Phantom Menace Came Out in Theaters Closer to the Return of the Jedi than Anything Released Today

Phantom Menace (the movie we shall not speak o—crap, broke that rule), came out when I was in high school.  Which was recent, right?  Right guys?!

In the internet’s constant attempts to make me feel old, it has pointed out a cold fact.

Or rather, the comic strip XKCD has.

If you look at the timeline of when the Return of the Jedi came out, when the Phantom Menace was released, and modern day, the Phantom Menace was released closer to the Return of the Jedi by two days (as of today).

Since the Return of the Jedi came out right when I was born, the Phantom Menace was released half my life ago.  Is it too early to start on tequila today?

But it’s crazy to believe this.  It feels like the new Star Wars movies are coming out MUCH closer in time to the last set of movies than the Episode II and III (okay okay okay, and I) came out relative to the original trilogy.

It’s part of the anchoring effect.  The original trilogy is “old” and the prequels are “new”.  Because we are constantly referring to them as the new set of movies, it’s hard to imagine them becoming old.  Sixteen years old in fact.  

(Yikes.)

Though, remember, we are measuring time since the first of the prequels and the last of the original trilogy.  So technically, the new movies are coming out slightly sooner–Revenge of the Sith was only released in 2005, 10 years ago.