20 years ago today, George Lucas proved just how little he cared about spoilers for Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Back in 2005, the final prequel movie was released on May 19th, the culminating movie of the entire Skywalker saga thus far. However, the movie’s ending was surprisingly spoiled a few months prior, on March 29th.

Revenge of the Sith’s ending was effectively spoiled in a few different ways before the movie’s release. This was largely due to the vast amount of promotional materials, books, merchandise, and games that were put out leading up to the movie’s theatrical release. This notably includes LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game, the first of many LEGO Star Wars games that was released 20 years ago today.

20 Years Ago Today, LEGO Released Its First Star Wars Game

Adapting The Prequel Trilogy (Including Revenge of the Sith)

Rather than beginning with the original trilogy (which would be released the following year), The LEGO Group and Lucasfilm elected to adapt the prequels first to coincide with The Revenge of the Sith’s release. As such, the final level of LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game takes place on Mustafar, showcasing the epic duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker as only LEGO bricks can. Likewise, the final mission was notable for suddenly turning co-op players into rivals by its end, a clever way to depict the broken bond between the master and apprentice with Skywalker’s fall to the dark side.

Interestingly enough, the cutscenes following this final level saw Obi-Wan defeating Anakin on the high ground and cutting off his legs, leaving him to die on the lava banks of Mustafar before he was found by Emperor Palpatine. Additionally, Padmé is shown giving birth to Luke and Leia on Polis Mᴀssa, as Anakin is outfitted with his life support armor as Darth Vader, destroying all the equipment around him as Palpatine looks on, directing adapting Revenge of the Sith’s ending sans dialogue (the LEGO games originally didn’t have voice lines), 50 days before the movie’s actual release.

Why George Lucas Didn’t Seem To Mind Episode III Spoilers

In His Mind, It Was All Inevitable

Naturally, George Lucas wasn’t directly involved in making the first Star Wars LEGO game (nor the Revenge of the Sith game). However, he still approved them both and more than likely signed off on their release dates before his final prequel movie. It certainly serves as proof regarding Lucas’ ultimate perspective about Revenge of the Sith and that everything in it was inevitable.

Obviously, Revenge of the Sith is a prequel to the events of A New Hope and the rest of the original trilogy, so Lucas was, of course, right in that sense. Star Wars fans knew going in that Anakin would become Darth Vader and that his children would be born. That said, it’s still pretty bizarre that the first LEGO Star Wars video game revealed some key ending beats of a narrative that had only been generally referenced and never seen before until Revenge of the Sith, well before the movie hit theaters 20 years ago.