“I’m so upset! Disney’s going to ruin Star Wars.”

Three things:

  1. Oh, really?
  2. OH, REALLY?
  3. OH, REALLY? (Depending on who you ask.) 

Could these film(s) stink? Sure. But there are already plenty of things under the Star Wars banner that pretty much stink. So I say: that’s no reason to write off a golden opportunity to potentially have more fun Star Wars stuff. Because I’d rather live in a world where say, Andrew Stanton or Brad Bird or Alfonso Cuaron or Guillermo del Toro or Neil Blomkamp or Kathryn Bigelow gets to write/direct a Star Wars film than a world where we never get any more Star Wars films ever (which was the company line from Lucasfilm for years and became more and more ironclad as George grew closer to retirement).  

[Truthfully, my only qualm with this and the “Episode VII” announcement relates to the viability of continuing the established six-film saga when it’s already completely wrapped up, in and of itself. Disregard the expanded universe storylines that take place during that time (most of which, by the way, are pretty dreadful and derivative) — were there really any questions left unanswered at the end of Return of the Jedi? You’d have to jump pretty far ahead to do anything that didn’t feel like a retread and at that point, is there any sense in labeling it “Episode VII”? Would the subtitle and exposition in the opening crawl not suffice as establishing a timeframe? I digress.]

Who wouldn’t enjoy a few one-off non-origin stories that don’t directly fit into the established Skywalker continuity? A young Han and Chewie caught up in some space crime circle? Bang! Yes! Please! A space western where all the major bounty hunters are in pursuit of some high-priced, fugitive Jedi? Done! Using characters we already know would require a bit of creativity (as there isn’t a lot of jeopardy with figures you know won’t die before a certain point) but they can just be the entry point used to introduce someone brand new whose fate is not as clear (who could then spin off themselves). It’s an entire universe! Do whatever you want, Disney! Not even the novels or comics are going to get in the way (refer to the differences between some of the Marvel films and their source material to learn that this deviation is not only allowed but necessary in many instances).

Also, let’s be clear: Disney bought Lucasfilm so that they could sell Star Wars toys and grab an even larger portion of the male toy-buying audience plus expand the appeal of their theme parks (see also: the same motivation behind the Marvel acquisition). Oh, and now they can put Yoda in Kingdom Hearts. As the corporation that bought Pixar and Marvel Studios (and then let a non-Disney person run each, in the forms of John Lasseter and Kevin Feige respectively), it is clear that Disney is far more concerned with being legally in control of the media and merchandising rights for very popular, well-established characters than they are with any potential opportunity to meddle with (or “ruin”) the production of any future Star Wars films. They’re going to cut the checks to let talented people make Star Wars movies (a proven “don’t fiddle with it” moneymaking formula if there ever was one), promote the movies, make toys, and get paid. We might as well get some good entertainment out of it.

7 notes

Show

  1. asleepinyourcobweb said: Didn’t they make horrible Lego starwars movies? Whoever decided Lego needed to go animated is no friend of mine.
  2. batmanfights said: Thank you. Lucas broke Star Wars already. Personally, I don’t see it being put back together by ANYONE in such a way to make this jaded old fan care, but why not? It does make me sad that the greatest indie film success sold out to major media, but..
  3. consumatumest said: I want more Han
  4. ohnochastity reblogged this from estebanwaseaten and added:
    The same people who say this probably have Avengers posts all over their blogs completely unaware that Disney owns...
  5. estebanwaseaten posted this

Blog comments powered by Disqus