William Shakespeare's The Phantom Menace (20 page)

Let's begin with the hot-button issue: any retelling of
The Phantom Menace
must address Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar is perhaps the most hotly debated character in cinematic history—some loathe him, whereas others love him (witness any child under age twelve). In
William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace
, I did two things with Jar Jar. First, his speech from the movie is transcribed into iambic pentameter … almost. In fact, I reimagined Jar Jar's dialogue from the movie in lines of nine syllables, meaning he is one syllable short of a pentameter (yes, like being one sandwich short of a picnic). The other Gungans all speak in full iambic pentameter while maintaining their accents. The second thing I did was to make Jar Jar keenly aware of what's going on around him. In my version of the story, Jar Jar was exiled not because he nearly destroyed the Gungan city, but because of his radical ideas. Banished to the surface of Naboo, he learned human speech and syntax and sharpened his thoughts about how difference races interact. He recognizes, then, that although Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan may be very useful to him and his people—they are Jedi, after all—they also treat him as a savage. (This recognition is backed up in the movie, with Qui-Gon derisively calling Jar Jar “a local” while speaking to Obi-Wan—right in front of Jar Jar!) In this play, Jar Jar is a radical thinker who—using his simple speech pattern—conforms to the humans' expectations of him in order to bring hope to the Gungans, a long-disrespected race.

Other characters get some fun moments, too. Watto is my Dogberry (from
Much Ado about Nothing
), trying to impress people and misusing words in the process. Podrace commentators Fode and Beed, being a two-headed creature, speak as “we” in the first person, not “I.” I even gave them a “wethinks” instead of “methinks,” for
good measure. Chancellor Valorum speaks only with weak endings (an unstressed eleventh syllable at the end of the line), since his character is nothing but a weak puppet. And each line of Mace Windu has a little something special thrown in for the Samuel L. Jackson fans.

Going back to the podrace: how do you capture ten exciting minutes of high-speed, on-screen action in a stage play? My strategy was to make this like a battle scene in Shakespeare's works, with messengers—in this case Padmé and Jar Jar—running in and out describing what's going on, with all-seeing Fode and Beed adding bits of good and bad news as well. Meanwhile, the racers enter and exit quickly as they complete their laps. I imagined the actors running from one side of the stage to the other as they jockey for first place. In a live stage production, these elements would bring at least some of the urgency and excitement created by the high-speed race in the film.

One of the fun things about writing the
William Shakespeare's Star Wars
series is that I am learning more and more about Shakespeare's language. In Shakespeare's time, generally speaking (though with Shakespeare there are always exceptions), “thou” is used informally, as between friends, and “you” is used more formally. “Thou” is also used to express superiority over someone—if you are my subordinate, I will refer to you as “thou,” but you will refer to me as “you” as a sign of respect. In the original
William Shakespeare's Star Wars
trilogy I was looser about “thou” versus “you”—beginning with
William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace
the distinction is, hopefully, clearer.

Diving into the prequels has been more fun than I expected. Reimagining the characters introduced to us in
The Phantom Menace
as characters involved in an intricate Shakespearean plot gave me new insight into and interest in the film as a whole. I hope the same is true for you.

This book is dedicated to my wonderful college friends Heidi Altman, Chris Martin, Naomi Walcott, and Ethan Youngerman. Thank you, all of you, for who you are and who you have been for me.

Thanks to my parents, Beth and Bob Doescher; my brother Erik; his family Em, Aracelli, and Addison; and my aunt Holly Havens.

When I started this project, I got together with a group of key people to discuss the challenges and the opportunities the prequels present. Thank you to my good friend Josh Hicks, fangirls Jessica Mason and Kristy Thompson, the encyclopedic Dan Zehr, and Ethan (again) and Erik (again).

Thank you to the wonderful people of Quirk Books: editors Jason Rekulak and Rick Chillot, boss-man Brett Cohen, publicity mavens Nicole De Jackmo and Suzanne Wallace, the heroic Eric Smith, and everyone else at Quirk. Thank you to my agent, Adriann Ranta, for the patience of a saint. Thank you to Jennifer Heddle at Lucasfilm and illustrator Nicolas Delort, both of you a delight.

Continued special thanks to my college professor and friend Murray Biggs.

Thank you to the usual suspects: Audu Besmer, Emmy Betz and Michael Hoke, Jane Bidwell, Travis Boeh and Sarah Woodburn, Chris Buehler and Marian Hammond, Erin and Nathan Buehler, Jeff and Caryl Creswell, Ken Evers-Hood, Mark Fordice, Chris Frimoth, Alana Garrigues, Brian Heron, Jim and Nancy Hicks, Anne Huebsch, Apricot and David Irving, Doree Jarboe, Alexis Kaushansky, Rebecca Lessem, Bobby Lopez, Andrea Martin, Bruce McDonald, Joan and Grady Miller, Jim Moiso, Janice Morgan, Michael Morrill and Tara Schuster, Dave Nieuwstraten, Julia Rodriguez-O'Donnell, Scott Roehm, Larry Rothe, Steve Weeks, Ryan Wilmot, Ben and Katie Wire, and members of the
501st Legion.

To my spouse, Jennifer, who sacrificed time with her husband to assorted Jedi, Sith, and Gungans: thank you, Love. To our children, Liam and Graham: I love you even if you think the prequels are better.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(1564–1616) was a poet and playwright. He is widely considered one of the greatest writers in the English language.

GEORGE LUCAS
is a film producer, screenwriter, director, and the creator of the
Star Wars
motion picture saga. He lives in California.

IAN DOESCHER
is the
New York Times
best-selling author of
William Shakespeare's Star Wars
. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family. Visit him at
IanDoescher.com
.

quirkbooks.com/phantomofmenace