Disney is the Best Thing to Happen to “Star Wars” Since “The Empire Strikes Back”
The bottom line is this: Thanks to fans-turned-creatives such as Dave Filoni, in large part responsible for the long-term success of “The Clone Wars,” “Rebels,” and “The Mandalorian,” and also executives such as the unfairly oft-excoriated Kathleen Kennedy — head of Lucasfilm — we are presently in the midst of a “Star Wars” renaissance.

Fans are receiving what they’ve asked for, and though surely many will still complain Disney either has killed the brand outright or has substantially overexposed it since their 2012 purchase, money talks.

“The Mandalorian” has become the figurehead of Disney+, and even considering the disappointing performance of “Solo” the “Star Wars” features under the Disney banner have earned collectively billions of dollars on their worldwide releases alone, not counting merchandise or television licenses.

Again, money talks. Complaints are plentiful and mistakes will be made, but Lucas’ product — the prequel trilogy particularly and, for some, “Return of the Jedi” — was not universally acclaimed either.

As to the mistakes? I’d be remiss if I did not mention it so I sincerely hope they will not be again of this nature: Disney bowing to racist social media comments and largely excluding Kelly Marie Tran, and to a lesser degree John Boyega, from “The Rise of Skywalker” was risible. Fan response to Jar Jar Binks, conversely, who was accused of being a black stereotype was of George Lucas’ own making. The role was substantially cut down in Episodes II and III. But Lucas was also accused of employing the Jewish stereotype of Watto in “The Phantom Menace,” and Asian stereotypes in the Galactic Trade Federation heads, also largely cut from subsequent films. He suffered blowback from his initial choices, which was not surprising.

On the racial front, Disney needs to be smarter than both they and Lucas have been moving forward. They took a leap and made the effort to be as diverse as we are; they need to stand by that effort to the brand’s creative benefit without pigeonholing.

Further, the tone of this article will be reconsidered if Disney continues to stall on due payments of Alan Dean Foster, author of “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.” What had transpired in that regard is unconscionable.

This piece, though, is about Disney’s new presentations, and to that end I want to remain focused. The studio behind-the-scenes nonetheless needs to clean up some serious mess and work on their integrity, none of which I or anyone should take lightly.
['Joel Eisenberg']
['Movies', 'Science Fiction', 'Film', 'Entertainment', 'Star Wars']