Bingowings said:

If expectations were played with it could have been great (the remake of Night Of The Living Dead worked this way, things happened differently creating new drama based on familiarity with the existing material).

Bingo, I'm confused. Are you saying that the prequels should be in an alternate universe? True, that could work, but it's like the Star Trek reboot, where you might as well not call it Star Trek, because it's in a different universe anyway.

But you're absolutely right that backstory can beget backstory.