These days, major pop culture franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, and DC are known for their high levels of secrecy. Studios go to great lengths to preserve twists and surprises in upcoming projects, telling talent what they can and cannot say in interviews and even digitally altering footage in trailers to hide certain details. Some may feel that these practices can be a bit extreme, but it’s understandable why studios operate this way. These films are positioned as major moviegoing events, and part of the thrill is discovering what happens when watching them for the first time. That crucial part of the experience is lost if spoilers come out ahead of time. However, decades ago, things were quite different.
On April 21, 1999, the novelization of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was officially released. The timing of this was quite interesting, as the book came out roughly a month before the movie (which premiered on May 19, 1999). Today, it seems incomprehensible that Lucasfilm would willingly put the full Phantom Menace story out for all to read weeks before the highly anticipated film premiere.
It’s important to keep in mind that The Phantom Menace was made during a very different era. The internet existed, but it wasn’t nearly as prevalent as it is today, and there was no social media. As such, the whole idea of “spoiler culture” was hardly a thought in anyone’s mind. Obviously, those who read the book ahead of the movie could share plot details with their friends and family, but there was a limit to how far that word of mouth could spread. There were no platforms like Reddit, YouTube, or Twitter, where people could easily post full plot summaries and breakdowns for the world to see. The threat of spoilers going viral and potentially diminishing interest in the actual film was minimal.
As strange as this seems, there’s actually precedence for it in the Star Wars franchise. The novelization for the original film came out in November 1976, a whopping six months before audiences got a chance to see the movie (Star Wars was one envisioned as a winter release before it got pushed back to summer). That started a trend where novelizations of all the Lucas-era movies were published before the films’ release dates (yes, even The Empires Strikes Back). The books were part of the extensive marketing campaigns, tools used to raise awareness and generate buzz.
Granted, The Phantom Menace was arguably the most anticipated film of all time, so a case can be made that it was unnecessary to release the novelization a month in advance. However, movie marketing is about trying to reach as many people as possible. There are general audience members who don’t follow the inner workings of the film industry on a daily basis, poring over trailers and TV spots. For those people, seeing a book cover with Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Maul’s face on it could be a way to learn a new Star Wars movie is right around the corner. And even if fans bought copies in April, there was no rule saying they had to read the book right away. They could choose to hold off until after seeing the movie, so releasing the novelization early was relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things.
It clearly had no impact on the film’s box office performance. The Phantom Menace was easily the highest-grossing movie of 1999, bringing in $431 million at the domestic box office alone. Odds are, the Disney-era Star Wars movies would have fared just fine if the Mouse House stuck to Lucas’ tradition, but film discourse has obviously changed dramatically since the prequels were made. The risk of movie plots going viral on social media is far too great, potentially inciting backlash in the crucial final weeks leading up to the film’s release. Under Disney, the eBook of The Force Awakens came out on the same day as the movie, and other novelizations were released months afterwards.
Perhaps even more interesting than the Phantom Menace novelization’s release date is the fact that it has key differences from the movie. This is par for the course when it comes to film novelizations; the original trilogy books were the same way, and the sequel trilogy novelizations were called “expanded editions.” The authors use the print medium as a way to build upon what’s on screen, fleshing out characters and subplots with additional details. In some ways, this can make reading the novelizations a more satisfying experience than watching the movie because there’s extra context for fans to take in.
For the Phantom Menace novelization, author Terry Brooks worked closely with George Lucas. These conversations involved going over plot points for the subsequent prequel films, allowing Brooks to include bits of foreshadowing. Most notably, there’s a scene where Anakin Skywalker crosses paths with a wounded Tusken Raider, which details the fear the young boy has of losing his mother. The novelization also includes a passage that sees Anakin lash out and attack a young Greedo. Brooks makes it clear Anakin’s actions stem from his feelings about having to say goodbye to Padmé (this is before he learns he is no longer a slave), which lays the foundation for Anakin’s turn to the dark side. The main reason he became Darth Vader was so he could save Padmé’s life. Lucas was planting that seed several years before it was the centerpiece of a movie.
Perhaps the biggest contribution the Phantom Menace novelization made to the Star Wars franchise was the introduction of Darth Bane. Lucas spent a lot of time with Brooks going over the extensive history of the Jedi and the Sith so that the author could incorporate that information into the book. In the novelization, Darth Sidious goes over the history of the Sith, explaining how they came to be. It was here that it was established Bane was the one who started the Rule of Two as a way to quell the infighting that had broken out amongst members of the Sith Order. Sith were too power-hungry for there to be more than two at once.
As intriguing as these extra details are, it’s important to keep in mind that they technically aren’t canon. The novelization is considered a Legends publication, and while some aspects have since been canonized (such as Darth Bane), others haven’t. In fact, Lucas contradicted the book in the very next prequel film. Even though Brooks wrote that Qui-Gon’s Jedi master had been part of the Jedi Order for “more than four hundred years,” Attack of the Clones established Qui-Gon was Count Dooku’s Padawan. This means fans probably shouldn’t take too much stock in the differences between novel and film, but the additions still paint a more complete picture.
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