I recently bought some Star Wars (pre disney) expanded universe books and comic books from my local used book store and it got me thinking. Star Wars was probably my biggest "nerd interest" growing up and when I was 12 I got Heir to the Empire for my birthday. It was exciting because I didn't know there were books took place in the Star Wars universe. I even was excited at the time when I heard Disney bought Lucasfilm (yes I was very naive).
Honestly Star Wars (and to a lesser extent Ghostbusters) should be a lesson on how not to handle a franchise. Yes, the sequel trilogy made money, but I think it could've made even more money. It still baffles me that nobody thought "you know maybe having Luke be a grumpy hermit that does nothing might not be the best thing" or "not having Luke or the Jedi Academy in episode 7 might not be a good idea". Also Kathleen Kennedy has the same poisonous mindset that a lot of people in charge of IPs I have enjoyed do of hiring people who hate the product or putting diversity over good storytelling.
There were already women who liked Star Wars but I guess she was mad in general that the hobby consisted of mostly men. I remember a sequel lover called me sexist for not liking TLJ and I told them that I would've loved a sequel trilogy where Jaina Solo was the main protagonist. Of course they didn't know who Jaina Solo was. Also Mara Jade was very popular! A slam dunk for Disney had they used her.
But anyway, I no longer have Disney Plus and I really have no interest in the shows since they all lead to the disney timeline. Does anyone have faith that Star Wars can make blockbusters again? Like I said, Star Wars should be example number one on how not to treat fans.
I used to think that the awesome level of any particular work within the Star Wars universe was inversely proportional to how involved George Lucas was with it.
But Disney helped me realize that having him so far away that he has zero influence can be an awful thing, too.
George Lucas was an easy scapegoat, a barely social fat rich dork is the easiest target to point a finger at, and he kind of just accepted being a lightning rod for all of the ridicule for a decade. But I feel like ultimately no one really wanted to, nor was qualified to do, a spinoff of the most lightning in a bottle pair of movies ever made.