10 Biggest Feuds In Star Wars History
Even the Skywalkers don't get on in the galaxy far, far away.
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00:00 For the most part, everyone who has worked on a 'Star Wars' project has nothing but
00:03 good things to say about their co-stars and directors. But saying that, though, it was
00:08 inevitable that 'Star Wars' would stumble across some friction behind the scenes, considering
00:12 the 'Star Wars' story has been consistently expanding for 45 years.
00:17 So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are the
00:20 10 Biggest Feuds in Star Wars History.
00:23 10. Terrence Stamp and George Lucas
00:27 Terrence Stamp signed on to play Chancellor Valorum in 1999's 'The Phantom Menace',
00:32 only because he was interested in working with Natalie Portman. Apart from his disappointment
00:36 that he would have very limited scenes with Natalie, Stamp would grow to hate working
00:40 on the film because of Lucas' insistence on using CGI as much as possible. Most of
00:45 Stamp's scenes took place in the Senate Chambers on Coruscant, where he would be performing
00:49 in a blue room against a piece of paper. "It was just pretty boring," he said.
00:54 Things weren't great between Lucas and Stamp, since Stamp hated spewing bad dialogue into
00:58 an empty blue room. In an interview with 'Empire' in 2013, Stamp recalled, "I didn't rate
01:03 him that much as a director, really. We didn't get on at all, and I didn't feel like it
01:08 was a director of actors. He was more interested in stuff and effects. He didn't interest
01:12 me, and I wouldn't think I interested him."
01:15 Worst of all, when reshoots for the film began, Stamp was required to come back to shoot additional
01:19 scenes without pay. Instead of pay, Lucas gifted Stamp some 'Star Wars' stencils,
01:24 which surely worsened an already strained relationship.
01:28 9. John Boyega and Disney
01:31 Whilst John Boyega had nothing but good things to say about 'Star Wars' and Disney during
01:35 the making of the sequel trilogy, he's now stepped forward to share his complaints about
01:39 working on the 'Star Wars' sequels. Boyega felt like Disney misused Finn in the 'Star
01:44 Wars' sequel trilogy, and accused the company of parading Finn around as nothing more than
01:48 to tick the diversity checkbox.
01:51 In a 2020 interview with GQ, Boyega took aim at Disney for their mismanagement of Finn.
01:56 He said, "What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market
02:01 them to be much more important in the franchise than they are, and then have them push to
02:04 the side. It's not good. I'll say it straight up."
02:07 He continued to throw blame at Disney's mishandling of his character and 'Star Wars' as a whole,
02:12 saying that "You guys [Disney in this case] knew what to do with Daisy Ridley and Adam
02:16 Driver, but when it came to me, you know f**k all."
02:19 Since the interview, Boyega and Disney sat down to clear the air, and the two seem to
02:22 have a better relationship now. Still, it doesn't seem likely that Boyega will ever
02:26 return to 'Star Wars' now that his sequel trilogy is done.
02:29 8. Peter Serafinowicz and 'Star Wars'
02:33 Although Ray Park provided the physical performance of Darth Maul in 1999's 'The Phantom Menace',
02:38 Peter Serafinowicz voiced the character, since George Lucas felt that Park's natural voice
02:43 was not intimidating enough for the Sith warrior. Lucas had initially sold Darth Maul to Serafinowicz
02:48 as the prequel trilogy's Darth Vader, though Serafinowicz soon learned that this was not
02:52 the case, with the character only being on screen for a total of six minutes and having
02:56 two lines, and would ultimately be killed off by the end credits.
03:00 Since its release, Peter Serafinowicz has not been shy about voicing his opinion on
03:04 the film. In an interview with Digital Spy in 2011, he noted that "I was very disappointed
03:08 when the film actually came out, because I didn't think it was very good." He eventually
03:12 got removed from 'Star Wars' completely as well, with Sam Witwer taking his place
03:16 for voicing the character for projects like 'Star Wars The Clone Wars' and 'Star
03:20 Wars Rebels'. Serafinowicz even recorded lines for 2018's solo 'A Star Wars Story',
03:24 though it was revealed that he was again replaced for the theatrical cut.
03:28 7. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher
03:32 Whilst shooting the first film, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher had a three-month long affair,
03:37 which was kept a secret until Carrie Fisher finally revealed what had happened between
03:40 them in her 2016 book 'The Princess Diarist'. Fisher was only 19 at the time, whilst Ford
03:46 was married with two children. In her book, Fisher recalled toying with the idea of asking
03:50 Ford to leave his wife for her towards the end of their affair. In 1979, Ford divorced
03:55 his wife, but Fisher insisted in a 2016 interview with Radar Online that it happened for reasons
04:00 that have nothing whatsoever to do with him. In a public statement shortly after her death,
04:05 Ford praised his co-star, saying that Carrie was "one of a kind, brilliant, original,
04:09 funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life bravely."
04:13 Even so, Ford was also quick to brush the affair under the rug. When GQ asked him about
04:17 the affair in 2016, Ford replied, "You know, with Carrie's untimely passing, I really
04:21 don't feel it's a subject that I want to discuss." Even though this was not strictly
04:25 a feud between the two because they became good friends during and after the making of
04:29 the original trilogy, it certainly made things pretty awkward for the pair when working on
04:33 the films.
04:34 6. Carrie Fisher and Richard Marquand
04:38 With George Lucas stepping away from the director's chair after the first film, Richard Marquand
04:42 took his place after Lucas watched and enjoyed his 1981 film, Eye of the Needle. Now, with
04:47 Marquand directing Return of the Jedi, the dynamic between the director and actor had
04:51 changed. Mark Hamill spoke highly of Marquand, describing him as "very personable" and
04:56 that he liked him very much in the 2013 book, The Making of Return of the Jedi.
05:00 Despite Hamill and others getting on with Marquand, though, Carrie Fisher did not share
05:04 a friendly relationship with him, since Fisher felt that Marquand was treating her unfairly
05:08 when compared to the relationship that he had with her co-stars. In an interview with
05:12 the Daily Beast, Fisher said, "I hated him. He fell all over Harrison, but he would yell
05:16 at me constantly." The bad blood between the two lasted throughout the film's production,
05:21 making it a painful experience for both Fisher and Marquand.
05:24 5. Sir Alec Guinness and Star Wars
05:28 It's been well documented that Guinness was never really a fan of Star Wars. As noted
05:32 by The Guardian upon the film's 1977 release, Guinness admitted that, apart from the money,
05:37 "I regret having embarked on that film." Guinness even seemed to enforce his hatred
05:42 of the franchise onto fans that he would meet. In his autobiography, A Positively Final Appearance,
05:47 Guinness recalled of an incident where he met a Star Wars fan who had seen the first
05:50 film over a hundred times, and told him that he would only give them his autograph if they
05:54 promised to never watch Star Wars again. Guinness would also appear in The Empire Strikes Back
05:59 and Return of the Jedi, but insisted that he only signed on for the role out of courtesy,
06:04 and that if anything, he thought that The Empire Strikes Back was worse than the first,
06:07 and that he really didn't want to do it.
06:10 4. David Prowse and George Lucas
06:14 This feud began with the premiere of Star Wars in 1977, when David Prowse found that
06:18 all of his dialogue had been re-dubbed by James Earl Jones without George Lucas telling
06:23 him. Relationships worsened when Prowse spoiled the biggest plot twist in cinema history when
06:27 he said to the press shortly before the release of The Empire Strikes Back, "Father can't
06:31 kill son, son can't kill father, so they live again to star in Star Wars 4." Prowse
06:36 was also infuriated when he learned that he would not be playing the role of the unmasked
06:40 Vader in Return of the Jedi, with the role instead being filled by Sebastian Shaw. Lucas
06:44 eventually banned Prowse from Star Wars conventions in 2010 after Prowse participated in the documentary
06:50 The People vs. George Lucas, which took aim at the director for his mismanagement of the
06:54 franchise. Even after the feud, Lucas would still pay tribute to Prowse after learning
06:58 of his death in 2020, saying to the BBC that Prowse was "up for anything" and contributed
07:02 to the success of what would become a memorable, tragic figure.
07:07 3. Disney and the fans
07:10 Despite fans giving The Force Awakens a warm reception, things would change in 2017 once
07:15 The Last Jedi was released. With The Last Jedi being such a major shift in tone and
07:19 story, it's no wonder that some Star Wars fans would turn their backs on Disney, and
07:23 turn their backs on Disney they did. Fans would also boycott 2018's solo A Star Wars
07:29 story, leading to the film suffering at the box office and convincing Disney to cancel
07:33 any similar follow-up projects. And there wasn't much improvement in relations when
07:36 The Rise of Skywalker released in 2019, with fans and critics alike dismissing the film
07:41 as an overly safe and uninspired mess. Despite this, things seem to be improving between
07:46 the fans and Disney, with the Star Wars projects on Disney+ such as The Mandalorian receiving
07:50 a lot of praise.
07:52 2. Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker
07:56 Possibly the most well-known feud in Star Wars history, the inseparable droid duo could
08:00 not have been further from best friends off-set. Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker had a difficult
08:05 relationship when working together on the Star Wars films, since neither could hear
08:09 one another when shooting a scene, making it difficult for the two to properly bond.
08:13 Worse still, Baker accused Daniels of being "the rudest man I've ever met", refusing
08:17 to talk to him or acknowledge him between takes and off-set. According to Baker, Daniels
08:21 was a social recluse who declined multiple offerings to socialize with his co-stars outside
08:26 of the film. Kenny Baker has certainly never painted a particularly flattering image of
08:30 Daniels. In a 2019 interview with Express Online, Anthony Daniels would defend himself
08:34 against Kenny's accusations, saying that Kenny decided that he wanted to say unkind,
08:38 unpleasant, rude, hurtful things. It got worse and worse. And rather like Mr. Trump, if you
08:43 say it often enough, people believe you.
08:45 It's hard to believe that the pair would have such a poor relationship when on screen
08:49 they shared such a fun dynamic. Still, perhaps that's what happens when you're stuck
08:52 in a metal suit for hours at a time in Tunisia's blazing heat.
08:56 1. George Lucas and the fans
08:59 It's fair to say that the feud between George Lucas and the fans over the prequel trilogy
09:03 is by far the biggest Star Wars has ever seen. From the release of the first prequel, 'The
09:08 Phantom Menace', George Lucas received plenty of critic and fan backlash for the overuse
09:12 of CGI, stilted acting, and appalling dialogue. Fans absolutely loathed Jar Jar Binks, the
09:18 portrayal of Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi who would become the most feared man in the galaxy
09:22 as a whiny brat, and the laughable lines that Lucas would feed his actors. By 2012, Lucas,
09:29 tired of the criticism and wanting to retire to raise his daughter, decided he wanted to
09:33 sell Star Wars, eventually reaching a deal with Disney later that year. When asked why
09:37 he didn't want anything to do with Star Wars anymore, Lucas replied, "Why would
09:41 I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person
09:45 you are?"
09:46 Ironically, fans have now turned their fury towards Disney over the direction of the franchise,
09:50 and are clamouring for Lucas to return to the helm of Star Wars. So it seems like this
09:53 feud has come full circle, with fans now praising Lucas' prequels over Disney's sequels.
09:59 What a mad world, eh?
10:00 And there we go my friends, those were the 10 biggest feuds in Star Wars history. I hope
10:05 that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
10:08 section below. As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter @RetroJwithAZero,
10:12 or you can swing by Live and Let's Dice where I do all of my Warhammer Battle reports and
10:16 streaming outside of work, and it'd be great to see you over there.
10:18 But before I go, I just want to say one thing. In life, it's never good to have a feud,
10:23 an unhealthy relationship with another person, so if you can my friends, if you have the
10:26 capacity to do so, I ask you to forgive people that have made mistakes against you in the
10:30 past, and try to move forward with love in your heart instead of hate. Try to build bridges
10:34 instead of burning them, because at the end of the day, the only way that we're going
10:37 to get through this mad thing called life, is together as a society. So big love to you,
10:42 and your neighbour.
10:43 As always I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak
10:47 to you soon. Bye.
10:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]