The galaxy of the Star Wars universe stretches to infinity
In a century long gone (the last one, that many of us still remember), the world of entertainment media experienced an era of beginnings.
The Lord of the Rings was written, superheroes became a thing, Winnie-the-Pooh was invented and in 1977 Star Wars was released in theatres.
Since then that movie has become a franchise whose value hovers somewhere between the total GDP of Slovenia and Belarus. A cool $70 billion. That's about half again more than Tunisia, which doubles for the planet Tatooine in the epic movies.
Disney didn't pay nearly that much when they bought Star Wars from its creator George Lucas in 2012, but they have certainly made the most of it. Star Wars now has an abundance of TV series and new movies available on streaming service Disney Plus; there have been games and new books released, so much so that even diehard fans are beginning to ask if there is such thing as too much Star Wars.
Today on The Detail film critic (and Star Wars fan) Kate Rodger talks about the past, present and future of the monolithic mega franchise and what it means for the wider world of entertainment.
'We're in the heyday of 'the franchise' and I think we're kind of desperate and gagging for original storytelling,' she says. 'Hollywood is desperate to continue making bank, and if they can bank on an audience that's already there, that's the whole point of a franchise.'
The standard way of viewing our entertainment was already shifting away from the theatre and towards subscription model streaming services before Covid lockdowns accelerated the process.
The latest of many waves of TV content from Disney's Star Wars is season two of Andor, a series prequel to the critically acclaimed Rogue One movie that many fans agree is one of the biggest positives to come from the Disney acquisition. Rodger agrees.
'The best writing of any Star Wars that's ever been put out, anywhere.'
So it's clear that good things are still coming from the far-from-dead mega franchise.
But is the sheer quantity of content from Star Wars and other large properties drowning out the smaller voices? In the 20th century, cinema was still finding its feet in many ways. Creators had a blank canvas and new things could make their way to the biggest of the big leagues.
The big leagues however are fast becoming the only players on the board. So does the Star Wars machine get in the way of what could be the next Star Wars?
'Of course it does, it sucks the oxygen out of the marketplace,' says Rodger. 'I don't know what we can do about it, it's big business.'
Let's hope that exploring the galaxy far, far away isn't blocking the view of the stories we have right here at home.
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