Was Star Wars (intended to be) a children's movie franchise?

ubuntu_ulysses

I have seen in various places that Lucas himself expected the movie to be a children's movie in the beginning. He also said that characters like the Ewok and Jar Jar Binks were added to specifically appeal to children. Was the franchise intended to be a children's movie from the beginning? Or was it more mature and serious in the beginning, but kind of became more mainstream and children-oriented starting from Return of the Jedi, as some claim?...

Originally asked by xji on Stack Exchange (movies) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

In 2005, George Lucas claimed that Star Wars was directed at children, though fans would not want to admit it. That, however, is the most notable demographic conjecture he has made. However, Star Wars is most commonly classified as family friendly. "The movies are for children but they don't want to admit that. In the first film they absolutely hated R2 and C3-PO. In the second film they didn't like Yoda and in the third one they hated the Ewoks... and now Jar Jar is getting accused of the same thing." Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/394542.stm

Full answer by DarthBotto: https://movies.stackexchange.com/a/35275 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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