Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the birth of bitterly nostalgic fanbase

On the 20th anniversary of the release of The Phantom Menace, we look at the backlash it received, what that says about the Star Wars fanbase, and its implications for new Star Wars films.

It’s difficult to overstate the effect that Star Wars had on popular culture when it was first released in 1977. It was a phenomenon: kids became obsessed with collecting anything that was even remotely Star Wars themed, and everything that could be merchandised was (including action figures for such beloved characters as Squid Head, 8D8, 4-LOM, and Bespin Security Guard).

By the time The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980, there was a full-on frenzy, with lines around the blocks of movie theaters, full of fans desperate for the next episode in the saga. Three movies over the course of six years, then it was over.

Well, not over. You still have a pair of television shows (Star Wars: Droids and Star Wars: Ewoks, both of which aired from 1985 to 1986), the exceptionally embarrassing Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978, and a whole cadre of expanded universe novels that explored everything from the origins of Lando Calrissian to the future exploits of Han, Leia, and Luke’s children (all of which have since been retconned — you’ll note that Han and Leia’s kids back then were named Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin Solo, and Luke was the one with a son named Ben.)

Mark Hamill and David Prowse in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983). Photo: Lucasfilm

But in terms of epic cinematic adventures on the big screen, the Star Wars universe went pretty dark. Sixteen years separate the release of Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace — enough time for child and teen fans of the original trilogy to have built up some pretty high expectations for the much-anticipated prequel trilogy.

Even if you take time out for eating and sleeping and generally living a life, the accumulated theories and ideas and excitement of sixteen years is a lot of pressure to put on any film. And while The Phantom Menace is undeniably a flawed movie (there’s a reason why few space adventures open with a trade dispute, for example), it’s hard to imagine any film succeeding under these circumstances.

On May 12, 1999, seven days before the movie was actually released, Entertainment Weekly ran an article entitled, “The Phantom Menace backlash has begun.” Knowing what we know now, that feels oddly like a perfect summation of the relationship between many fans and the franchise they claim to love.

Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, and Jake Lloyd in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). Photo: Lucasfilm

For most Star Wars fans, watching The Phantom Menace and finding it to be inferior to the originals was disappointing but not necessarily surprising. After all, sequels (or prequels, in this case) are rarely considered to be better than the films that launched a franchise. In the case of Star Wars, those first three films are enshrined in a nostalgic glow that would be difficult for new versions to live up to, regardless of their quality.

But with Star Wars, you don’t just have those rational adult fans. You have the angry purists who have spent half their lives imagining the perfect Star Wars film — the ones who not only had high expectations for The Phantom Menace, but felt somehow entitled to a film that met all of their very specific desires for the continuation of the series. And what’s worse, with the increasingly common use of the internet in the late ’90s, now they could all speak to one another. Things, predictably, got ugly.

The vitriol directed at all aspects of The Phantom Menace is well-documented. Ahmed Best, the actor behind the widely-mocked Jar Jar Binks, faced such extreme hate on the internet that he reportedly contemplated suicide. Jake Lloyd, less than 10 years old when he filmed The Phantom Menace, was mercilessly bullied not only by fellow children but by grown adults.

There was a laundry list of all the things that were wrong with the film: the ill-conceived inclusion of entirely CGI comic relief characters, the policy-oriented main plot that sees our heroes spar against the malevolent but dull Trade Federation, the questionable depiction of one of cinema’s greatest villains as a young boy, and finally, the decision to turn the Force from a mystical entity into a blood disease.

Natalie Portman and Ian McDiarmid in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). Photo: Lucasfilm

While all of these criticisms are perfectly valid, the attacks levied against it were far more aggressive and personal than we’d ever seen before with other popular film franchises. Where other films might have just let their audiences down, there is a sense of betrayal that defines this odd relationship between Star Wars and its most vocal critics within the fanbase.

Realistically, it doesn’t seem likely that any Star Wars film released in 1999 would have been well-received. After sixteen years of anticipation and the massive marketing campaign hyping it up, it was always going to disappoint fans. But one could argue that isn’t even the real reason why it was so widely hated.

Fans didn’t want just a movie. They wanted a cinematic experience that could make them 12 again, watching Star Wars for the first time. It’s no secret that those of us who were children when the prequels came out have a very different relationship with the films than fans who had been around when the originals were first released, and perhaps this is why. The bitterly nostalgic fans essentially had an unattainable ask of the new Star Wars film.

Now that another 20 years have passed since the release of The Phantom Menace, we see the pattern repeat itself with the latest trilogy.

Although many fans are enamored with the direction that the films have taken, there is (and perhaps always will be) an abrasively vocal minority that treats new Star Wars films with disgust. It makes you wonder how they can hate something so completely that they claim to love.

The darker corners of YouTube are filled with so-called fans extemporizing on all the reasons why The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are terrible affronts to the sanctity of Star Wars. But I think their anger doesn’t stem from any perceived flaws in the films, but rather from the same root issue that plagued The Phantom Menace: they don’t want a good film, they want their childhood back.

And while the Force can do many things, it can’t do that.