Happy Hump Day BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! This is Pop Culture Wednesday, the place where any and everything relating to media is geeked out to and critiqued. Today’s topic is Star Wars. Yes, again. Trust me though, this article is going to be totally different from the previous one. You see, Disney has some big plans for the space opera in the future and it has many fans of the franchise excited at best and concerned at the worst.

Disney, the massive media conglomerate that has owned Star Wars for a few years now, plans to release one Star Wars movie every year for the foreseeable future. These movies would go beyond the core VII, VIII, and IX films and be more akin to spin-offs that focus on characters and events outside of the main plot of the new trilogy. Why is Disney doing this? To expand a beloved franchise that is dear to millions of people and to continue to inspire further generations of creator, of course! Yeah, no. Disney is doing this because this because Star Wars might be the most profitable media franchise ever. The Force Awakens is already on track to be the most profitable movie ever made, surpassing James Cameron’s Avatar, and it has not even been released for a month yet. These funds are further supplemented by Star Wars toy sales. Star Wars toys have pretty much been printing money for whoever owned the rights to them since the seventies, so the House of Mouse definitely cashing in there. Alrighty, now that  we’ve covered the why, let’s move on to the major reactions to this business strategy.

I’m in a good mood today, so let’s start with why some people are happy with this decision. The primary train of thought behind those who are excited about this news is “OMG MORE STAR WARS YESSSSSSSS!!!” And I am inclined to agree with them. There was a ten year gap between the release of Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens. During that time span, fans only had a couple of, admittedly very good, cartoons to curb their Star Wars fix. These television programs never quite did the job, though, and really only increased the desire for Star Wars to come back to the big screen. Fans also had the, now non-canon, extended universe keep them occupied. However, those books, video-games, and comics were always dubious in terms of quality and, in many cases, probably belong in the ether they have fallen into.

The other group of fans, who loves this series just as much as the first, is concerned with one new Star Wars movie a year because it seems like a formula for more bad Star Wars movies. The prequels were awful, they completely betrayed the vision and scope of the original three. The Force Awakens has pretty much assured fans that this new trilogy will not make the same mistakes that the prequels did. However, one Star Wars movie a year means that, inevitably, a bad movie is going to get made. Essentially this group of fans has decided that they would rather have quality over quantity and I cannot fault them for being skeptical of the spinoffs, seeing as we fans were betrayed numerous times before.

I personally find myself agreeing with the latter group, but for somewhat different reasons. Marvel Studios is a subsidiary of Disney and they have proven numerous times that they can release one movie a year, connect it to a larger story, and utilize lesser known characters in their films just fine. Disney will more than likely be able to make one good to great Star Wars movie a year for the foreseeable future without too much hassle, just like they have for the Marvel cinematic universe. However, just because they can does not mean that they should. To me Star Wars has always been an institution that sets the bar for what cinema and science fiction can be. Star Wars is not just entertainment, it’s inspiration for all of the young creators in the world and shows them that a work of fiction and be almost inexpressibly awesome. To do one movie a year kind of cheapens the franchise for me. I feel like Star Wars should be a treat that is only made available every few years that you get to revel in. Yes the extended universe has been a thing for decades, but I always viewed that as more of a creator sanctioned fan fiction. I suppose my concern for the one Star Wars movie a year plan stems from idea that, in doing so, the movies will loose the magic and uniqueness that made them great in the first place.

Well that’s my opinion on the matter. Let me know in the comments below what you guys think of Disney’s strategy. While you’re down their please give this post a like and, if you want to stay up to date, you can subscribed to this blog in the upper right tab by using your email. Alternatively, you can stay up to date by liking the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page or by following me, @LucasDeRuyter, on Twitter. I hope you guys enjoyed this post and hope you will come back on Saturday for the latest installment of Game Grind.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye