When Star Wars was first released in theaters in 1977, George Lucas wanted the classic Looney Tunes short "Duck Dodgers in the 24th-and-a-half Century" to screen before the movie whenever possible.In response to a tweet about the cartoon from MeTV's Toon In with Me classic cartoon program, Mark Hamill confirmed "George really did want this classic Daffy Duck cartoon shown before every screening of [Star Wars]. It would've been an icebreaker to let the audience know what was coming was less than dead serious. I was disappointed when we couldn't get the rights to it & it didn't happen."RELATED: Star Wars Fans Should Pay Attention to Aspyr Media

George Lucas' love for Chuck Jones' parody of the sci-fi serials he'd later pay tribute to with Star Wars allegedly inspired him to get into filmmaking in the first place. Jones stated in a 1983 interview with Jim Korkis, "Lucas said that he saw 'Duck Dodgers' the year it came out, when he was eight years old and he said that it impressed him so much that he decided he wanted to make movies."

Star Wars was released by 20th Century FOX, whereas the Looney Tunes shorts are owned by Warner Bros., which might explain why the rights were too complicated to work out for the release of Star Wars. Lucas, however, was insistent on having a new Duck Dodgers cartoon screen before The Empire Strikes Back.

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This was a complicated request because Warner Bros.' original Termite Terrace animation studio closed in 1963 and no new Looney Tunes shorts had been produced since 1969. Jones said, "Friz and I had been doing some television specials using the characters but I had to work hard to reassemble some of my old team. Fortunately, most of the guys I wanted had not spent too much time doing the Saturday morning stuff and dulled their skills. Some of them had worked on commercials that were fully animated. Top people that I needed like Phil Monroe and Ben Washam and others hadn’t lost their touch, fortunately. Of course, we had Maurice Noble again to design a revolutionary spaceship."

The sequel short "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th-and-a-half Century" ultimately wasn't completed in time for The Empire Strikes Back's May 1980 release. It ended up airing later that year as part of Daffy Duck’s Thanks-For-Giving Special on NBC.

While the Star Wars/Looney Tunes connection never ultimately came to pass in the way George Lucas wanted, his passion for Chuck Jones' work ultimately helped pave the path for a resurgence in appreciation for classic animation.

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Sources: Twitter, Cartoon Research