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Now I’ve had some time to think about it, I have more sophisticated thoughts about the Disney-Lucasfilm buyout. The idea that I’m struggling with the most is that Disney wants to keep releasing more films every few years into infinity. One day soon, the original trilogy will be buried under a pile of new films, and I just feel so strange about that.
According to George Lucas, the script treatments for episodes 7-9 are totally original; they won’t follow any specific plots from the novelized extended universe. Disney’s most likely going to follow Lucas’ scripts, but if it keeps making Star Wars films after episode 9, perhaps we’ll see more direct adaptations.
My biggest concern in relation to the buyout, however, is Disney’s litigious nature. I understand where they’re coming from: it’s surprising how many people think all Disney imagery is officially licensed, and hold it to company standards. They’ve had problems with that in the past, which is why they’re so touchy about it.
But Lucasfilm is on nearly the opposite end of the spectrum. Say whatever we will about George Lucas, and how he messed with his own stories so badly, but he was always very open to fan interaction with his properties. I remember being a young kid first discovering the Internet, and the official Star Wars site was one of the coolest places to go. It was run by fans, for fans.
Lucas was always OK with/encouraged fan interaction. He even did it up to the highest level: he allowed famous fans to make money off of stories involving his own properties; the “Robot Chicken” and “Family Guy” Star Wars episodes, and the movie “Fanboys,” for example. I can’t ever see Disney allowing others to make money off of Disney parodies, or encouraging/running fan film contests.
I’m worried the cool interactive nature of Star Wars fandom might be at an end. I realize that only people who are really into Star Wars, like me, will be affected by this, but for me it’s still a major concern.
Instead, let’s focus on the positive. We can use Disney’s recent takeover of Marvel as a good barometer for how they might handle Lucasfilm: I don’t know much about the comics world, but from what I’ve heard, Disney’s been rather hands-off, letting the company do its own thing and make money. Hopefully Disney will take the same approach to its ownership of Lucasfilm.
A couple notes: although Disney will be able to make some money off of the Indiana Jones franchise, Paramount still owns the movie optioning rights, for now. However, I wonder if they would try to do something with the young Indiana Jones franchise. Fox also has the rights for home release for all Star Wars films until 2020, and for the original series into perpetuity. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox and Disney worked out some kind of deal, though.
I want to end my thoughts with some positive ideas I’ve had about good things that could come from the Disney-Lucasfilm takeover:
*Muppet Star Wars. In any form that might take.
*A Mara Jade prequels television show. Mara Jade is my favorite character from the extended universe; she was a protegee of the emperor, who later meets Luke Skywalker and then marries him. Her matrimonial plot line wouldn’t work, because I don’t want to see them recast Luke. But we could get a fun television show out of her early, evil years.
*Star Wars could be a world in a future Kingdom Hearts game, if one ever gets made. Mark Hamill could even do voices in it. That would be awesome.
*The merger could reinvigorate both companies’ video game arms, Disney Interactive and LucasArts.
That’s all making me feel better. So is this video. I guess from here, we just have to wait and see what the future holds.
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Joss Whedon to Direct “Avengers” Sequel
Limited Time Magic at the Disney Parks
*(The above image by Official Star Wars Blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)