8 Ways 2016 Will Change Movies Forever

4. Star Wars Spin-Offs Test Disney's Investment

It's hard to miss with the advertising saturation, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn't the only thing that's coming out of Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm though (you don't pay $4.05 billion to put SuperShadow out of business). Alongside the Episodes, the merchandise and new-continuity comics and books, there's going to be a run of spin-off movies, imaginatively subtitled A Star Wars Story. And, if there's a test for making Star Wars an immortal cinematic staple, rather than a beloved legacy license whose worth lies off the silver screen (which is, let's be honest, what it was becoming post-prequels), this is it. The only feature-length spin-offs in the franchise have been terrible (whether it's the long-maligned Holiday Special or the cheap TV pilot-cum-feature film The Clone Wars). That's been for several reasons (George Lucas' money-grubbing ways is the general throughline), but the key issue is story. The Episodes by their very nature have an individual purpose in the wider narrative, advancing the galaxy's wider plot in important and irreversible ways that give the space fantasy its epicness. The same is true of the best EU material, which was typically set after the movies or well in the past. But now we're reaching beyond that - these new stories are intertwined with what we already know and thus need to craft a strong internal narrative that works within the more important, decade-spanning story. I have the utmost faith in Lucasfilm, Disney and the directors they've picked, but this is the biggest hurdle they have to leap to make Star Wars bigger than it's ever been. Expect a similar issue to loom over the other big 2016 spin-off; Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.