The news that ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ is on its way and that Disney has bought the ‘Star Wars’ franchise from George Lucas raises the prospect that the world is only now beginning to understand his vision for the classic trilogy. Disney buying ‘Star Wars’ could cause a ‘Lord of the Rings’-like universe expansion.
‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ and Disney buying the ‘Star Wars’ franchise could be only the beginning of a universe expansion for the series.
Is it possible that we are only now understanding what “Star Wars” really is?
For the Gen Xer, this is an existential question. Wookies and tauntauns and Luke’s lightsabers are strands in our social DNA. Boring parties spontaneously become enjoyable when we can find someone to join us in mocking Episode I (or II or III, for that matter).
We know “Star Wars” begins with the scroll and pumping brass of “A New Hope” and ends with those annoying Ewoks cheering the blasted filaments of the Death Star in the skies above Endor. Full stop. Other “Episodes,” novels, comics, TV series, video games, etc. – at times enjoyable, at times tragic – are really only cultural womp rats – targets for the implacable purity of our derision. We, the real curators of the “Star Wars” legacy, know they are all just fuel for George Lucas’s ever-expanding wallet.
But now, with Lucas selling his entire franchise to Disney with the open endorsement that the Big Mouse could make “Star Wars” movies for “another 100 years,” that entire worldview is up for revision.
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