Tenet: Is Nolan becoming another Lucas?

John David Washington running to the next plot point (Image credit: Total Film)

There’s an infamous behind-the-scenes clip from Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace in which writer-director George Lucas, speaking to a team of Lucasfilm underlings, says the character Jar Jar Binks is “the key to all this”. He then proceeds to talk about the parallels between the original trilogy and the then upcoming prequel movies, declaring — as the underlings dutifully nod along — that “it’s like poetry; they rhyme.” He adds, with the slightest of hesitations: “Every stanza kind of rhymes with the last one. Hopefully it’ll work.”

Over two decades later, what with the fandom now dominated by a new, decidedly more political generation of nerds, whether or not “it worked” depends on who you ask. But something most older Star Wars fans will agree on is that the prequel trilogy went the way it did because Lucas, tired of alleged studio meddling, had surrounded himself with a bunch of yes-men who wouldn’t dare question some of his stranger ideas. Ideas that definitely should’ve been questioned (looking at you, Episode II Anakin).

“George, just no.” — Nobody (Image credit: KnowYourMeme)

Having just seen Christopher Nolan’s barely audible, two-and-a-half-hour exposition dump that was Tenet, one wonders whether history is repeating…