If there was a ranking to list the best ways to celebrate Star Wars Day, the feast day dedicated to the George Lucas saga officially recognized on May 4th of each year, Amblin Entertainment would have placed first in the 2021 championship.
During the Italian night, in fact, while in the United States the celebrations for Star Wars Day reached their peak, the legendary production house founded by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall has published on its social channels a delightful photograph showing Spielberg himself as Darth Vader. You can find it in the post at the bottom of the article, with the caption that reads: “While the casting choice for Star Wars was obvious and involved George Lucas’ closest circle of close friends, the Creator ultimately settled on Dave Prowse and James Earl Jones instead!“
Despite the history of friendship with George Lucas, which also resulted in the professional field through Lucasfilm and the creation of the Indiana Jones franchise, Spielberg’s work in the Star Wars saga only came in an unofficial capacity: not everyone knows that, during the editing phase of the first film of the saga, the director of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (released in the same year as Star Wars) was among the first to see an approximate version of the film, and offered to Lucas some tips to improve the work.
Another small curiosity is that related to Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, when George Lucas attempted to hire Spielberg to direct but the agreement did not go through due to some quirks in the regulation of the DGA.