Are We Approaching Star Wars Overkill?

Star Wars Land is coming to a Galaxy Not So Far Away. This announcement at the D23 Expo is just the latest of many since Disney bought Lucasfilm and got on with fixing the Star Wars universe.

Disney shook up the canon to prepare the way for a terrifying quantity of new media. We've got Star Wars Rebels, the new trilogy that starts with The Force Awakens, some amazing new games, new books and several new comic lines. Star Wars has landed in Disney stores and has an increased presence in Disney parks. And that is on top of all the usual marketing and tie-ins that usually pre-empt a Star Wars movie release.

The pieces have always been there (the books especially!) but Disney has brought such a laser-sharp focus that it has caused my other half to ask me last night "Isn't there a danger they'll kill this franchise via overload?"

Is there a risk of that? I'm of an age that I've seen the Shadows of the Empire, Special Edition cinematic release and Prequel hypes come and go. Star Wars books have been published at an ever faster pace over that period. The list of game and comic releases during this period is just huge. Star Wars is, I would say, even more "mainstream" than it was before the Prequels. And so I think the appetite for Star Wars content is just that much higher than it has been before.

I think Disney have, for the time being, a license to print money. Jurassic World (a movie whose story was basic at best) has flourished at the cinema based on a strong franchise and lots of fans reliving their childhood (and making their kids live through their mid-life crisis). Well Star Wars (thanks to being released over 25 years) gets even more of that nostalgic benefit on top of having one of the strongest media brands in history.

Which leads me on to my most important point... MORE STAR WARS STUFF NEEDED!!!! TAKE MY MONEY DISNEY!!!

Disney: Bringing The Franchises We Love To Heel

Star Wars canon had become unbearably bloated. We need look no further than Jaxxon for a prime example of said bloat (even if he was a very early one!). 

I loved the Expanded Universe. But the Galaxy had become too full and too busy. There was little space left for a fresh perspective. At least in Star Wars you could go out of the original timeframe to create new epics like the Star Wars: Legacy comics. Still, Disney's decision to cut the fat and do away with anything outside the movies and Clone Wars will do for Star Wars what a reboot has done for Star Trek: create exciting new possibilities for stories (and money making opportunities for Disney too, I'm not forgetting that... everyone wins!). 

And now it would seem the same "refresher" is coming to the Marvel Universe. With Secret Wars Disney is "ending the Marvel Universe". Again, like with Star Wars, it doesn't appear to be a "reboot". Instead it looks like a re-jigging of overly complicated canon (in this case Marvel's thousands of different realities) into a shape that better pleases the investors (and hopefully new fans too). 

With today's major announcement that Marvel will get more oversight of Sony's Spider-Man franchise (and have it form a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) I think it likely the same clear-cut vision is focussing policy there too. Given Marvel's complex fictional universe and its almost as complex licensing agreements in real life, Disney is taking it slow but I think it is getting on with the job of cleaning house in order to allow fresh ideas to thrive. You have to prune the weeds after all before something new can grow. 

I've got two predictions: 

1) Fox will be under pressure to follow Sony's lead and bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That'd need to happen after X-Men: Apocalypse and the new Fantastic Four movie but as long as Fantastic Four's movie doesn't contradict anything in the MCU and once X-Men: Apocalypse closes off the second X-Men trilogy it could be easily achieved. 

2) The Marvel Universe will be brought ever closer in line with the MCU and I think there will be a new "Ultimate" like line of comics that exist within that universe. 

All this tidying up suits me fine. I look forward to the next set of adventures... 

"My" Star Wars Is As Good As Dead... Perhaps Not The End Of The World

I've been a lifelong Star Wars fan. Whereas I came to Star Trek and Doctor Who in the early 90s, Star Wars was always a part of my life thanks to my fantastic, geeky Uncle. Now I'll admit I wasn't some super-knowledgeable fan. For much of my early life I was under the impression the movies were based on books and that the first three books hadn't been filmed hence why the odd numbering.

But I really got into Star Wars in a way many proper Star Wars fans would consider sacrilegious... At the age of 13/14 and thanks to the lead up to the Special Editions. Then again my favourite Star Wars movie is Return of the Jedi so I suppose there truly is no hope for me! I loved the Special Editions, I loved the Shadows of the Empire "event" (as a Nintendo boy the fact it was one of the first games released on N64 put it right on my radar) and then I fell in love with the Expanded Universe books.

The Truce At Bakura remains one of my favourite books of all time, not just in the Star Wars line. I loved the characters of the EU and dabbled with some of the Star Wars: Legacy comics too. I fell out of contact with the latest happenings somewhat, only picking up a book here or there, totally missing the Yuuzhan Vong (something I'm pretty glad of having picked up a few of those books since) but I did listen to the Force Cast loyally and loved the rich tapestry of the many, many stories told post-RotJ.

But, given the fact I was not overly enamoured with the Prequels (though not angry like some raging fanboys), the EU became "My" Star Wars. Yes the canon was sketchy (though they had a points based system to help you out!), but I loved Thrawn, Jade, the entire history of the New Republic and its battles with the Imperial Remnant.

Now, as we prepare for the next trilogy of movies, Disney has decided to clear things up. A committee is deciding the fate of entire worlds and civilisations (imaginary ones, I admit). Beloved characters and plots will be discarded. Entire empires will cease to exist. And the Expanded Universe will implode.

It is perhaps not a bad idea. The stories won't disappear. The Heir to the Empire trilogy won't be burnt in the streets. Chewbacca will still get crushed by a moon and reduce me into a blubbering wreak. And by finally clearing house a more stable canon can be formed encompassing all the movies plus any new books and comics that come out over the coming years. It'll help make it all more accessible to new fans and to returning fans.

In fact I can't help but agree with this piece that suggests they just do away with everything but the movies.

Yes "My" Star Wars must die in order that a new Star Wars may rise... I can't wait to see what next year brings and not just because of Episode VII. Marvel will begin publishing Star Wars comics and I'm excited! A whole new Expanded Universe to explore :)

Given What Disney Is Doing For Live-Action Marvel, Imagine The Possibilities With Star Wars...

When Disney purchased LucasFilm, I spoke of my lack of concern and expressed my long repressed love for Disney. My confidence in Disney's stewardship of much beloved fictional universes 

                                                  Reason For Loving Disney #2

This week Marvel, another recent Disney acquisition, announced that on top of several upcoming movies and the brand new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV show they would be releasing, via Netflix, 4 more TV shows which would ultimately lead in to a mini-series named The Defenders. 

With some rather strong storylines playing out in the comic book world too (as Marvel reinvents its universe in the latest round of "Marvel NOW!" releases), Marvel is going from strength to strength.  

A lot of Star Wars fans are fearful of what may be coming and how carefully Disney will look after the franchise that means so much to them, I just need to point out the care and planning Marvel has been putting in to the creation of its "cinematic universe". Unlike Fox's handling of the X-Men franchise, Disney/Marvel has forged a consistent and high quality product that appeals to mass audiences whilst not causing the sort of fanboy tantrums (and I say that as someone who almost became homicidal when there was a brief consideration of rebooting Buffy) caused by things like... the Phantom Menace! 

Disney didn't buy Marvel or LucasFilm out of a love of Iron Man or Han Solo. They didn't do it because they felt some deep artistic need to tell stories in those various fictional universes owned by those companies. They did it to make money. But they have shown that in making very large sums of money they haven't forgotten to make a story that appeals to all the right people. 

Yes there are plenty of Disney flops and there are plenty of political reasons not to like Disney. But Marvel fans are now getting the sort of output that couldn't have been dreamed of before and I have a feeling that Star Wars fans are only a few years away from a similar tsunami (in a good way) of quality live-action stories that they have been praying for for years. 

Until they buy out the rights to Star Trek and replace Captain Picard with Mickey Mouse, Make Mine Disney!

I Don't Have A Bad Feeling About This: Disney Star Wars FTW

I suppose it is time for full disclosure. Before I became obsessed with science fiction in all its many forms, I was a Disney fan.

It all started when I was about 5 and my Auntie's boyfriend was collecting Ducktales characters from Kinder eggs (he was about 15, so don't judge him too harshly!). I absolutely adored looking at them as I passed them on the stairs. Around that time I also became profoundly jealous when I found my cousin, who had taken over my room in my Nan's house after my Mum and I moved out, had got the room decorated with a large wall painting of Dumbo! I perused my Jungle Book merchandise and began a collection of Disney paraphernalia which would last until we abandoned our home, yes literally abandoned in the middle of the night, when I was 10 and it (along with my beloved Ghostbuster's toys and Monster in my Pockets) was lost to me forever.

I loved the movies; the Rescuers, the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and I pined to visist Euro Disney. I never did get the chance.

So needless to say, I still have a soft spot for Disney even today. Even so when Disney purchased Marvel (which had almost seemlessly replaced Disney in my affections during our escape from Snodland to Folkestone) I was concerned. Was Disney going to totally mess up Marvel? I needn't have worried. Marvel goes from strength to strength, its new Marvel NOW! initiative is looking good and its Marvel movie universe is taking over the cinema.

So this week, when we got the surprise news that Disney was acquiring LucasFilm, I was happy rather than sad. The Star Wars universe has become sleeping giant, its full potential laying dormant. It need a new direction, a new leash of life. And I think Disney purchasing LucasFilm will provide it with the necessary kick up the bum to get it whirring back into action. Disney are going to want to see a return on their investment, and thus I think the next few years will be a new dawn for Star Wars even beyond the announcement of Episode VII.

Disney, Marvel and Star Wars. Together. Did all my Christmases just arrive at once? I think they did!!