Happy 20th Birthday to 'The Phantom Menace'

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On May 19th, 1999, George Lucas changed movies forever. The long-anticipated Star Wars prequel Episode I: The Phantom Menace hit theaters, returning to a world that fans had thought they’d never see again. For some, excitement turned to confusion, puzzlement, and outright anger by the time the credits rolled, and Lucas’s grand cinematic experiment was off to a rocky start. Looking back at the film two decades later, The Phantom Menace proved to be a precursor for the cinematic environment that we now find ourselves in. It was a special effects revolution, the first inkling that stories might never end, and a film where the director and cast faced enormous pushback from fans.

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The response from the fans of the original films was brutal, especially on the actors and Lucas. Ahmed Best, the actor behind Jar Jar Binks, noted that he contemplated suicide, while Jake Lloyd noted that the reaction turned his life into a “living hell.” (He’s since left the film industry.) Lucas aired his frustrations in another interview, asking “Why would I make any more, when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?

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