The Phantom Menaceis not really looked upon positively in theStar Warscommunity, and it never really has been since its initial release in 1999. But a new cast photo featuring Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn), Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala), and Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker) has gone viral, thanks to Reddit.The Phantom Menacehas been coming up quite a lot, as of late, mostly because of the reaction to Rian Johnson’sThe Last Jedi, which several fans have called the worst movie in the franchise, while a small group started a petition to get the sequel removed from theofficial Star Wars canon.
The cast photo fromThe Phantom Menacewas simply posted to Reddit by a user named Pr3da7or with a simple caption commenting that the picture was 18 years old. While most Redditors marveled at the age of the picture, many began to point out that it was pretty weird that the little kid (Jake Lloyd) would eventually hookup with Natalie Portman’s character in the story. The picture is odd when you think about it that way, so we’ll just pretend not to notice. Jar Jar Binks isn’t in the picture, so that’s definitely a good thing. We’ll take that as a win.
It is pretty amazing to think that the movie came out nearly 20 years ago and it’s even more interesting to look back at whatcritics and fansthought about the movie when it came out. Critics mostly bashed the movie, but fans at the time, seemed into it. Only recently has the movie gotten truly torn apart by everybody, including director andStar Wars creator George Lucas. The old commentary forThe Phantom MenaceDVD features Lucas pretty bummed out at an early screening and openly admits that he “went too far” with certain aspects of the movie.
A lot has changed in theStar Wars universesince that photo was taken. There were two more prequels afterThe Phantom Menace, followed byThe Clone Warsanimated movie and Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, with a new trilogy and spin-off adventures.Star Warsfans were shocked when the prequels came out, but the new interest in the franchise, with a new movie every year from Disney, has been both a gift and a curse, depending on what side of this fandom you fall on.
1999 was truly a different time for theStar Warsfranchise and many had high hopes that George Lucas could pull off what seemed like the impossible at the time. And depending on who you ask, he mostly succeeded, but there are many who maintain that the prequels should not have ever happened. Regardless, the cast photo from that timeframe is an interesting time capsule from before the movie came out and got torn apart by fans and critics. You can viewThe Phantom Menacecast photo featuring Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, and Jake Lloyd viaReddit.
