This week is my fifth blogversary! Yay! I thought it would be fun to dig into the archives for one of my most popular posts and see how time has treated it.
In November 2012, I posted about what I loved/what I hated about Disney buying Lucasfilm.
This post went viral on Stumbleupon. I believe it still holds the record for most hits of all of my blog posts. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one both excited and concerned about the change.
So how’d I do? Were my hopes/fears realized?
Let’s review:
Why I Love: More Star Wars films.
Yep, we got/are getting a bunch of those.
Why I Hate: More Star Wars films that may exist solely to squeeze every possible dime out of an existing franchise.
This turned out to not be a TOTALLY baseless fear. We are getting a Star Wars movie every year until…we stop getting a Star Wars movie every year, I guess.
The good news is the first two movies, The Force Awakens and Rogue One, are fantastic. The previews of The Last Jedi also look awesome. There is some doubt about the young Han Solo movie, especially since the directors suddenly quit (though it’s not too shabby that they were replaced with Ron Howard). So far, though, the movies have been made with lots of love.
Which brings me to:
Why I Love: There’s a whole generation of filmmakers who grew up on Star Wars who could revive the franchise creatively.
And…I was right! Not only the films, but the new novels, mostly written by Gen-Xers who were raised on Star Wars, have been stellar.
Why I Hate: There’s a whole generation of filmmakers who grew up on Star Wars who could finish it off once and for all.
Until we get a clunker, looks like this isn’t happening. I am a little concerned about Episode 9. Not feeling Colin Trevorrow as director. But he could always surprise.
Why I Love: Disney ownership has not negatively impacted the quality of Pixar and Marvel films.
Right again!
Why I Hate: This could turn out to be the exception to the rule.
It’s not—so far.
Why I Love: The possibility of the story continuing in a future time frame.
Yep, and it’s been terrific to have the new trilogy leap 30 years ahead.
Why I Hate: The possibility that they will do more prequels instead.
They are making prequels, but so far this hasn’t turned out to be a disaster, because Rogue One is a prequel and I totally loved it.
Why did it succeed, in my opinion? Because it told the story from the point of view of different characters, which is why many of the prequel Star Wars books are good, too.
Why I Love: Actors from the original films could appear in the new films.
As we all know now, they did! (Except for Billy Dee Williams, which is disappointing.)
Why I Hate: How old I’ll feel when I see the original actors in the new films.
Yeah. I felt pretty damn old seeing the original actors. You know what? It was also an exhilarating experience to see them older and both changed/not changed by time. They also did a great job melding the old and new characters together.
Why I Love: George Lucas won’t be directing the new films.
This turned out to be a very good thing.
Why I Hate: George Lucas is unlikely to have a significant creative role in making the new films.
Apparently, this also turned out to be a very good thing.
Why I Love: A revived Star Wars franchise could inspire a whole new generation.
This statement seems a bit silly to me now, since subsequent generations have always had Star Wars, with the old movies, games, TV shows, etc. My niece is a Millennial and a big fan. She once even schooled me on the difference between Jawas and Sand People. (Hey, I’m getting older, I forget details sometimes.)
Why I Hate: A whole new generation could reject it.
Nope, didn’t happen.
Why I Love: Darth Vader might appear on Once Upon a Time.
Why I Hate: Jar-Jar Binks might appear on Once Upon a Time.
Considering I quit watching Once Upon a Time a couple of years ago, I’m not entirely sure either has or has not made an appearance. Honestly, no big deal to me now either way.
Looks like most of my worries turned out to be baseless. Here’s hoping the franchise continues to thrive under the Disney banner.
This was a fun way to celebrate my blogversary! Thanks to all who have visited over the last five years. Looking forward to many more years of blogging!
MOON IN GEMINI 
Happy Blogversary!
Thanks! 😊
Happy 5th anniversary. I always enjoy reading your blog.
Thank you!
Haha this was pretty interesting to read. I remember when I heard the news years ago my very first reaction was “Oh thank god!” I respect George so much for the world and characters he’s created but had he made these movies himself, I shudder to think about what we would have gotten. Jar Jar’s Great Grandson who helps Luke’s son on his adventures? >_>
That said, would you be interested in sharing your work on Movie Pilot? I’d like to invite you to the platform as one of our content creators. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail, my contact details are on my “About” page. (o^.^)b
Hi, thanks for the invite. I will consider it.
When I wrote about the deal, my main concern at the time was that the new stories reflect the changing demographics of fandom. Episode 7 seemed to do that – but within the context of a story that copied A NEW HOPE almost fundamentally. I’m not interested in a new SW movie every damn year, especially if it means sponging off the past.
Happy blogiversary.
I agree, there will be a moment where we reach a SW saturation point. I’m glad they did the new trilogy because Lucas always envisioned three trilogies.
What I’d really like to see is some adaptations of the SW novels. I really enjoyed Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars and Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath series. As long as it involves different characters, I think they can keep the franchise going for a long time.