Was it a mistake for Star Wars to be part of Disney?

[SonOfAVader]

At the begining when it was announced I was really skeptical about it. I didn't quite enjoy the movies. Still one of my favorites is Rogue One. But then we got The Mandalorian and it is one of the best products Disney made in my eyes.
Also I'm pretty happy that we are getting new movies, series, books, comics etc. The franchise was pretty much dead in the hands of George Lucas. The problem with Disney is the up's and down's of the products they put out. But in the end me as a bias Star Wars fan I enjoy them all. So in a way I don't see it as a mistake I'm rather happy for it, it brought the Force back

[Somecrazyaussie]

George Lucas was going to sell Lucasfilm regardless. I will go on record stating that I loathed the J. J. Abrams (and 2nd film trilogy), but....

I absolutely adore the Mandelorian, and (while not the biggest fan of turning Bobba Fett into a nice guy) the Book of Bobba Fett has been great to.

When I compare Disney Marvel movies to DC Warner Brothers movies, I feel comfortable with Star Wars being with Disney as opposed to one of their top competitors.

The problem with Star Wars is that it needed a Feige at the helm from day 1 over at Disney. Faloni and Favreau are those two people. If the sequel trilogy had been planned out well in advance, it would have been more coherent and tighter. I do think they should have kept George on as a creative consultant though. That's just my opinion.

[Tofali]

Their only live action success in Star Wars has been just the one tv show - The Mandalorian. Would this have translated in to big box office success? Will any story unconnected to the Skywalker become a success?

[ChrisIII]

Mandalorian kind of has Skywalker in it too....and there are rumors and some implications from the previous season that it might explore some of the sequel trilogy lore.

[Tofali]

I agree the second season kind of had a Skywalker but the center of the story being told in The Mandalorian is unconnected the Skywalkers.

[godisawesome]

I think Rogue One should be considered a complete success as well, and about equal to The Mandalorian in terms of being a successful story that has a Skywalker cameo rather than a starring role.

[ChrisIII]

Funny thing is Rogue One was originally a pitched story for the Lucas TV show.

[Monari]

Of all the questionable errors Lucas has made, in hindsight selling to Disney was the absolute worst, no doubt.

[Minerboh]

It didn't turned out for the best as history clearly showed.

[thwhtGuardian]

Of all the questionable errors Lucas has made, in hindsight selling to Disney was the absolute worst, no doubt.

I don't get that at all...we're getting more Star Wars than ever before and a lot of it is pretty solid which wouldn't have occurred before.

[godisawesome]

I don't get that at all...we're getting more Star Wars than ever before and a lot of it is pretty solid which wouldn't have occurred before.

I think it comes down to how valuable one sees a satisfactory ending (in ROTJ) or even just a less depressing ending (with the Legends material) to the Skywalker family story, and how much one thinks we might or might not have something similar to The Mandalorian and other shows of Lucas were still in charge.

I’ll be honest and say that I think Lucas’s perfectionism would continue to delay any live action TV show like The Mandalorian, simply because he clearly couldn’t be satisfied with “good enough” when it came to TV shows…

…But I also think we have a better ending that the ST for the Skywalker family, simply because I don’t see anyone like Rian Johnson or the LFL story group being allowed to screw thingup as for the family, or to backtrack on what progressive themes Lucas may have started with, as TLJ did.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I think it comes down to how valuable one sees a satisfactory ending (in ROTJ) or even just a less depressing ending (with the Legends material) to the Skywalker family story, and how much one thinks we might or might not have something similar to The Mandalorian and other shows of Lucas were still in charge.

I’ll be honest and say that I think Lucas’s perfectionism would continue to delay any live action TV show like The Mandalorian, simply because he clearly couldn’t be satisfied with “good enough” when it came to TV shows…

…But I also think we have a better ending that the ST for the Skywalker family, simply because I don’t see anyone like Rian Johnson or the LFL story group being allowed to screw thingup as for the family, or to backtrack on what progressive themes Lucas may have started with, as TLJ did.

Pretty much this. I think it's become clear that Star Wars doesn't and never did have what it takes as a franchise to be a big expanded universe franchise and worked really well with a narrow focus. So now it's like yeah we "get" a lot more Star Wars, but it's diluted and not that great in the aggregate. Meanwhile the more that comes out the lesser the esteem and fan love of the franchise has become.

[thwhtGuardian]

Pretty much this. I think it's become clear that Star Wars doesn't and never did have what it takes as a franchise to be a big expanded universe franchise and worked really well with a narrow focus. So now it's like yeah we "get" a lot more Star Wars, but it's diluted and not that great in the aggregate. Meanwhile the more that comes out the lesser the esteem and fan love of the franchise has become.

...that seems to be the exact opposite of reality.

There are more Star Wars comics out now then when it was at Dark Horse and while I personally don't love them all they continue to sell really well. Between the Clone Wars, Rebels and Bad Batch the cartoons are doing fantastic and more are apparently on the way. The Mandalorian is a cultural phenomenon and is starting it's third season latter this year, and whil Boba Fett was hampered by Covid it was still fun, Obi-Wan looks like it's going to be amazing and there are more live action shows on the horizon. The anime min-series was fantastic and they are looking to do more experiments like that in the future. And there are rumors of a favreua/ filoni film series. There are tons of books being put out. Lego Star Wars games and TV specials are incredibly popular. Fallen Order was a huge seller.
And although I didn't care for them the sequel films did do well at the box office.

Star Wars is doing damn well, no doubt about it.

The doom and gloom opinion of Star Wars is by far the minority.

[FFJamie94]

I'm kind of mixed.
On the one hand, outside of Last Jedi, I've not cared much about the Disney SW verse. I think it's trying to rely on Nostalgia way too much.
Oh Darth Maul was a popular character? Put him in Solo and have his story crossover with Han Solo.
People like Luke? Give him a scene in a Lone Wolf and Cub inspired show.

It's like Disney have limited the SW Universe to just being about one thing instead of allowing themselves to expand the Universe.

On the other hand, I don't think George Lucas ever got why People liked Star Wars. The Prequels were an indicator that he just didn't know why People liked the OG series. I think to him, he thought it was the toys and action when in reality, it was the mixture of different genres and Characters.

That being said, we'll always have the Legends Universe, that isn't going anywhere. If you dislike what Disney has done, then you have a wealth of material with the old canon.

Or you can just pick and choose and make your own canon, there's nothing stopping anyone.

(On a side note, I feel bad for Lucas. Not just because he sold the IP so fans would stop bothering him, but because he really didn't want to direct the prequels and everyone told him he should do it. It's almost like no one wanted to touch this IP, and now we know why with the sequel trilogy).

[godisawesome]

Pretty much this. I think it's become clear that Star Wars doesn't and never did have what it takes as a franchise to be a big expanded universe franchise and worked really well with a narrow focus. So now it's like yeah we "get" a lot more Star Wars, but it's diluted and not that great in the aggregate. Meanwhile the more that comes out the lesser the esteem and fan love of the franchise has become.

...that seems to be the exact opposite of reality.

There are more Star Wars comics out now then when it was at Dark Horse and while I personally don't love them all they continue to sell really well. Between the Clone Wars, Rebels and Bad Batch the cartoons are doing fantastic and more are apparently on the way. The Mandalorian is a cultural phenomenon and is starting it's third season latter this year, and whil Boba Fett was hampered by Covid it was still fun, Obi-Wan looks like it's going to be amazing and there are more live action shows on the horizon. The anime min-series was fantastic and they are looking to do more experiments like that in the future. And there are rumors of a favreua/ filoni film series. There are tons of books being put out. Lego Star Wars games and TV specials are incredibly popular. Fallen Order was a huge seller.
And although I didn't care for them the sequel films did do well at the box office.

Star Wars is doing damn well, no doubt about it.

The doom and gloom opinion of Star Wars is by far the minority.

Again, I think a lot of it comes down to how much one values certain things. I’m overall happy with the current situation… but I’m still disappointed that the current status quo involves an abysmal, pathetic ending to the foundational story of the franchise, and that while the Live Action shows have ambition and wisdom, most of the printed media seems to be written by creators walking on metaphorical egg shells to avoid possibly getting in the way of any live action stuff.

Like, on the one hand, it’s amazing that we can see Star Wars be a prestige format TV machine, and that The Clone Wars Legacy is continuing strong. That is a definite improvement from the Lucas age, since I think that his mix of perfectionism but sometimes flawed approach likely wouldn’t produce either as much or as good content as we have with Favreau and Filoni.

…But, well, The Skywalkers mean more than the other IPs of the franchise, and they got trashed enough that both they and the characters who were supposed to take their place need rehabilitation to maximize appeal and creative energy going forward.

And I do almost singularly blame this on The Last Jedi screwing everything up because neither Rian Johnson nor a bunch of lifelong LFL employees got Star Wars *enoigh*. If The Force Awakens had a competent follow-up from someone who genuinely understood the appeal of the OT (all of it, including ROTJ) *and* the potential of the new characters and factions (as derivative as they were), I think we’d be looking at a beast of a continuing franchise larger than the MCU, rather than a fairly distant, currently TV-locked second. Solo could be shaken off… but even though all three ST films made over a billion dollars, having half the audience run off by the last one is far worse.

Star Wars is an inspirational and escapist adventure story designed for as many people from as many walks of life as possible to enjoy it - something that I believe Lucas was always certain of, especially as a businessman. The Last Jedi, in contrast, is a film that holds both certain segments of the audience and the franchise in contempt as childish or bland - it’s contemptuous of people who want an inspiring female hero, a black hero, and even just fulfilling escapist storytelling.

If everything were great, we’d be looking at spin-off D+ shows with Rey, Finn, Poe, and maybe even a living Ben Solo… and instead, half the new actors don’t want to return, and Mark Hamill has to be told to watch his opinions about Luke.

I like the current generations of Star Wars because of The Mandalorian, but in spite of LFL’s Adam Driver obsessed would-be pretentiousness.