.png)
5 days ago
10
George Lucas created the Star Wars franchise with the 1977 original film, which was a box office hit. After completing the original trilogy, Lucas returned to the space opera saga after almost sixteen years to helm the prequel trilogy. The new era started in 1999 with The Phantom Menace, making it the first entry since the original film to be directed by Lucas.
Star Wars creator George Lucas wasn’t the first to watch The Phantom Menace (Credit: HBO).Despite his overarching involvement with the franchise, Lucas wasn’t the first person to watch the first installment of the prequel trilogy. In an interview, longtime Lucasfilm sound editor Matthew Wood revealed how he became the first person to watch The Phantom Menace, viewing a rough cut of the movie even before Lucas, and here is what he had to say about the experience.
Matthew Wood Revealed Watching The Phantom Menace Before Star Wars Creator George Lucas
Matthew Wood has worked on multiple Star Wars projects over the past couple of decades. The sound editor joined Skywalker Sound back in the 1990s and worked on 1999’s The Phantom Menace, which completed twenty-five years in 2024.
Matthew Wood watched The Phantom Menace before anyone else (Credit: Star Wars | YouTube).During a conversation with the Star Wars website to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary, Wood reflected on his overall experience at Lucasfilm. He recalled how picture editors Ben Burtt and Paul Martin Smith had spent weeks creating rough cuts of the movie and George Lucas handed them to Wood for notes on the sound.
George Lucas said, ‘Well, here you go, Matt. You’re the first person that’s going to watch the whole movie from beginning to end.’
Wood made the above statement, explaining how Lucas handpicked him to watch an early, unrefined, and hours-long cut of the movie.
The sound editor revealed that while Lucas was watching everything between the two editing rooms, the film hadn’t been screened in its entirety up until that point. As a result, even Lucas had not seen the complete film, making Wood the first person to watch The Phantom Menace.
Matthew Wood Shared His First Reaction to The Phantom Menace
Matthew Wood was thrilled to watch The Phantom Menace‘s rough cut (Credit: Lucasfilm). In the same interview, Wood revealed that he was excited to watch the rough cut of The Phantom Menace. After Lucas handed over the tapes to him, Wood went to the Tech Building to watch the movie. However, he admitted to being a little paranoid about the security because of the project’s secrecy.
This was the first time that someone had watched a new Star Wars movie since 1983, and I actually did call my mother and tell her what I was doing! It was several hours long with a lot of temp material.
Wood made the above statement, revealing his feelings about watching a new Star Wars movie for the first time in sixteen years. Despite having read the script, Wood admitted watching the movie was a different experience altogether.
He explained how the rough cut was understandably much different from the final cut. The rough cut did not feature legendary artist John Williams’ iconic background score. It was also filled with bluescreen, confirming that VFX work on the film was still in progress when Wood saw it.
The Phantom Menace and other Star Wars movies are streaming on Disney+.
Bengali (BD) · 
English (US) ·