News Disney’s Boy Trouble: Studio Seeks Original IP to Win Back Gen-Z Men Amid Marvel, Lucasfilm Struggles

[Serpico Jones]

Episodes 7, 8, and 9.

They were designed to invoke the nostalgia of boomers throughout the film even if the boomers didn’t like the story.

Episode 7:

1. Han and Chewbacca’s return was designed for maximum nostalgia complete with “Chewie, we’re home.”
2. Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber was treated like some kind of sacred relic
3. Death Star 3.0, aka Starkiller Base
4. Cantina 2.0, Maz Kanata’s place mimicked the Mos Eisley Cantina
5. Han’s death mirrors Obi-WAN’s death in A New Hope

Episode 8:

1. The film revolved around “What happened to Luke?!!” throughout the entire film without giving new audiences a reason to care.
2. Yoda cameo throwback to Empire
3. Hoth 2.0, aka Crait.
4. Snoke’s chamber mirrored the Palpatine throne room scene in ROTJ

Episode 9:

1. Palpatine’s return was pure nostalgia bait for boomers
2. Endor and Death Star ruins
3. Lando cameo
4. Fleet of classic ships in the climax
5. Chewbacca medal

Bottom line: the nostalgia baiting was incredibly obvious, distracting, and annoying.

You can blame Bob Iger for that. He was the one who threw the George Lucas storyline for the sequel trilogy into the trash.

 

[Stripes]

You can blame Bob Iger for that. He was the one who threw the George Lucas storyline for the sequel trilogy into the trash.

Probably with good reason. My understanding is that his storyline belonged in the trash.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Episodes 7, 8, and 9.

They were designed to invoke the nostalgia of boomers throughout the film even if the boomers didn’t like the story.

Episode 7:

1. Han and Chewbacca’s return was designed for maximum nostalgia complete with “Chewie, we’re home.”
2. Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber was treated like some kind of sacred relic
3. Death Star 3.0, aka Starkiller Base
4. Cantina 2.0, Maz Kanata’s place mimicked the Mos Eisley Cantina
5. Han’s death mirrors Obi-WAN’s death in A New Hope

Episode 8:

1. The film revolved around “What happened to Luke?!!” throughout the entire film without giving new audiences a reason to care.
2. Yoda cameo throwback to Empire
3. Hoth 2.0, aka Crait.
4. Snoke’s chamber mirrored the Palpatine throne room scene in ROTJ

Episode 9:

1. Palpatine’s return was pure nostalgia bait for boomers
2. Endor and Death Star ruins
3. Lando cameo
4. Fleet of classic ships in the climax
5. Chewbacca medal

Bottom line: the nostalgia baiting was incredibly obvious, distracting, and annoying.

Do you know what a boomer is?

Because a boomer might buy your reasoning

But an Xer…which is the Star Wars army…would blow it out of the sky like a scud (old person reference)

What Disney did…leaving Lucas mistakes aside…is attempt to fake it. They made movies with no understanding of the ethos of Star Wars. It’s very much tied to its time and place and the world it hatched in. That is why it’s unique and so adamantly defended. I won’t say the 2,500 description of that again…it’s been done…but I’m not “guessing”

They tried to slap a label on no stories with no characters…and ten years later the damage gets worse every day. That’s what the Star Wars fans will do to failure. You mess with the bull and you’ll get the horns.

Don’t do it. Don’t try it. Listen to the audience and screw your “philosophy”

And it’s easily proven. The only offering that has grown in stature that Disney made has been rogue one and andor…and mandalorian to this point.

Because it doesn’t try to fight the fanbase.

Star Wars always makes money. You can either make some money and do damage - like George and now Disney - or you can do it intelligently and have it roll in forever.

We have 50 years of history here.

And it’s impossible to fight. You make bad Star Wars…it will take down actors careers and disrupt the supply chain.

Because X controls it…the first truly “spoiled” generation bred in an era of tech explosion and world stability on a never before seen level. The height of western dominance…the NATO franchise.

Star Wars is not like the others…and it never will be. It Bridges the eras of patience and imagination and the current era of lack of attention and flooding the zone.

 

[LSLS]

Episodes 7, 8, and 9.

They were designed to invoke the nostalgia of boomers throughout the film even if the boomers didn’t like the story.

Episode 7:

1. Han and Chewbacca’s return was designed for maximum nostalgia complete with “Chewie, we’re home.”
2. Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber was treated like some kind of sacred relic
3. Death Star 3.0, aka Starkiller Base
4. Cantina 2.0, Maz Kanata’s place mimicked the Mos Eisley Cantina
5. Han’s death mirrors Obi-WAN’s death in A New Hope

Episode 8:

1. The film revolved around “What happened to Luke?!!” throughout the entire film without giving new audiences a reason to care.
2. Yoda cameo throwback to Empire
3. Hoth 2.0, aka Crait.
4. Snoke’s chamber mirrored the Palpatine throne room scene in ROTJ

Episode 9:

1. Palpatine’s return was pure nostalgia bait for boomers
2. Endor and Death Star ruins
3. Lando cameo
4. Fleet of classic ships in the climax
5. Chewbacca medal

Bottom line: the nostalgia baiting was incredibly obvious, distracting, and annoying.

I don't think a LOT of what you put in was to invoke nostalgia. Nostalgia would have had the main characters meet back up and lead the charge to defeat the bad guys in one last story. Instead you didn't even see them together at any point. A lot of what you list here is really just lazy story telling where they couldn't create their own ideas so they just reused old ones, it wasn't some grand exercise for nostalgia. I do think Episode 9 tried to lean into nostalgia some, but a lot of damage had been done by that point. And a lot of it was because there was no real way to connect 7 and 8, especially with the vision Abrams had (such as a Kylo redemption arc).

 

[Mike S]

And people wonder why Disney tried to do things differently with franchises that was counter to what previous generations liked.

And they still failed.

Yup! My daughter has seen erasure multiple times with me. And they both went to the pet shop boys dream world concert they played at the theater back in what, January. It was funny, I got home one day, my son was in the shower blasting an obscure alphaville song, and I was like, where'd you get that? He dug through all my music. Fortunately or unfortunately, the next time erasure, pet shop boys, omd or Depeche mode come back, it's going to cost a whole lot more money. Lol

We've instilled in them, like what you like and don't worry what others think. And funny enough, it's usually what we like too.

Late millennial and my musical taste is a perfect blend of my parents.

 

[Disney Irish]

And they still failed.

That maybe, but at least they tried and so some credit has to be given to them for that whether you agree with their decision or not. But yet I doubt many here that have been against it will because of pride.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Episodes 7, 8, and 9.

They were designed to invoke the nostalgia of boomers throughout the film even if the boomers didn’t like the story.

Episode 7:

1. Han and Chewbacca’s return was designed for maximum nostalgia complete with “Chewie, we’re home.”
2. Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber was treated like some kind of sacred relic
3. Death Star 3.0, aka Starkiller Base
4. Cantina 2.0, Maz Kanata’s place mimicked the Mos Eisley Cantina
5. Han’s death mirrors Obi-WAN’s death in A New Hope

Episode 8:

1. The film revolved around “What happened to Luke?!!” throughout the entire film without giving new audiences a reason to care.
2. Yoda cameo throwback to Empire
3. Hoth 2.0, aka Crait.
4. Snoke’s chamber mirrored the Palpatine throne room scene in ROTJ

Episode 9:

1. Palpatine’s return was pure nostalgia bait for boomers
2. Endor and Death Star ruins
3. Lando cameo
4. Fleet of classic ships in the climax
5. Chewbacca medal

Bottom line: the nostalgia baiting was incredibly obvious, distracting, and annoying.

What you call nostalgia I’d call the heart of the story.

Star Wars without Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia is just a space movie. It can still be great but it won’t “be” Star Wars.

Indiana Jones without Indiana Jones is just another adventure movie, I love National Treasure but it’s not an Indy movie.

You can make great movies without specific characters but it’s those specific characters that make franchises stand out as unique.

People typically love specific shows because of the characters, not the environment those characters are placed in.

There’s examples of great spinoffs, Star Trek next generation for example… but that’s the exception, usually once you change the main cast the show never regains the same following.

 

[coffeefan]

Do you know what a boomer is?

Because a boomer might buy your reasoning

But an Xer…which is the Star Wars army…would blow it out of the sky like a scud (old person reference)

What Disney did…leaving Lucas mistakes aside…is attempt to fake it. They made movies with no understanding of the ethos of Star Wars. It’s very much tied to its time and place and the world it hatched in. That is why it’s unique and so adamantly defended. I won’t say the 2,500 description of that again…it’s been done…but I’m not “guessing”

They tried to slap a label on no stories with no characters…and ten years later the damage gets worse every day. That’s what the Star Wars fans will do to failure. You mess with the bull and you’ll get the horns.

Don’t do it. Don’t try it. Listen to the audience and screw your “philosophy”

And it’s easily proven. The only offering that has grown in stature that Disney made has been rogue one and andor…and mandalorian to this point.

Because it doesn’t try to fight the fanbase.

Star Wars always makes money. You can either make some money and do damage - like George and now Disney - or you can do it intelligently and have it roll in forever.

We have 50 years of history here.

And it’s impossible to fight. You make bad Star Wars…it will take down actors careers and disrupt the supply chain.

Because X controls it…the first truly “spoiled” generation bred in an era of tech explosion and world stability on a never before seen level. The height of western dominance…the NATO franchise.

Star Wars is not like the others…and it never will be. It Bridges the eras of patience and imagination and the current era of lack of attention and flooding the zone.

Many gen-xers are basically mini-baby boomers on many cultural aspects. Star Wars is an example, so is nostalgia for the 80s. It's not their fault, baby boomers were just a much bigger generation so media and businesses catered to boomers.

 

[Mike S]

Star Wars without Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia is just a space movie. It can still be great but it won’t “be” Star Wars.

Indiana Jones without Indiana Jones is just another adventure movie, I love National Treasure but it’s not an Indy movie.

While I haven’t delved into it much myself there’s plenty of very much loved Star Wars media that doesn’t involve the original three.

Indiana Jones though you’re right on the money.

 

[Stripes]

Do you know what a boomer is?

Because a boomer might buy your reasoning

But an Xer…which is the Star Wars army…would blow it out of the sky like a scud (old person reference)

What Disney did…leaving Lucas mistakes aside…is attempt to fake it. They made movies with no understanding of the ethos of Star Wars. It’s very much tied to its time and place and the world it hatched in. That is why it’s unique and so adamantly defended. I won’t say the 2,500 description of that again…it’s been done…but I’m not “guessing”

They tried to slap a label on no stories with no characters…and ten years later the damage gets worse every day. That’s what the Star Wars fans will do to failure. You mess with the bull and you’ll get the horns.

Don’t do it. Don’t try it. Listen to the audience and screw your “philosophy”

And it’s easily proven. The only offering that has grown in stature that Disney made has been rogue one and andor…and mandalorian to this point.

Because it doesn’t try to fight the fanbase.

Star Wars always makes money. You can either make some money and do damage - like George and now Disney - or you can do it intelligently and have it roll in forever.

We have 50 years of history here.

And it’s impossible to fight. You make bad Star Wars…it will take down actors careers and disrupt the supply chain.

Because X controls it…the first truly “spoiled” generation bred in an era of tech explosion and world stability on a never before seen level. The height of western dominance…the NATO franchise.

Star Wars is not like the others…and it never will be. It Bridges the eras of patience and imagination and the current era of lack of attention and flooding the zone.

All you are saying is that Gen X fans have certain expectations for Star Wars and that George Lucas and his self-appointed successor Kathy K have a spotty track record of delivering on those expectations. Here’s the problem: if one of those expectations is obnoxious pandering, it’s in direct conflict with the expectations of people that will be alive after Gen X is dead.

My argument is simply that the pandering to the nostalgia of boomers and Gen X was obnoxious and created annoying characters. Rogue One and Andor are successful because they mitigate this pitfall. The new characters take center stage, any nostalgic moments are earned and service the story, and, unlike the mythic fairy tale vibe of the original trilogy, these projects have grit and moral ambiguity. Any nostalgia is used a bridge rather than a crutch.

It feels fresh and new and unlike anything Star Wars has ever done before. The show unlocks new possibilities for what Star Wars can be. It betrays expectations for what Star Wars is and what it is expected be. When I was watching Andor at my Gen X parents’ place, they didn’t even recognize the show as being Star Wars until I told them. What does that say?

 

[flynnibus]

A lot of what you list here is really just lazy story telling where they couldn't create their own ideas so they just reused old ones, it wasn't some grand exercise for nostalgia

Nah - you don't get that much overlap w/o intentionally trying to sing the same tune. They wanted that feeling of familiarity and throwbacks. They were intentionally trying to replace the old with the new through continuity/handoff.

 

[flynnibus]

What you call nostalgia I’d call the heart of the story.

Star Wars without Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia is just a space movie. It can still be great but it won’t “be” Star Wars.

Sorry, decades of successful Star Wars stories and products have proven that wrong.

There’s examples of great spinoffs, Star Trek next generation for example… but that’s the exception, usually once you change the main cast the show never regains the same following.

There is plenty to explore elsewhere in Star Wars and its been done for forever. Disney's sequels were just too much corp strategy planning vs just focusing on making good entertainment.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Many gen-xers are basically mini-baby boomers on many cultural aspects. Star Wars is an example, so is nostalgia for the 80s. It's not their fault, baby boomers were just a much bigger generation so media and businesses catered to boomers.

I agree with you in many ways

Xers mirror booms way more than the subsequent generations mirror X

Because we both had Low tech and it binds us…

But X is on the big stage now

To be blunt..most of the boom
Will be gone in the next 5-10 years

That’s just how numbers work.

 

[Tha Realest]

I'm happy you have a couple Gen Z'ers that follows in your footsteps.

Only 2.4B to go to convince the rest to follow the same, good luck.

A number of us have children that enjoy the things we do as well. In many ways, were imparting our habits, entertainment preferences, and many other attributes.

How many of the 2.4bn Gen Z’ers are your children, and how many are you directly influencing on a daily basis?

 

[Disney Irish]

A number of us have children that enjoy the things we do as well. In many ways, were imparting our habits, entertainment preferences, and many other attributes.

How many of the 2.4bn Gen Z’ers are your children, and how many are you directly influencing on a daily basis?

How many are my progeny, zero. How many am I directly influencing, several dozen as I work with kids in several local programs. Not to mention the next generation within my own family circle, which are also several dozen with all my relatives.

So probably 60-70 kids in all of various age ranges under 16. And that doesn't even include kids from friends, which would add another 40-50. So yeah, upwards of 120+ kids.

How many do you have?

 

[flynnibus]

See: anecdotal and just move on...

reality is retro is cool, even with the under 30 crowd. Which is why so many toys, collectibles, shows, and more have been brought back.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

TIL that there is a shockingly large portion of the message board that doesn't understand the difference between the Baby Boomers and Generation X.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Not to go too far off it…

But hamill/luke Skywalker is both the heart and emotional backbone of Star Wars.

That’s not my opinion…it’s been stated in interviews and books by the following:

Gary Kurtz
Irv kirshner
Frank Oz
Howard kazanjian
Marcia Lucas

Hell…if George was ever honest he’d say it…Anakin fetish aside

It’s not a coincidence that favreau and filoni specifically designed an entire story arc around him for a 5 minute tribute. fans get it.

The ones that don’t…should never be allowed near a camera. You can’t replace the wisdom gained from being there/living it. It’s fools errand to try.

Ahem

Now do we want to argue about this? Or just do something with a chance of an argument like redefine gravity?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Nah - you don't get that much overlap w/o intentionally trying to sing the same tune. They wanted that feeling of familiarity and throwbacks. They were intentionally trying to replace the old with the new through continuity/handoff.

Nah…they weren’t nearly that smart about it.

 

[coffeefan]

What you call nostalgia I’d call the heart of the story.

Star Wars without Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia is just a space movie. It can still be great but it won’t “be” Star Wars.

You can make great movies without specific characters but it’s those specific characters that make franchises stand out as unique.

People typically love specific shows because of the characters, not the environment those characters are placed in.

This is the main shift between Star Wars fans across generations. For my generation, KOTOR was one of the most popular Star Wars media growing up and it didn't feature those characters. Now it continues with Andor and Mando.
While gen-x and boomers require the original trio to be the focus of Star Wars, later generations don't.