A harrowing ‘Star Wars’ fact instantly ages the entire fandom

With Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen returning in Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Clone Wars returning for a seventh season last year, it seems like the Star Wars prequel era has never really ended. That might be why The Phantom Menace feels a lot more recent than it is. But if you look at the cold hard facts, the truth of just how long ago Episode I first hit theaters will probably come as something of a shock. In other words, it’s a surprise, to be sure — but not a welcome one.

Redditor u/Arvedui_Last_King decided to curse us all by revealing a harrowing fact on the r/StarWars subreddit. “Episode I (1999),” they wrote, “is now closer to the original 1977 movie than to our present time.” To reference another George Lucas movie, is anyone feeling like Julian Glover when he drinks from the wrong goblet at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

Yes, it’s true. Back when The Phantom Menace came out, the original Star Wars movie aka A New Hope was just 22 short years old. Here we are in 2022, however, and The Phantom Menace has now been around for 23 extremely long years. The first of the prequels being even further back in time than Episode IV was when it initially came out is certainly something that’s hard to wrap your head around.

That said, it serves as a good reminder for why the reputation of the prequels has seen a major reappraisal in recent years. Phantom Menace and its sequels are now, to quote Luke Skywalker, the “sacred texts” for a whole generation of fans, just as the originals were for the generation before them. And, just as some are already predicting, give it another 20 years and the sequels will get the same kind of treatment.