Star Wars star explains why OG Trilogy never killed off main characters

Star Wars’ original trilogy strayed away from killing off mainline characters; the same cannot be said for its successors.

The prequel trilogy notably dispatched of Qui-Gon Jinn and Mace Windu, while the sequel trilogy controversially killed off legacy characters Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

We could debate all day long whether the latter was a good decision or not.

Do legacy characters deserve happy endings? Or is that protecting them with plot armour? Do major deaths remind viewers what’s at stake, raising the tension?

Personally, I’m not sure there’s a right answer. It’s something you need to determine on a case by case basis.

This being said, we do now have some idea as to why Han, Luke, and Leia were protected during that original trilogy run, as George Lucas had a reason as to why he opted not to kill any of his main characters.

He believed that Star Wars was for children.

As reported by SlashFilm, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) recently spoke to Today where he recounted the following tale: “When I would complain about things — in the third one, I said, 'Luke has lost his hand, he's got the black glove, shouldn't it be about Luke struggling with turning to the dark side?' George said, 'Mark, it's for children.' And that's why he would never consider killing any of the main characters. In the new ones, they pop us off one at a time."

This fits with Star Wars’ history.

You see, while the original trilogy may have appealed to young viewers, those viewers grew up.

By the time the prequel trilogy arrived, those existing fans, now adults, likely shared the cinema-going experience with their kids.

It’s why Star Wars is now seen as a family franchise, one that needs to retain appeal with both adults and kids.

That could be why subsequent trilogies have been a bit bolder in their choices to kill off certain characters.

The pure existence of Andor signals that Lucasfulm is aware it needs to retain the attention of its older fans.

While I don’t think the sequel trilogy was, on the whole, well handled, I do actually think Star Wars needs to retain high stakes and major deaths are a part of that.

A story needs a sense of risk, but that shouldn't mean Luke Skywalker has to poof away in a silly cloud of dust.