As is the case with most of the Star Wars movies, opinions differ on Revenge of the Sith’s quality. Some may think it’s one of the more middling (perhaps even frustrating) entries in the franchise, while others may deem it to be one of the best stories set in a galaxy far, far away. However, if you ask a hardcore Star Wars fan what they think of the Revenge of the Sith novelization, I imagine most, if not all of them will only have positive things to say about it. Matthew Stover authored the book, though before he started writing it, he had a “panic attack” about how he was going to handle the project.
The 20th anniversary “Deluxe Edition” of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’s novelization is being released later this month, and among the contents in this hardcover is a new author’s note, which EW shared. Matthew Stover recalled how he’d gone to meet with George Lucas and other powers-that-be at Skywalker Ranch about his plan for the novelization in January 2004. He described it as “the biggest thing that had ever happened in my professional career” because he had a “tricky idea” he wanted to implement for his adaptation of Episode III. Stover continued:
It had come to me during the panic attack I’d suffered after signing the contract to write this novelization, which had ignited because I’d foolishly committed to write the keystone in the arch of the Skywalker saga for the biggest audience of my career — and the entire Star Wars – loving universe would be hoping for a thrilling space opera, despite the plain fact that every main plot point had been spoiled for decades.
There was also the “challenge” of Matthew Stover only having the Revenge of the Sith script to work off of, as the movie wouldn’t be released before the book went to the printer. Nevertheless, Stover had decided he wanted to use his knowledge of Greek drama to “present the story explicitly as a tragic myth.” He also wanted to incorporate “elements of the larger Star Wars Expanded Universe” as he knew readers had “been through a lot” with these characters. As Stover explained:
I genuinely believed that I needed the EU to make this story work as a novel. It would give the story heft and texture. It would let me touch on where these people come from and where most of them are going to end up, and it would let me weave this specific narrative and its implications into the wider “historical” context of the whole galaxy far, far away. I also wanted to find a way to share with more casual readers — the vast majority — some of the depth-of-field immersion that the longtime readers get to experience.
Ultimately, Matthew Stover preparing many topics to discuss with George Lucas at this meeting proved to be unnecessary. The man who created the Star Wars franchise eventually cut him off and said that as long as Stover didn’t “violate” the story, he could do whatever he wanted. That was great news for the author at the time, only for him to realize the following:
Any good ideas I might have had were buried under innumerable crummy ones; writing every scene turned out to be a process of trying every approach I could think of until I found one that felt right. This might help explain some of the more, ahem, idiosyncratic storytelling you’ll find in this book. The weird stuff shows up when I just couldn’t think of a conventional way to create an equivalent effect.
This excerpt ends with Matthew Stover saying that the “main reason” the Revenge of the Sith novelization turned out so well is because of the editors who helped him. Whether that’s true or he’s not giving himself credit, the end result was a book that’s still treasured among Star Wars fans 20 years later. All of the Star Wars movies have been adapted into novel form, but I’d argue that none of them come close to having the same level of popularity as the Prequel Trilogy capper.
Find the new edition of the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novelization wherever you get your books on October 14. As for the movie itself, you can stream Episode III with your Disney+ subscription, and its re-release in theaters earlier this year opened to $43.2 million worldwide. The next Star Wars movie on the way is The Mandalorian & Grogu, which hits theaters May 22 on the 2026 movies schedule.