George Lucas Talks About Change and the Criticism it Brings

Say what you will about Star Wars fans, but one thing that seems universal among them is that they hate when any changes occur in their favorite film franchise. When George Lucas made changes to the originals during the process of digitally re-mastering them, including a scene where Han Solo reacts to a violent situation rather than instigating it, the fans get fighting mad. While they offer a unique form of worship to Lucas himself, they are not above criticizing him for "messing with perfection."

Now that Star Wars is undergoing yet another transformation – this time being turned into a 3D version – there are criticisms anew. Asked if there were any changes to the films beyond the switch to 3D, Lucas noted, "Changes are not unusual — I mean, most movies when they release them they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world. That whole issue between filmmakers and the studios with the studios being able to change things without even letting the director of the movie know. I’m very much involved in that. My job is to try to make the best possible movie it can be — and the current version is the Blu-ray version. That’s the one that’s been made into 3D. But it’s just a conversion. We haven’t made any changes other than the 3D."

Whether that will assuage the concerns of fanboys around the world remains to be seen. Asked about previous uproars, Lucas noted, "Well, it’s not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie. The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down."