After a 16-year hiatus, Star Wars came back to the big screen in 1999 with Episode I: The Phantom Menace, a film praised for its technical achievements but criticized for a convoluted plot, weak dialogue and a lack of character development. This set the stage for the remaining two prequels, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which were also met with similar criticisms.
These films are seen as lesser compared to the original trilogy, but it seems a resurgence of love has occurred in light of the Disney era of Star Wars. Revenge of the Sith specifically has been the subject of much admiration on social media in recent months. Children who saw the prequel in 2005 did not have easy access to the internet at the time, now can revisit the climactic movie and post memes about it on things like Twitter, discuss their rewrites on sites like Reddit and, more recently, share videos quoting the film on TikTok.
TikTok is one of the latest social media platforms, going public with its app in 2017 and allowing users to post short videos that can be viewed online by millions. It's reminiscent of the defunct platform Vine, and, like its predecessor, allows thousands of content creators to go viral with videos that last only a handful of seconds. These clips have taken the internet by storm, providing viewers with comedy they can easily share with friends.
While there are millions of videos on TikTok, Revenge of the Sith is one of the bigger trends on the platform. There are thousands of videos on the site featuring fans recreating moments from the third prequel, and these short clips are receiving an abundance of likes.
This renewed interest in Episode III may be due to the fact that fans who grew up on the prequels are feeling nostalgic for them given how Star Wars is dominating most forms of entertainment nowadays. While some Gen Z fans may have been introduced to the original trilogy at a young age, the prequels are the films they experienced first hand, with them having gone to the theater opening night to see what was, at the time, the last installment in the Skywalker Saga.
The prequels were the earliest pop culture event for many Gen Z fans, so with Star Wars once again taking the world by storm, these fans remember fondly when they got to experience this level of hype for the first time; however, they can now talk on a greater scale about movies like Revenge of the Sith via social media.
While Gen Z is marked as the generation that's grown up with excessive technology, for those born earlier on, they were yet to be part of the online world when the prequels came out. Chatrooms, YouTube and MySpace were around when Revenge of the Sith premiered, but most children of Gen Z were too young to truly comprehend these sites.
Nowadays, Gen Z can post anything they want about Episode III, and it's fair to assume that a majority of those reading or watching those posts will also be part of that generation. Anyone, regardless of age, can use the Internet; however, Gen Z is the first generation to be born in the midst of the boom of the worldwide web. Therefore, teens and people in their early 20s have a deeper connection to the prequels given that they've always been a part of their lives.
With this generation dominating the internet as well as having experienced the prequels first hand, it's no surprise that their voices are so loud. Content creators know their target audience most likely shares their knowledge of the prequels, so it's easy comedy, especially when Revenge of the Sith is so melodramatic.
Love or hate Episode III, most can agree that the film is one of the more dramatic Star Wars movies. There is an inherently dark tone to the film given that it's the movie that marks the death of Padme Amidala, the extermination of most of the Jedi and Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader. Emotions run-heavy in this entry, which makes it one of the most over the top entries in the Star Wars saga.
The tone of the film, the performances, the dialogue and the space opera setting all lend themselves to amazing comedy, especially when in the hands of those who genuinely love the movies or those who simply grew up on them. Even people who were too young to see Revenge of the Sith in theaters can still be fascinated by the movie since those who did grow up on it have made it a cult classic online. In turn, the younger members of Gen Z, those who know how to navigate social media like it is second nature, end up making some of the most clicked content for the Revenge of the Sith online community.