After a l0t of talk about prequels and sequels and the beginning of a new journey, I thought I’d take a bit of a lighter route with my next Star Wars article.
Disney are on the road to May 2015 and Episode 7 will keep us all talking new Star Wars until then. However, Disney don’t just have a new Star Wars movie to deliver, they also have a ton of fans to win over.
Now more than ever, the future of Star Wars is as exciting as it is scary. For the first time Star Wars is controlled by a massive corporation. For the first time Star Wars is like most of the other movie franchises out there, where bad decisions are made and the potential of too many cooks in the kitchen could jeopardise its success.
Disney need to put our minds at rest. They need to show us they love Star Wars as much as we do (like $4.2 billion didn’t do that already) and moreso they need to make sure that our Star Wars loving hearts feel full and well looked after.
Like it or loathe it, Star Wars fandom quickly became about buying stuff. In the last decade alone the Star Wars brand has been on everything from clothing to mobile gaming, from fast food toys to Christmas ornaments and there’s not even been a movie out in nearly ten years! Pretty much anything you’d want with Star Wars on it is available but somehow there’s still stuff we want from our favourite film franchise and this is where Disney could really deliver.
If Disney show us they know how to cater to the Star Wars fans’ requirements and throw some goodwill gestures at us to sweeten us to the Lucasfilm/Disney deal a little bit more, we’ll all be ready to embrace the prospect of Episode 7 and beyond a little more, right?
Moreso it gives Disney an opportunity to show us they know how to handle what they have with Star Wars. But what is it that we really want from the House of Mouse when it comes to Star Wars?
10. Star Parks
There’s already a Star Wars presence at some of the Disney parks around the world and it’s been long rumoured that this will be expanded upon, but with the Lucasfilm acquisition, now is the time to go full on. Expanded park space for Star Wars or even opening parks specifically dedicated to Star Wars is something Disney could do to give all of us fans, somewhere we would love to make the jump to light-speed to.
I’d like to see full-on Star Wars stores at the parks (and on the high street) that deal in all things Star Wars from action figures to limited edition pieces. The Disney/Star Wars brands already have a lot of crossover but this just needs to get even bigger.
Additionally, we want more rides. Themed attractions using visuals like Speeder-bikes, At-Ats, and Millennium Falcons; there’s so much within the world of Star Wars that the possibilities are literally endless.
Tie in the aspects of the annual Celebration events, with the regular tours of props and costumes that go around the world, put it all within a single park area much like the Harry Potter World attractions and Star Wars will really feel like it set up shop at Disney.
Throw in a themed restaurant or two and The House of Mouse could literally generate a place that becomes the mecca of all things Star War; it really could be quite amazing.
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5 Comments
I like the idea of exclusive Star Wars themed parks, where everyone can embrace their inner geeks and maybe even cosplay their favourite characters all year round! There could be Cantina themed restaurants, fly in virtual Falcons and TIE’s, sit in a life sized AT-AT walker, the possibilites are endless. And also having Star Wars/Disney High street stores would be brilliant as well, as the stores are severely lacking in the UK. They could even stock some Marvel as well, as again the UK stock is completely pants.
High street “Star Wars Stores” would be awesome, especially in the UK.
I want a Star Wars level in the next ki gdom hearts game, and an Avenvers level would be nice too
The original Trilogy’s theatrical versions in negative form may not exist anymore – they were mangled to conform to the (so-called) ‘special editions’ in 1996 – but according to Lucasfilm insiders, EVERY single piece of 35mm film in the archives has been digitized… and that includes the theatrical versions, in pristine and anamorphic presentations, for proof look no further than the ‘Empire of Dreams’ documentary, wherein footage of the 1977 film’s theatrical version (minus the ‘Episode IV: A New Hope’ title on the opening crawl) can be seen in perfect and pristine digital anamorphic condition, looking as good if not better than the day it was released.
Luca$ had every intention of releasing the theatrical versions at some point, because according to the same Lucasfilm insiders, there was a plan to cover the enormous running costs of Lucasfilm by slowly releasing and re-releasing every version, spin-off, and related archive material over a 50-year period starting around the mid-1980′s. Luca$ could have released the theatrical versions in top quality presentations alongside the ‘special editions’ back in 2007 in a deluxe ‘Star Wars’ saga DVD box set, but deliberately chose not to… let’s hope with Luca$ gone now from executive decision-making, the theatrical versions will see the light of day relatively soon…
I don’t know if I could ever get used to having no Fox Fanfare, the few seconds silence and then the Star Wars theme exploding before watching a Star Wars movie. Only one thing will solve this: Disney needs to buy Fox!