Remember when we were worried about Disney owning Star Wars?
While reading an article from 2013 at at Harvard Business Review yesterday (see “Star Wars, Disney, and the Fandom Menace”) I was reminded that, at the time of the announcement, many fans were concerned about what Disney’s ownership of Star Wars would mean to the brand. The HBR article writes:
“But for deeply loyal Star Wars fans—and there are many of them—the news seemed to occasion more angst than excitement.”
The article touches on the fears that Star Wars was “selling out” — but then it immediately goes on to remind the world that the Star Wars brand was no stranger to licensing. I even touch on this in my book, Action Figures Not Included*, with one section of the book titled “Star Wars changed licensing forever.”
And it wasn’t just the HBR article that talked about fan response and worry. Check out this screenrant.com post for a then-fresh look at Hollywood reaction to the news where J.J. Abrams is quoted as saying:
“Part of me? Thrilled. Part of me? Terrified. Most of me? Thrillified.”
If you are interested in all things Star Wars, make sure to visit sites like https://thedirect.com/StarWars/ for all Star Wars related news and trivia.
Related articles
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- It’s Official: J.J. Abrams to Direct ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ (comicvine.com)
- Hasbro Reveals Two New Disney Exclusive Star Wars Sets for Star Tours (actionfigurepics.com)
I was pretty excited to see Star Wars under new management. Mostly because I thought Disney wasn’t going to make Star Wars any worse.
I don’t mean to say that Star Wars stinks, because I love SW. However, Lucas seemed to only want to tell stories about young Darth Vader, and I got my fill of that time period from the prequels. I know a lot of people liked Clone Wars, but I really struggled getting into it (although the toyline was great).
I want to explore more of the SW universe than Lucas really wanted to show, so I’m excited about Disney’s projects.
I don’t think I’ve met anyone who’s been worried about Disney taking over. All my co-workers were actually stoked, because if there’s one company that knows how to keep their legendary back-catalog relevant, it’s Disney. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a team of Imagineers working day and night scrapping every last bit of digital debris off of Episode IV’s source material.
Let’s face it, after the Prequels you have to ask, how could it get any worse?
I was worried about Disney owning Marvel and that has panned out perfectly. When they bought Lucasfilm, I was very excited.