When You Wish Upon a Death Star

Scott Hardie | October 31, 2012
What do you make of Disney's surprise acquisition of the Star Wars brand?

Judging from Facebook, a lot of people seem to fear that Disney will somehow make the series crappy, as if George Lucas wasn't already doing that with the wooden prequels and his endless altercations to the originals. But Disney has already acquired a number of other brands and done just fine by them: Pixar, Marvel, the Muppets, Winnie the Pooh. I see no reason for Star Wars fans to worry, not about quality anyway.

Speaking of those endless altercations, I honestly never thought we'd see the end of them until George Lucas died. Unless there's some clause in the contract that we haven't heard about yet, it seems probable that Disney will follow the money by releasing the original, unaltered films, and locking Lucas's despised re-releases in the proverbial vault. If you're a Star Wars fan, whatever you think about new films being made forever 007-style, it must at least feel good to know that Lucas has altered the originals for the final time.

Matthew Preston | October 31, 2012
As long as Michael Bay & Jerry Bruckheimer stay far, far away from the franchise, I'm excited to see what is churned out.

On the other hand, If Christopher Nolan or Joss Whedon get signed on, my excitement would increase ten fold!

Awesomely clever title BTW!

Erik Bates | October 31, 2012
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Scott Hardie | November 2, 2012
Good point about filmmakers taking over, Matthew. Disney could put a lot of fan anxiety to rest by announcing that a trusted filmmaker will handle the series for the next few years, the way that JJ Abrams got Star Trek and Josh Whedon got the Avengers. Kathleen Kennedy is the person in charge of Star Wars for the moment, and she's more than qualified, but she's focused on the business side; I mean someone focused on the creative side.

I guess Disney owns Indiana Jones now too. I had to look it up to learn that Paramount still has the contract for any film production, so it's unlikely that Disney is going to make any Indy films in the near term, but they could do a lot with the license overall.

Scott Hardie | November 2, 2012
Along the lines of handing over the Star Wars series to a geek-friendly filmmaker who can respect a complex pre-existing mythology, Kelly nominates Peter Jackson. Any other good names out there? Bryan Singer maybe?

Samir Mehta | November 2, 2012
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Scott Hardie | November 6, 2012
Good choice. Spielberg has a similar storytelling style to Lucas, but much better quality control, whatever some people think of him. (My understanding on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is that he strongly objected to shooting an awful script and wanted more development time, but ultimately agreed to do it as a personal favor to Lucas.)

Maybe Hollywood should do with Star Wars what they're doing with every other open position and just hand it to Seth MacFarlane.

Erik Bates | November 6, 2012
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Scott Hardie | November 10, 2012
Spielberg won't do Star Wars. "It's not my genre," he says, which is like Bruce Springsteen saying he doesn't play rock music.

Matthew Preston | November 10, 2012
Interesting! Someone with a screenplay range of action, comedy, and CGI. Having won an Oscar in the past probably helped him land the gig too. I am not upset by this pick at all.

Scott Hardie | December 30, 2012
As Star Wars moved into the future with Disney, it lost a big part of its past. Good encomium.