By Timed for the film’s 25th anniversary, Lucasfilm has announced that George Lucas’ “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” is coming back to cinemas starting on May 3rd.
The film marked the return of “Star Wars” to the big screen following a sixteen-year hiatus with anticipation for the movie so palpable that people were camping out for weeks ahead of release.
The reaction however was mixed – though it broke box office records and earning over $1 billion worldwide, it suffered a bunch of criticism for its script and some of its performances.
In the years since it has been re-evaluated by fans, especially by younger ones, and its place in the overall saga is now more widely respected and recognised.
The re-release comes as actor Hayden Christensen recently spoke with Empire about the film’s anniversary and the prequels overall. Christensen didn’t appear in that film but did show up in the second and third prequel – taking over the Anakin character from Jake Lloyd.
Christensen put up with years of criticism around the time of the film’s release, but he’s been embraced by the fandom in the years since and says time has been kind:
“It has been a remarkable experience. And just a very heartwarming one. The journey that I’ve been on with Star Wars over the last twenty-plus years… it’s been a wild ride, and where we’re at now is really meaningful to me.
I think that those movies have held up well over time. It feels like vindication for the work that we did.
Everyone that worked on those movies thought that we were part of something special. We all wanted to do our very best work, and we cared a lot about it. And so to see the response from the fans now, it’s very cool.
My journey with the character and with Star Wars has at times been a bumpy one… but I’m in a good place with it now.”
Check out the official poster artwork for the re-release below.
Source: StarWars.com
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