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.
It could be a mix. The original trilogy had people criticizing the script during production which made the conversations way more believable then some of the early stuff George had written. Watch some of the screen test footage between Hamil and Ford when they were auditioning. The stuff they were saying made no sense whatsoever. George had very good ideas and like most artist, needed critique to finally push them to be the best they could. And all though the prequels are more loved today than when they came out, Lucas was surrounded by yes men the whole time during the production of that trilogy.