Both writers agree that George Lucas already forced Star Wars into disappointing territory with his prequel trilogy, but with Lucas gone, Disney might have better luck.
Disney’s purchase of the Star Wars franchise will further ruin the series
I think it’s safe to say most people adore or at least admire Star Wars in some way, which is why it’s so hard not to be excited about the possibility of a whole new trilogy, perhaps even two new trilogies, if the news is to be believed.
But don’t be duped — this new trilogy cannot possibly live up to its namesake.
Like many of you, I grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy — I remember literally burning a hole through my VHS copy of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back — and I’m sure many experienced the same giddy excitement I did upon hearing the news that there would be a prequel trilogy starting in 1999.
Oh, how disappointed the world was.
Yes, we’ve been down this road before, and the outcome was grim. Full of convoluted space politics and brain-dead character arcs, the prequel trilogy spat in the face of everything that Star Wars had become (head over to Redlettermedia.com for the hilarious full scoop on why the prequels are so bad ).
Granted, the proposed Episode VII and beyond comes with what appears to be one massive change: Lucasfilm LTD has been sold to Disney for an absurd $4.05 billion, and George Lucas is basically out of the picture.
Sounds great, right? Lucas’ dictator-like control of the prequels is a major reason why they were so poor.
On top of that, I’ll be the first to admit Disney has done a wonderful job with some of the other production companies it’s bought in the past, including its 2009 acquisition of Marvel Entertainment — leading to this year’s fantastic The Avengers — and, of course, its purchase of Pixar (fun story: Pixar began as the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm before being bought by Steve Jobs, developed and sold to Disney).
I trust Disney — which now owns about 80 percent of my childhood — but there’s really nothing it can do to create a more satisfying Star Wars (reminder: Disney’s last sci-fi epic was John Carter, a complete flop).
The biggest problem has nothing to do with who is financing or helming the project. Long ago, when the credits rolled on Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi, fans’ love for Star Wars stopped being about who was making the films because it seemed the films would be no more. As with many big fantasy universes, fans took Star Wars far beyond the homage to 1950s sci-fi serials it was originally intended to be and made it their own.
Any aficionado will gladly tell tales of the Expanded Universe, a collection of several hundred books, comic books, video games and other assorted media that fill out the plot lines for hundreds and thousands of years on either side of the two main trilogies and between the episodes themselves.
Most consider the EU to be canon, and rightfully so — it is the fans and authors who have kept the series alive and fresh for 30 years while Lucas chased his own tail, adding one heinous computer-animated dance scene after another to the original trilogy so he could continue releasing those films in new box sets.
After all the years in the Lucas vacuum — designing bad prequels and reshaping the old material for profit — Star Wars as a film series is irreparably damaged. The fans have filled out the series the way they wanted, and in that way, they now own the series more than Lucasfilm or Disney ever could.
For those who don’t care about the EU, the original trilogy has long since entered a state of grace, and it’s likely that nothing will reignite the flame of imagination Star Wars once retained to its very core.
–Zack
A newer, fresher owner will mark a return to old glory
Ever since George Lucas’ decision to rekindle his dormant relationship with such irreplaceable creations as R2-D2, C-3PO and Obi-Wan Kenobi with 1999’s Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the Star Wars franchise has been on a breakneck decline that gave a new meaning to the classic idiom, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Unfortunately, Lucas, determined to suck the remaining space sap from his comatose enterprise, didn’t get the memo, mangling the series we had grown to know and love with three disastrous prequels — Menace, Attack of the Clones and the loud, bombastic new-era finale Revenge of the Sith.
Then came the child-pandering period, with Lucas dabbling in the field of Cartoon Network animation. You could hear the collective sigh of original Star Wars fans, both baffled and appalled by what had become of their once beloved franchise — now a watered down, 22-minute special of talking figurines, sandwiched between Adventure Time and Cocoa Puffs commercials.
With that in mind, I’m convinced that Disney’s purchase of the franchise can only make things better. In one regard, it can’t possibly get any worse, but it’s not outlandish to think that a new, more creative puppeteer may be able to breathe some life into the once vital series.
And now that it’s in someone else’s hands, the possibilities are truly endless. I’ve heard Colin Trevorrow, Brad Bird, Guillermo del Toro, J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau’s names as potential directorial candidates, each of whom would make for a wildly different Star Wars movie. But this is just what the franchise needs — a fresh presence at the helm with the desire to take a tired, old dog and teach it new tricks.
In terms of storyline, the directions are nearly infinite as well. Because Sith ended where the original 1977 film began, with Anakin Skywalker’s full transformation into the evil demigod Darth Vader, Disney has free reign to explore a multitude of previously established side plots and extend them into feature length.
As far as Disney is concerned, the affection for Lucas is undeniable. Buzz Lightyear is an obvious Star Wars caricature, inhabiting the same wide-eyed enthusiasm for maintaining tranquility and order as any stalwart Jedi. Even the atmospheres of nearly all Disney films, which exist in these weird and wistful universes detached from the drabness of reality, are not-so-distant grandchildren of the original Star Wars trilogy. Whether it’s Aladdin, Finding Nemo or Ratatouille, Disney movies would only be half as magical as they are if they didn’t take the same, painstaking measures that Lucas did to channel the otherworldly. Every filmmaker wanted their set to feel as creatively boundless as space seemed through Star Wars, but perhaps only Disney has figured out the formula that has come closest to achieving this feat.
Whether or not the execution will prove successful is unforeseeable — Star Wars has been mucked up before, and it can be mucked up again. But, as long as the force pervades, we can view this next chapter as a bracing taste of ‘new hope.’
–Dean
