Star Wars fatigue is a real thing. How could it not be? There are a billion equally interesting fantasy stories out there competing with it now. This isn't 1977 when (believe it or not) most of the GP pre-SW thought of Sci-fi as Giant Bug movies from all the 1950's movie reruns on tv, and SW hit pop culture like a giant dayglo meteor of joy. Now aliens, CGI, spaceships, monsters and flashy effects are everywhere, 24-7, on 500 channels. Character is the only thing that can really make a franchise stand out now, and Disney has fumbled that part of SW so far. I think most of the GP is currently more interested in the fates of Hopper, Joyce, El and Dustin on Stranger Things than in what happens to Reyfinnpoe.
Character is everything...it brings you in to the stories and makes you “care” about topics that may not be a big deal to you.
Want examples?
Pull up Netflix; or Hulu or prime and watch seasons 3-7 of the next generation, or ds9. If you want more edge - watch BSG.
It was all about the character developments. Hamill carries the OT...and the characterizations of Vader and yoda (an amazing job by brackett, kasdan, kirshner and Oz on yoda....and Kurtz) in small amounts of screen time are astounding today. Same with MacDiarmid in Jedi...
That’s why they worked, grabbed us and never let go...as much as they have been torpedoed since.
How to fix Star Wars? I got an idea...people want a Feige?...look at the credits of TNG, DS9 and BSG and find the name that matches.
Star Wars had a period between the mid-80s and early 90s where its popularity faded, there was little to no merchandise, no new movies and not even the promise of new movies to come. This was when I first discovered it and it's just weird to think back to a time when you could walk into all stores and not find a single Star Wars item.
It seems that each time there's a lengthy break between movies, the franchise comes back in a huge way. Unfortunately, Disney decided to boldy go where Lucas had never gone before with simultaneous spinoff stories, a boring supposedly billion dollar extension of Walt Disney's classic theme park that looks like a middle eastern warzone and so on. It's kinda like when Red Leader lets loose his photon torpedoes into the Death Star's hole. It makes a big impact initially but it doesn't get the intended result in the long run.
Star Wars faded in a pre internet, digital on demand world.
Except it didn’t...conventions and toy collectors came around...and nbc showing the movies on tv was appointment television over and over again. I can remember vhs taping Jedi on an hbo preview weekend at like 9 on a Friday morning and running home to watch it (the vhs tapes were not being sold at that time so it was probably 86-87ish?). That tape was like gold. I think it broke down naturally due to overuse
We had pop franchises...but nothing filled that void. Back to the future, Batman, ghostbusters, karate kid, terminators...they didn’t get to the collection of emotions that Star Wars did. Indy probably was closest but the 3 principals moved away from them.
I will always be amazed at how Star Wars grew in power in the “dark years”...and how Lucas and then Disney never bothered to talk to enough fans to figure out why? That’s why the first prequel cleared an ENTIRE movie slate in 1999. And the special editions were #1 at the box office for several weekends each in early 97.
Austin powers: the spy who ged me was the only movie to be released that summer - and they brilliantly made fun of themselves in the trailers. It was genius. Great movie too.
George and Disney made the wrong choice: it was “money over mythos”...and paper can’t overcome the power of the mind/imagination.
Others have gotten it right...Peter Jackson...Rowling’s...now the mcu people.
LFL not so much since.
As far as your second paragraph goes...yeah - all that, you nailed it
![Winking face :wink: 😉](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/7.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png)