With mega corporation Disney purchasing Lucasfilm for an insane $4 billion back in 2012, the rights to everyone’s favorite space action opera were now in the hands of Disney.
Lucasfilm, of course, was the company owned by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, and with Disney adding Marvel for another $4 billion to their roster back in 2010, and talks between Disney and 21st Century Fox rumored to be currently on the table, it seems that nowadays, it’s impossible to escape the grasp of Walt Disney — and that’s OK.
Since buying Marvel, Disney has churned out some of the most successful movies of the decade and have almost single-handedly brought forward the massive superhero genre we see in today’s media.
When Disney bought Lucasfilm five years ago, “Star Wars” fans everywhere prepared for the inevitable — more “Star Wars.” To be honest, no one thought this was a bad thing.
With the last “Star Wars” movie being “Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith” back in 2005, and the general disappointment that the “Star Wars” prequels garnered — especially compared to the original trilogy — it was obvious that a reboot for the beloved series was needed.
When a new “Star Wars trilogy” was announced, some fans were worried that Disney’s kid-friendly tendencies might ruin the series, but when 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” premiered to massive financial and critical success, fans were eased as it was obvious that the series was going in the right direction.
Since then, fans were gifted with the stellar “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and with episode VIII, “The Last Jedi” set to premiere this December, Star Wars looks as though it isn’t going anywhere for the time being.
Powered with a massive budget and tremendous amount of hype, the next decade or so of “Star Wars” movies includes a conclusion of the third trilogy, multiple speculated spinoff films including an origin for beloved character Han Solo and a newly announced fourth trilogy spearheaded by “The Last Jedi” Rian Johnson and is set to explore parts of the “Star Wars” galaxy and lore previously untouched in the previous “Star Wars” films.
With “The Force Awakens” being 2015’s highest grossing film, and “Star Wars” itself being the third most successful movie series of all time behind the Harry Potter series and films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it would be ridiculous for Disney to slow down the “Star Wars” hype train.
These new movies are only doing for kids these days what the prequels did for my generation — introducing to quite possibly the most exciting cinematic universe of all time.
Loved by nearly every generation, and with movie releases already spanning four decades, “Star Wars” is one of those few elements of pop-culture that is completely timeless. Disney absolutely knows this.
With “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge,” a new “Star Wars” themed park within both Disneyland and Disneyworld set to open in 2019, the hype for “Star Wars” as a whole likely isn’t going to slow down.
December looks to be a month all about “Star Wars” and with the impeding blockbuster success of episode VIII, Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars cinematic universe as a whole was the greatest thing that could’ve happened to the series and one of the most important events in modern pop culture as well.
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