Are Disney Killing the Star Wars Franchise?

The Star Wars movie franchise is one that has touched the hearts of both the casual observer and the over indulgent sci-fi fan for the last 40 years. Even to those who haven’t seen the movies, Star Wars has permeated our culture to such a degree that most are at least aware of its existence and its diehard fan base. “May the force be with you” has probably been heard by most in casual conversation at least once in their lives. Most likely from a colleague trying to inject a bit of “banter” into the work place in much the same way that it wouldn’t be unusual to overhear somebody adopting an Arnie impression when uttering “I’ll be back”.

Personally I’m still waiting for an episode of Jeremy Kyle in which the DNA test results come back inconclusive and one of the audience members stands up in a low monotone voice and utters the words, “No, I am your father” whilst breathing heavily into his hands. Inappropriate? Yes, Insensitive? Yes, but it would most likely receive a heavy applause from the crowd, because well - it’s a Star Wars reference.

When Star Wars was first released in 1977 it revolutionized cinema. People would wait in line for hours just to see it for the 20th time. Lucas’s dynamic, although slightly formulaic, approach to storytelling captured the imagination of an entire generation, and left fans dying to see a sequel to the popular space drama. To date the original Star Wars remains the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time (when adjusted for inflation) second only to Avatar and Gone With The Wind. After 1977 a surge of space movies appeared in the cinemas, each trying to replicate what many thought to be an untapped reservoir of potential for audiences.

Packed full of laser rifles, spaceships and quirky character names surely fans would come to adore these titles as well, just like they had with that tacky Star Wars movie a few years prior., right? Unsurprisingly however, very few of these films ever really stood the test of time, and of course non ever came close to the popularity of Star Wars. I can’t blame other filmmakers for trying to recreate its success, I mean, on the surface this was just a set of actors, often stood next to a giant dog or other various space aliens jibing back and forth. Surely that could be recreated and receive a similar degree of success?

However there was always a depth to Star Wars than just your bog standard action movie, something that appealed to both the young and the old, something that helped make the franchise as incredibly popular as it is today. When watching a behind the scenes documentary on the original trilogy, I couldn’t help but admire the patience and meticulous attention to detail given to every area of the filmmaking process. From a model X wing crafted completely by hand, to the recreation of the city of Mos Eisley in the Tunisian desert, to the famous opening credits, which at the time, took hours to film. This involved an innovative camera technique involving physical models laid out on the floor which a camera would then slowly scan over.

Of course in the later episodes this was all computer generated, however It was this passion, ingenuity and creative freedom of the original trilogy that came across on screen.

When creating Star Wars Lucas wanted to re-imagine the spirit of romance and adventure that he found in the movies of the 1950’s, simple tales of swashbuckling heroes and dastardly villains. Westerns, pirate adventures and the now extremely naff Flash Gordon all inspired Lucas as a young boy. This attachment to his boyish imagination and creativity contributed to the Star Wars world that we all know and love today.

The Star Wars story is one that asks and answers questions about destiny, family, relationships and personal sacrifice. Centred around a mystical force, a unifying field that encompasses all living things and a religion that is open to interpretation, the movie explores both the fantastical wonders of space, but also the more relatable concepts of faith and moral dilemma. George Lucas has often talked about the mythology behind the Star War’s universe and how it taps into our most fundamental questions as a society. 

George Lucas once said it an interview on the behind the scenes commentary of a New Hope. “When I made Star Wars I consciously set about trying to recreate myths and the classic mythological motifs. I wanted to use those motifs to deal with issues that existed today. What these films deal with is the fact that we all have good and evil inside of us and that we can choose which way we want the balance to go, how we want to be. I've come to the conclusion that mythology is really a form of archaeological psychology. Mythology gives us a sense of what a people believe, what they fear.”

Lucas has also famously referred to the Star Wars films as “his babies” and also talks about his emotional attachment to the series. Although I think what best summed up his intentions is the line “Star Wars' is fun, it’s exciting, it’s inspirational, and people respond to that. It's what they want”.

With all this in mind it's clear to see why the majority of Star Wars fans attribute Lucas as the sole creative force behind the movies. It then shouldn’t be surprising to understand why some see the takeover by Disney as a potentially disastrous one. Taking away the creators influence will surely lead to the demise of the series. Or will it?

On October 30th 2012 Disney purchased the rights to the Star Wars franchise for just over $4 Billion. These huge investments lead to Disney’s stock doubling but also added a tonne of responsibility in terms of delivering memorable movies that fans would continue to enjoy. When this was first announced I was sceptical. I couldn’t help but picture an infantile soppy and patronising film, one that was designed to tread carefully within the lines of expectation and who's primary goal was sell the most action figures. I could already almost visualise the cartoonified princess Leia memorabilia laid precariously next to a stuffed Mickey Mouse at your local Asda, and I was hardly impressed at the thought.

My preconceptions about what I understood Disney to be and what Star Wars represented just didn’t sit right with me. The thought of Lucas not sat in the director’s chair felt uneasy and wrong. Similar to the way that if J.K Rowling were to hand over the responsibility of writing the next Harry Potter books to Stephen King.

Of course this wasn’t the first time that Disney had purchased such a large franchise as Marvel was also bought for $4 Billion back in 2009. Disney's total assets are now estimated to be over $92 Billion, and with that kind of revenue behind them and reputation for producing fantastic fantasy films, it is easy to see why Lucas decided to sell the rights to them.

After all, after creating episodes 1, 2 and 3 Lucas ruled out any other sequels. The prequel trilogy is notoriously known for not living up to expectations, although I believe that Lucas still did an incredible job considering that these were many years after the originals.

Overall however I do share the sentiment that the prequel trilogy lacked the emotional depth that the previous films did. They tried too hard at times, and often over did the CGI. Lucas even came out of the board room after the script for Attack Of the Clones was completed and said “ Well there is definitely some cheating in there, a lot of “they fight” and at least to me, that’s exactly how it felt. Unnecessarily action which occasionally took away from the emotion of the plot. As wonderful as Lucas is he's also the man who said “Jar Jar is the key to all this” before episode one, thinking he’d be a funny fan favourite character. Boy was he wrong!

The reality is that by the end of the prequel trilogy, George wasn’t the fresh faced director of the 1970’s anymore. He didn’t want to carry it on; he wanted to work on smaller projects and some say that George was always a better writer than he was a director. With all this in mind who else would be better to carry on the Star Wars legacy than some of the best minds in fantasy, romance and action.

The Force Awakens directed by J.J Abrahams was a throwback to the Star Wars of old. It felt dynamic and engaging again, it was shot in real world locations as opposed to a studio green screen and you could feel that same love and attention to detail that the first three movies exhibited, all be it a rather crude copy and paste of A New Hope.

Rouge one was a spinoff of the main series, again under the Disney umbrella and delivered spectacularly. It gave fans a unique perspective of the events leading up to the original movie and had fans nodding in acknowledgment as the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle slotted together in satisfying fashion.

Disney, at least so far, has squashed the original doubts I once had, and are truly making the movies that the fans want to see. It’s clear that a lot of effort has gone into understanding what truly makes Star Wars as popular as it is and at least so far, they have successfully recreated this feeling.

The only scepticism left from myself, and I might even go as far as to label it a fear, is that Disney get trigger happy and over saturate us with Star Wars content. On top of The Last Jedi and Episode 9, several other spin off titles are also scheduled for the next few years including Obi Wan Kenobi, Boba Fett and Han Solo titles.

This sounds fantastic on paper, however my only worry is that Disney give us too much information on a character. as a result. Sometimes the mystery of a character speaks volumes in of itself. The ambiguity of certain elements of their past make them even more of an interesting enigma, and I can only hope that Disney understands this, which hopefully they do.

Lucas said in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2015 about leaving the directors chair - “A simple rule of life when you break up with somebody is. Ok no phone calls. The second rule is, you don’t go over to their house and drive by to see what they’re doing, the third one is that you don’t show up at their coffee shop you just say “No gone, history I’m now moving forward, which is incredibly difficult, but it’s the right thing to do”.

So with Lucas seemingly walking away and never looking back, one of the most beloved franchises of all time now resides in the hands of a large corporation, which certainly has the experience to deliver, but do they have the patience to execute with all of their projects moving forward?

So, are Disney killing Star Wars? I guess only time will tell.