Let me start by saying this: the first time I watched the trailer for The Force Awakens, silent tears slid down my cheeks as my entire childhood came crashing back to me all at once. I remember renting A New Hope from Blockbuster and watching it 6-7 times in a weekend just to do it all over again the next Friday.
I immersed myself in the universe far, far away as much as I possibly could. I read books, played video games (Knights of the Old Republic is still one of the best RPGs to date) and listened to the music on repeat.
The biggest draw of Star Wars, and the intangible quality that makes it the global phenomenon it is, was the originality taken to a maximum.
When a vision that no one had seen before was tied delicately with a story that could keep us grounded even when experiencing an entirely different universe, it was magic. It took the world by storm.
That was the Star Wars many of us fell in love with, and unfortunately, that Star Wars is dead.
When Disney purchased Star Wars for $4 billion, I didn't know how to feel. I was excited to finally revisit the galaxy far, far away once again, but a dark thought was being kept at the back of my mind.
'Disney needs to make that money back' was the only thought that was holding me back from being absolutely ecstatic about the news.
With numbers like negative $4 billion tied to the release of first Star Wars film in over ten years, I knew Disney was going to play it safe with storyline and direction, which they did. The Force Awakens is a derivative form of its successful predecessors, albeit an enjoyable one.
The first bit of Star Wars news that came out of the deal that truly had me excited (beyond what a 22-year-old man should've been for a movie series) was that they were making stand-alone films. I thought for sure some sort of original thought and groundbreaking ideas would come from a move like this. Break the mold of the genre to make something that feels fresh and enveloping like the original trilogy did the first time I watched it.
Alas, I could not be happy for long because these projects were riddled with the firing of directors for reasons that only have rumors attached to them. Yet they all point to the common thought; they took too much artistic liberty with Disney's cash cow. It's for this reason that I haven't gotten the goosebumps while watching any new Star Wars film since.
Nothing has truly taken me back to those worlds that I saw in the original trilogy.
Even with video game development, there was such fantastic potential to tell amazing stories with the technology available today. Knights of the Old Republic broke records, but Disney saw where they could make money, and instead of letting smaller companies make thrilling and immersive games, we got Battlefront 1 and 2 full of season passes and loot crates available for purchase because it was the safe option.
Star Wars is dead.
But to quote Miracle Max, it's only 'mostly dead.' If Disney wants its fans to truly get excited and revitalize the series, they need to take a page out of Marvel and 20th Century Fox's comic book. Superhero movies were getting worn out, we all knew the character arch and storyline of the movie before walking into the theater. So what did Marvel and 20th Century Fox do? They gave away artistic control, in controlled doses, and made features that broke the mold. Deadpool, Logan, Black Panther, Thor and Netflix series: Ragnarok were the products, and not only were these movies and shows refreshing and exciting, they made more money than their cookie-cutter counterparts.
This is what Star Wars needs — fresh, creative control of smaller projects that will blow fans minds like its 1977 all over again.
