-highest-grossing film of all time. In North America it ranked third, behind only Titanic and the original 1977 Star Wars. It also stood as the highest-grossing Star Wars film yet, before adjusting for inflation. A 2012 3D reissue later pushed its total worldwide gross past $1 billion.

  The film reached VHS in the United Kingdom on the 3rd of April 2000, and in the United States a day later. Its regular edition sold 4.5 million copies in its first two days there, alongside 500,000 copies of a limited edition. Together the releases brought in $176 million in sales revenue, making it the fourth-highest-selling home video release of 2000. The Phantom Menace became the first Star Wars film released on DVD, debuting on the 16th of October 2001. The two-disc THX-certified edition hid an Easter egg behind the code 1-1-3-8. It sold 2.2 million copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling DVD title in the United States at the time. Weeks later, Shrek broke that record by selling 2.5 million copies in three days.

  A 2011 Blu-ray release restored roughly eight percent of the picture that earlier home video editions had cropped. It also replaced the Yoda puppet with a fully computer-generated version. The film later reached digital storefronts including iTunes and Disney Movies Anywhere in 2015. Disney+ streamed the film in 4K with Dolby Atmos when the service launched on the 12th of November 2019. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray box set followed the next March. Attack of the Clones followed in 2002, and Revenge of the Sith in 2005, carrying the saga Lucas had built toward its next chapters.