Why is the first movie called Episode iV?

[Max]

First of all: Sorry for my bad english.

A few days ago a friend of mine an I argued about why the first movie was
called Episode iV. Long before the new Episodes came out.
Now i read a few articles in the internet and noticed that Lucas announced
12 parts, then 9 and finally 6.
The main question is, if the plot of the first 3 Episodes were there before
he made Episode 4.
Did he "know" that Anakin was a boy on tatoine? that he get children with
Padme? That there are gungans (spelling?)? That the Imerial Stormtroopers
are Clones?
I'm pretty sure that he knew about the main plot. Like Anakin gets evil
because of his mothers dead, that Leia and Luke are the children of Anakin.
But what about the other things?

[MDH]

He had a basic outline for 1-3 but it wasn't that concrete based on what I
read of the early drafts and such. As to why it came first, look at the 2
trillogies, which one has more excitement? He started with the most
engaging portion of the story, the one that had the most chance of grabbing
people. Lets face it, even if Episode I had lived up to people
expectations, there just wasn't that much to grab you in the story, yet in
light of 4-6 it was a potentially interesting fill in to the story you
knew.

"Max" <maxnews01O...@web.de> wrote in
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