Universal Studios owning the Star Wars franchise?

[kingmyth]

What would everyone think if Universal Studios got the rights to own the Star Wars franchise instead of Disney, Would things get better or worse for the series?.

[ChrisIII]

I think part of the reason Lucas sold to Disney in the first place was because Lucasfilm already sort of had a relationship with the company already, going back to the 80s with multiple theme park attractions and merchandise focused on Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Universal of course is trying to jump onboard the shared universe/spin-offs bandwagon with the Mummy reboot, but they seem to be doing okay with the Fast and the Furious and Jurassic Park movies right now.

[MindofShadow]

What would everyone think if Universal Studios got the rights to own the Star Wars franchise instead of Disney, Would things get better or worse for the series?.

Worse.

No comics, no cartoons

[G. Boney]

I still think it's kind of strange that Lucas sold it in the first place. The movies we have now could've still been made. Just because you own something doesn't mean you have to personally run it...

[Mister Ferro]

Worse.

No comics, no cartoons

I don't think so, Dark Horse would more than likely still have the comic license. As for cartoons, CN could have continued being the home of Star Wars Cartoons.

[Arfguy]

Not entirely sure. I think Lucas sold it to Disney, because he saw that the characters and stories would continue long past his own days. He sold it for a lot of money and most of that he will be donating to charity, from what I heard before.

Universal would have gone a different route than Disney, but with Disney, I think Lucas was looking at the potential for prolonged exposure more than anything.

[ChrisIII]

Regarding the sale, I think a few other things might have factored into it apart from his relationship with the company beforehand.

-In 2012 I think the TPM 3D re-release and his pet project "Red Tails" didn't do as well as he thought they would, as well. There was also a lot of merchandising for the TPM re-release (Including some stuff that was simply repackaged 1999 stuff!) that didn't sell well.

-He wanted to get married to Mellody Hobson, expand his family etc. which he did a few months after the sale.

-He also appointed Kathleen Kennedy to co-chair of Lucasfilm earlier that year. (She's now running the company entirely).

-Some of the interviews made around the time of the TPM 3D release and Red Tails seemed to indicate that the criticism of both the prequel trilogy and Indiana Jones IV was starting to get to him and his family a bit. Remember, this was around the time the RedLetterMedia stuff was particularly popular.

-It's also possible he saw how well Disney was doing with the Marvel films, especially with Avengers earlier that year.