General Star Wars Discussion

[BrianL]

I find it pretty interesting the one person that was actually excited happened to be talking about the episode 1 and something not made by Disney. Do you?

Do you still deny Star Wars popularity has fallen significantly under Disney’s watch?

PS - I wore a Vader shirt and got some comments as well. I agree the fans are still out there.

Well, look, I don't know if it can be measured scientifically, but the franchise seems to be plenty healthy. I was just at WDW, and the Star Wars fans were out in force (and this was before May 4). The vitrual queue to buy May the Fourth merchandise reached capacity quickly. The fans are indeed still out there and very engaged, at least from what I can see.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

But I think it can be measured, and so far that measurement suggests Disney has not managed the franchise well. Can they realize there error of their ways and turn the corner? We shall see.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I am hearing some grumblings that Iger is sick of mediocre Star Wars and we may get some better content in the future.

 

[BrianL]

Now you are making a different argument - profit. The Box Office isn't the only way Disney has profitted from Star Wars, and most of the movies have been pretty highly successful - only Solo lost money at the box-office. I doubt it was ever expected that they would make enough from the box-office alone to cover costs, but throw in merch, theme parks, etc. and I think they are doing fine there.

 

[Skywalker3]

I wish I'd done more shopping this weekend. Several sites were doing good sales.
We did all watch Tales of the Empire Saturday, and all of us enjoyed it. Neither my DS nor I were initially interested in Morgan's story, but I was so pleasantly surprised, and really enjoyed her stories. My son's favorite character for quite a while was General Grievous. He was excited to see him back..although how awful!!
Some of the episodes though, wow, they were way more violent than we usually see in Star Wars....that scene with Lin and Barris in the village.... goodness. I enjoyed that story too. What a weird, existential kind of ending. I liked it though, and that was also a character I didn't really think I wanted to see more of, but it was also pretty well done. DD didn't like the ending for Barriss, but she was very eager to see that story, DD (and DS to some extent) are the huge CW fans in the house. She was very excited about seeing what happens with Barriss.

 

[Skywalker3]

Also wore my new "May the Fourth Be With You" T-shirt. and enjoyed some Blue Milk, we'd found at the local Kroger. Watched a few more SW things, but mostly just Tales of the Empire, and later some ROTJ,
Read a bit more about the Bad Batch. Another incredible series. SW animation is continuing to be incredible.
I have to admit, I wasn't impressed with the new Acolyte trailer, and I"m kinda worried about that show. Most of the acting and dialogue seemed pretty bad, BUT I am not going to dwell on that, or go into this negatively. I could be way off base, and just the snippets in the trailer not working. Still eager to see what it's all about
I didn't see until too late Saturday, that this little localtheater was doing the OT. I would've probably considered going to see that.

 

[Kestryl]

Acolyte, Acolyte, Acolyte… what I want to know is WHEN ARE WE GETTING ANDOR SEASON 2?!

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Acolyte, Acolyte, Acolyte… what I want to know is WHEN ARE WE GETTING ANDOR SEASON 2?!

Andor may be the best Star Wars we have gotten under Disney. So well done!

 

[irlandaise]

One guy was super-excited to have seen Episode I in theaters for the first time

I find it pretty interesting the one person that was actually excited happened to be talking about the episode 1 and something not made by Disney.

Oh for pity's sake! "Phantom Menace" was the only SW movie that was in theaters on Saturday. Of course that's what people were talking about!

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Who’s featured on the blue milk Star Wars just launched? Why?

 

[mdmost]

Well, blue milk was featured in the original Star Wars so............

Anyway, not to let Star Wars Eeyore stop down yet another thread, the Acolyte clip looked really good. Very Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon influenced with the knife fight where Carrie Anne Moss uses only the force to defend herself.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Now you are making a different argument - profit. The Box Office isn't the only way Disney has profitted from Star Wars, and most of the movies have been pretty highly successful - only Solo lost money at the box-office. I doubt it was ever expected that they would make enough from the box-office alone to cover costs, but throw in merch, theme parks, etc. and I think they are doing fine there.

So merchandising profitability is better or equal to the OT years now? Is that why the Reva lightsaber never got enough preorders to even go into production on crowdfund at HasLab?

 

[BrianL]

So merchandising profitability is better or equal to the OT years now? Is that why the Reva lightsaber never got enough preorders to even go into production on crowdfund for HasLab?

I didn't say that. If "doing better than the Star Wars OT" is the only benchmark for success, then almost everything is a complete failure. We may as well have called it as a species in 1983! All I said is that the Forbes article is ONLY considering box-office profits, but Star Wars clearly continues to generate profits through other channels as well. I don't think anyone would have expected $4 Billion in profit from five movies, four of which still did extremely well. Merch has always made more anyway, and it is still definitely popular. Is it as profitable as it was in 1979? Maybe or maybe not. But it is still significant - trust me. I was just at WDW and there was a line to get to the lightsaber counter. Even still, with any 40+ year old franchise, it's going to ebb and flow.

You gotta knock off the histrionics, man.

 

[HokieRaven5]

Darth Jar Jar and Ewok Bounty Hunters

 

[Skywalker3]

Darth Jar Jar and Ewok Bounty Hunters

The Lego Star Wars shows are always so much fun! We love them. This looks hilarious!

 

[Kestryl]

Well, blue milk was featured in the original Star Wars so............

Anyway, not to let Star Wars Eeyore stop down yet another thread, the Acolyte clip looked really good. Very Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon influenced with the knife fight where Carrie Anne Moss uses only the force to defend herself.

I really liked her vibe. Like… doing the most while physically doing the least, ha. Just seemingly effortless dodges.

 

[leiaorgana]

Just catching up on everything I’ve missed and oh boy! Haha I was at a networking event for filmmakers last Saturday looking for a director so we could submit our funding application to the BFI this week so couldn’t celebrate the 4th this year. I did manage to snag the Amidala Minnie Ears though and a couple of pins off ShopDisney so that was good.

Really loved Tales of the Empire and still need to catch up with season 3 of The Bad Batch, which is part of the reason why I haven’t been as active on this thread recently because I don’t want any spoilers for that.

I saw yesterday that apparently Obi Wan Kenobi is George Lucas’ favourite recent Star Wars project so I can only imagine that will get some heads spinning along with The Last Jedi being the most streamed thing on Disney+ on the 4th.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Just catching up on everything I’ve missed and oh boy! Haha I was at a networking event for filmmakers last Saturday looking for a director so we could submit our funding application to the BFI this week so couldn’t celebrate the 4th this year. I did manage to snag the Amidala Minnie Ears though and a couple of pins off ShopDisney so that was good.

Really loved Tales of the Empire and still need to catch up with season 3 of The Bad Batch, which is part of the reason why I haven’t been as active on this thread recently because I don’t want any spoilers for that.

I saw yesterday that apparently Obi Wan Kenobi is George Lucas’ favourite recent Star Wars project so I can only imagine that will get some heads spinning along with The Last Jedi being the most streamed thing on Disney+ on the 4th.

According to Pablo Hadalgo that is, who is not exactly known for being an arbiter or truth.

I don’t care if the whole world streams TLJ it is still an absolute steaming pile of poo, that single handedly ripped the fandom in half. All because Rian Johnson wanted to subvert our expectations.

 

[leiaorgana]

I’ll take Pablo’s word over randos on the internet.

And as much as I don’t like TLJ myself, there’s no denying it has some of the best cinematography out of all of the SW films.

 

[BrianL]

I totally believe that Lucas would love Obi-Wan - it's the most "Prequel-y" of the recent projects. Fans who hate the new stuff seem to want to believe that George Lucas is on their side, but remember, they haven't been on his since 1983.