Why did Star Wars start at episode 4 and not 1?

Question

I'm a 90s kid and I have wondered this question for 10 years

It's really odd to go from modern to 70s

Answer 1

4,5,6 were originally going to be 1,2,3 but george lucas wanted to tell more of the story once he made the originals

Answer 2

George Lucas had no idea Star Wars was going to be such a hit, specially after been given such a hard time at FOX while filming it. Nobody thought there were going to be sequels.

This is a question George Lucas should answer himself, but as a fan of his, id say that he saw the potential of the whole star wars saga as we know it now the moment he was writing for Empire strikes back the line "Luke, Im your father" and he went like: wait a moment i can work something out with this family thing.

Answer 3

It's a way of throwing you into story without take time to explain things.  Film time is precious; it's get the story going right from t=0 instead of t=1hr later.

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Answer 4

Because he thought SW4/6 were better ideas.

Answer 5

Originally, "Star Wars" was supposed to be a tribute to the 1930s     sci-fi serials like "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers".  He deliberately started the story in the middle so that it would seem like a random chapter in a Saturday afternoon serial.

Answer 6

bcuzthe 1st wasnt expected to do so good but after being a mega hit a sequel was made and after that another sequel was made to finish the franchise. But after modern technology like cgi lucas decided to remaster his old films and make new ones that looked better somehow managed to make a new film in 2000 showing darth vader in the past. Thus giving the 1st one made the title of 4th and the new three 1st 2nd 3d

Answer 7

Well george lucas thought that the last three were better and he wanted to do them first.

Answer 8

I think it really has to do with Empire Strikes Back. Star Wars wasn't originally called Episode IV or A New Hope, it was just Star Wars. It wasn't until Empire Strikes Back that subtitles were used and the numbers began.

It makes sense that once Lucas decided to make Vader the father of Luke that the potential for prequels really had merit. So Star Wars II became Episode V: Empire Strikes Back, a year later Star Wars was retitled to Episode IV: A New Hope and once VI: Return of the Jedi was finished, it allowed the numbers I, II and III to be used for Vader's story, while IV, V and VI were about Luke.

From what I remember of the DVDs, Lucas had details about Episode I written down from the 70s. He'd this back story (although a rough one) worked out while he was working on the original Star Wars. I just don't think he really expected it to take so long before the prequel trilogy game out.  

Answer 9

I read somewhere the reason for it was that they didnt have the technology to do what George Lucas wanted to do for those 3 movies. But that may have just been rumor.

But my guess from reading some of the history of Star Wars. When he first wrote it, the networks wouldnt make the movie, he changed it about 4 times. He planned on the one Starwars movie. Then later since star wars was a hit, they wanted him to make more. Think from there maybe he got the idea to make more movies, changed the movie to Esp IV and made part V. He may have had ideas for the First 3 movies but wasnt planning on making them but the movie series open so that he could make them.

It says later on he didnt plan on making 1-3 until after he lost a lot of money in a divorce and got interested in making them.