The Disney Empire Strikes (Back)

Apologies to Evan Davies for stealing his line, but it does sum up Disney’s victory over its main rival for kiddies’ affections in buying the Star Wars franchise.   George Lucas pockets a cool $4 billion but did he really need the money?  He wasn’t exactly living on the breadline the day before.  Many Star Wars fans are aghast.  My old English teacher (a long time ago in a place not so far away) was being discursive towards the class explaining his antipathy for bland, corporate Disney and how he found the Star Wars series to be purer unadulterated joy, untainted by some questionable Disney decisions – I wonder what he’s thinking now.

Lucas’ original vision encapsulated nine films and I was disappointed when he finished the third prequel Revenge of the Sith and said there would be no more movies.  I felt it unjustifiably skewed the narrative towards Annakin Skywalker – his rise, fall and redemption – lessening the impact of the Episodes IV to VI, with the struggle against the Galactic Empire and the interplay between Luke, Leia and Han (plus others).  Far from a panoply of characters, the epic was now concerned largely with one.  So, I am delighted that Disney will be bringing out Episodes VII to IX (beginning in 2015) to make the story more rounded.

I am less sure of further Star Wars films thereafter, in the manner of James Bond.  The Star Wars universe chronology certainly has plenty of plot lines, but it is mind-bogglingly complex and will marginalise the original films, so they no longer will be the centre-piece of a nine-episode narrative arc.  Like Lucas though, the executive producers will follow the money.