We Almost Didn’t Get Star Wars
Written by Ludwin Herrera
We all know the phrase, “May the force be with you.” Since I’m Catholic, I sometimes respond to the television screen under my breath, “And also with you.” In all seriousness, practically everyone in the world is familiar with Star Wars. Even people who are not fans recognize the phrase or the characters. We all know about Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the ominous Darth Vader. Of course, we can’t forget to mention the droids that everyone fell in love with: 3C-PO, the logical droid that was always worried that “this is the end,” and the brave little R2-D2, who communicated by emitting beeps and whistles while showing so much personality.
Can you imagine a world without “A galaxy far, far away”? Believe it or not, life almost turned out that way. The person who would have been responsible for that alternative reality is its creator, George Lucas. That’s right—he was interested in making a very different space sci-fi movie before he came up with the idea of Star Wars.
Can you imagine a world without “A galaxy far, far away”? Believe it or not, life almost turned out that way. The person who would have been responsible for that alternative reality is its creator, George Lucas. That’s right—he was interested in making a very different space sci-fi movie before he came up with the idea of Star Wars.
Lucas grew up reading the comic strip Flash Gordon, which is about a polo player who graduated from Yale University. He, his girlfriend, Dale Arden, and the scientist Dr. Zarkov travel to the planet Mongo in a space rocket invented by Zarkov, but that world has a problem. It’s ruled by a tyrant called Ming the Merciless and is on a collision course with Earth. Flash Gordon is the human race's only hope, as you probably guessed. The comic was created and drawn by Alex Raymond on January 7, 1934. Three separate feature film series of this space adventure were created for television. Before Darth Vader, Ming the Merciless was a pretty mean space villain. Remember the name Alex Raymond because he later had an influence on Star Wars.
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In 1971, a young George Lucas was an unknown filmmaker who tried his hand at sci-fi with a movie project called THX 1138, which was negatively received by audiences and critics. Then again, it was a film that he started while he was still in college; therefore, it definitely wasn’t his most polished work. He later sold a studio on a new idea to make his coming-of-age Southern Californian film, American Graffiti. The story is influenced by his childhood in, you guessed it, Southern California. While making the unexpected blockbuster, he still wanted to do a sci-fi space adventure and had his eyes set on making a Flash Gordon movie. The hurdle that stood in the way for Lucas was getting the rights to that franchise. While working on financing for American Graffiti, he and his mentor, Francis Ford Coppola, the famous director of The Godfather, took a road trip to King Features Syndicate to try and obtain those rights. That’s right; despite his inauspicious start, he already knew some prominent names. King Feature Studios flatly told him that they were interested in someone more well-known: famed Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. To make the deal even more difficult to accept, the studio demanded an 80% profit margin. Considering all the hard work he would be doing to make it, that was a big deal-breaker.
Although he was depressed at the failure of the Flash Gordon deal, Lucas went on to complete the film American Graffiti. That movie’s success would put his name on the map as a director, and many studios would start taking him seriously. Shortly after, George Lucas spoke with Alex Raymond, the creator and cartoonist of Flash Gordon. That’s when Lucas learned that it was inspired by John Carter of Mars, a fictional story of a Civil War veteran who was transported to a civilization called Barsoom on Mars, and the works of author Jules Verne, like Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Although he was depressed at the failure of the Flash Gordon deal, Lucas went on to complete the film American Graffiti. That movie’s success would put his name on the map as a director, and many studios would start taking him seriously. Shortly after, George Lucas spoke with Alex Raymond, the creator and cartoonist of Flash Gordon. That’s when Lucas learned that it was inspired by John Carter of Mars, a fictional story of a Civil War veteran who was transported to a civilization called Barsoom on Mars, and the works of author Jules Verne, like Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Ultimately, it turned out that Star Wars wouldn’t be a film adaptation of an existing work, but rather the culmination of entertainment that inspired him to make a sci-fi adventure. 70 billion dollars later, Star Wars was the hit film George Lucas was looking for, and the world took notice. Sadly, numerous studios, including Universal and Warner Brothers, turned him down when he originally tried to sell the film. Luckily, Lucas had a fan at Fox Studios by the name of Alan Ladd Jr., the company’s head honcho. Ladd liked American Graffiti and said he did not believe in Star Wars but rather in Lucas himself. Ironically, a few months after Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, a Flash Gordon film was finally released in December 1980. Let's just say that Dino de Lerentiis, the producer, missed the mark.
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He wanted it to be comedic and more like the comic strip than an epic adventure. It failed to connect with audiences in a stellar way and was a financial flop. For those who are curious as to what an accurate Flash Gordon story could be, wonder no more. A director by the name of Taika Waititi, from Fox’s hit show What We Do In the Shadows and the little movies called Thor Ragnarok and Thor Love and Thunder, has a screenplay adaptation that will be a live-action film shortly. He said that it will be more faithful to the original story than the 1980s version. Well, at least he’s looking back at history to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistake. I would say that it’s lucky for us, things happened the way they did. I can’t picture a world where “may the force be with you” is just an odd way to say “good luck” or where there is no reason to celebrate May 4th (Star Wars Day).