 In an interview with Cinescape magazine, director  Irvin Kershner (qv) said that he thought the first film was trashy  and how he had no interest in films with special effects. However,  he was won over by George Lucas (qv), although Kershner was  determined to make the film more about characterizations than  hardware. Kershner spent several months working on the script,  pushing the writers into humanizing the characters more (something  that Lucas has often been criticized for failing to do).