Disney Buys Lucasfilm for $4B, Episode 7 in 2015

[plebeianprint]

I'm a little confused by this, emotionally and logically. Where does Disney even get the capital for these purchases? Why, over the last three years, has my least favorite creative company purchased my two favorite intellectual properties?

There was a time when I whole-heartedly loved Disney for the creative powerhouse they were in the field of animation and cartoons. Then the great drought of creativity (also know as sequel-itis) came. Now Disney just makes me sad; they are the house that once was, almost a non-entity.

In Disney's defense I haven't seem any loss of integrity to the Marvel Comics brand since their acquisition (moving all of their cartoons to Disney , while inaccessible to me, doesn't denote a loss of quality). So maybe this is a good thing. I really don't know.

[Firespray]

I'm excited and terrified. This is definitely big news and could very well be an extremely great change for Star Wars. Lucas has his shortcomings but also good things, we all know that but the franchise itself has been stale for years now under him. Now that he's out, we can get some new, fresh talents into the franchise and maybe some really, really good stuff. Of course there's always the possibility that Disney just royally runs it into the ground but it's been working out for Pixar and Marvel so far. I'm excited to learn what Episode 7 is going to be about etc. For better or worse, I can't wait to see where this is going to go.

[SDIronClaw]

I have a bad feeling about this...

We made it almost 3 pages before someone made this lame joke.

Not quite, it's on the front page too.

[fallenangel327]

Surely I can't be the only one here thinking, "This is tiring. I don't want any more movies..."

[SDIronClaw]

Surely I can't be the only one here thinking, "This is tiring. I don't want any more movies..."

One of the perhaps few. I am trying to remain positive so as to see what the future may bring.

[ufjason]

I'm really happy about the news. First off, when you have a huge fan base with great characters, you NEVER end it! I was bummed when Halo Reach hit and Bungie said it was the last game. Then Microsoft just hires on a bunch of Bungie guys, creates 343 studios and now we get Halo 4 in a week. As long as the stewardship is left in good hands, and I think Disney has a track record of doing so, we have nothing to worry about.

[Mister Ed]

The thing that kind of worries me is that from some of the quotes I've read, it SEEMS like Lucas is of the impression that the next movies are just going to be other people taking his own stories and making movies from them, with him advising as creative consultant. At this point, that is NOT what I want to hear, if true.

[zwolya]

Surely I can't be the only one here thinking, "This is tiring. I don't want any more movies..."

No, I said this in my post. Didn't Lucas once say that Star Wars was the story of Anakin Skywalker, and therefore the story (1-6) is over? It would be like expanding Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, or anything of a similar nature. Fanfiction is cool and I'll read it, but it's just not going to be the source material, no matter how much they try.

[Coret]

As for the Thrawn trilogy, I wouldn't say it's the best of the EU (I'd say Shadows of the Empire or some of the Old Republic stuff, or even PT stuff like I, Jedi or the like) would get that. It simply was the most cohesive. What Zhan was good at was creating interesting characters, without a doubt, ones that could stick and grow with the EU setting. But his actual plot and stories were basically characters moving from one dangerous thing to another, with very little in between.

You mean Zahn captured the essence of the original trilogy? The entire OT is just great characters jumping from Tatooine to the Death Star to blowing up the Death Star to Hoth to Bespin back to Tatooine then to blowing up the Death Star. Everything else is basically character development. Which is why I enjoyed the Thrawn Trilogy since it got that. You actually are trying to take it beyond.

But as to this whole Disney thing (since the Thrawn Trilogy can't conceivably do it) I am personally hoping it is still an early April Fool's joke. Kathy Kennedy is a moron and her running things is tantamount to George Lucas running things. She is the one that thought the whole Vong idea was the way to go. I will remain leary of the whole thing till proven that they won't ruin everything.

[Mister Ed]

As for the Thrawn trilogy, I wouldn't say it's the best of the EU (I'd say Shadows of the Empire or some of the Old Republic stuff, or even PT stuff like I, Jedi or the like) would get that. It simply was the most cohesive. What Zhan was good at was creating interesting characters, without a doubt, ones that could stick and grow with the EU setting. But his actual plot and stories were basically characters moving from one dangerous thing to another, with very little in between.

You mean Zahn captured the essence of the original trilogy? The entire OT is just great characters jumping from Tatooine to the Death Star to blowing up the Death Star to Hoth to Bespin back to Tatooine then to blowing up the Death Star. Everything else is basically character development. Which is why I enjoyed the Thrawn Trilogy since it got that. You actually are trying to take it beyond.

This is exactly the feeling I got when reading the Thrawn trilogy, that is was VERY similar in essence to the original trilogy. I felt like I was reading more Star Wars movies. Most other EU stuff I read, while sometimes entertaining, didn't really FEEL like it was quite in the same vein.

[onelogue]

Kathleen Kennedy will do an awesome job! She is like George's left-hand-(wo)man. You guys are all scared but there are better (younger) movie producers out there that can make the new movies even better. And Kathleen even said in an interview that she expects to have George over her shoulder overseeing everything she does.
This is a GREAT thing! Finally no more guessing if Star Wars will live on. IT WILL

p.s. this also means more SW LEGOS .... and that means my UCS Millenium Falcon will only go up and up in value

[Mister Ed]

Kathleen Kennedy will do an awesome job! She is like George's left-hand-(wo)man. You guys are all scared but there are better (younger) movie producers out there that can make the new movies even better. And Kathleen even said in an interview that she expects to have George over her shoulder overseeing everything she does.

That's the part that makes me scared...

[pharmjod]

Honestly, with as good a Pixar has been and as far as technology has come, I'd be for letting Pixar do the whole Thrawn trilogy cgi. Just get the original actors as voices. It absolutely couldn't be worse than the prequels in my mind. In fact Hayden Christensen would have probably been better CGI. Disney certainly can't screw up Star Wars any worse than Lucas has over the last 15 years or so. I would also put money on seeing the original trilogy un-messed with in HD finally.

[dWhisper]

You mean Zahn captured the essence of the original trilogy? The entire OT is just great characters jumping from Tatooine to the Death Star to blowing up the Death Star to Hoth to Bespin back to Tatooine then to blowing up the Death Star. Everything else is basically character development. Which is why I enjoyed the Thrawn Trilogy since it got that. You actually are trying to take it beyond.

This is exactly the feeling I got when reading the Thrawn trilogy, that is was VERY similar in essence to the original trilogy. I felt like I was reading more Star Wars movies. Most other EU stuff I read, while sometimes entertaining, didn't really FEEL like it was quite in the same vein.

Maybe Return of the Jedi, but there was a lot more substance in ANH and Empire that bridged between the fights. In truth, there was very little fighting in ANH, when you look at it. It was far more about setting and the story, even though the characters were a bit flat.

In the Thrawn Trilogy, the best characters were the non-canon characters. He does certainly deserve credit for inventing a good portion of the modern EU. Mara Jade, Thrwan, and Palleon were all born in there. A lot of other placeholders were in there as well. But throughout, the whole thing was more like battle to battle, with not as much in between. It'd be like if Empire was all Battle of Hoth, then shootout on Cloud City, with no stops in between for Yoda or a kicking montage.

That and you have to admit that the whole ending was just hacked together.

[Ted495]

And the fact that Lucas had to approve and then nix any plot elements down to the very small details.


With that in mind Zahn made the best of all the EU books, and while there are outstanding examples in other series that are good, as a whole the series usually ends up poorly by trying to make the nth book.

I just read the most recent X-Wing series book, and while its fine, its certainly dragging the plotline when they do the same thing. I have to believe thats because Lucas WILL NOT authorize anything else.

[dWhisper]

Actually, that's mostly a myth. While Lucas did have the power to veto things, he mostly gave the reins over to the publishing arm, and then okay'd major plot points (such as the deaths of any major characters). Certain things you couldn't touch, like anything that was around the PT or Clone Wars (until he actually made them), but otherwise...

There's plenty of evidence that Lucas would authorize terrible stories for the money. See pretty much the entire New Jedi Order run, Darksaber... well, really anything my Kevin J. Anderson

[onions]

Kathy Kennedy is a moron and her running things is tantamount to George Lucas running things. She is the one that thought the whole Vong idea was the way to go. I will remain leary of the whole thing till proven that they won't ruin everything.

do tell

[brandobond]

This is good news for me in terms of my Lego collection. I am a huge collector of OT Star Wars sets and with new movies being made, hopefully this will give my wallet a break (as they will focus on making sets from the new movies)!

[GIR3691]

This totally blew me away. How many times have we all had the discussion about Episodes 7-9? They'll certainly have fun trying to get the band back together if they decide to go that route.

Just no more Clone Wars-type stuff. Please.

[Flynn]

The thing that kind of worries me is that from some of the quotes I've read, it SEEMS like Lucas is of the impression that the next movies are just going to be other people taking his own stories and making movies from them, with him advising as creative consultant. At this point, that is NOT what I want to hear, if true.

Why not? That seems like the best route to go with for new movies- Lucas is a great ideas-man and storyteller, but generally falls flat in the execution department. Having other people in the creative department would be a really good thing, I would think.

Didn't Lucas once say that Star Wars was the story of Anakin Skywalker, and therefore the story (1-6) is over?

He may say that, but it's certainly not true. Watching 4-6 independent of the prequels (as they were intended to be watched), the films are clearly about Luke and his character arc over the three films- Vader doesn't become a major force of that story until very late in Empire (and there's very little evidence to suggest he had all the ideas planned out from the start, much as he may like to say he did).

1-3 are about Anakin, to be sure, but he's a supporting character at best in the later films.