Day Five of Studying Star Wars
What the future holds for Star Wars
In the five days that I have spent this week studying Star Wars, I have learned a greatly deal of what the Star Wars Universe has to offer. The craziest part is that there is still so much that can be learned on the topic and that I have just scratched the surface. We have gone through George Lucas’s early life and what molded him into the entrepreneur and movie producer that he is today. We have doven into the mythology behind Star Wars and the Hero’s quest that is a common theme in all the movies. We’ve watched a movie in all the different trilogies and seen the different eras Star Wars has gone through. I believe my greatest take away from this class is that Star Wars is not just a movie, but a force itself that has touched almost everyones lives whether directly through Star Wars or the path of innovation that it paved for the rest of the Film Industry. Star Wars seems like a never ending topic and is why I believe it will continue to be successful in the future.
The End of the Skywalker Era
With the creation of Episode IX we will most likely see the end of the Skywalker story that includes the original trilogy, the prequels, and the second trilogy with Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. JJ Abrams announced that this will be the final segment for the Skywalker Saga. This not only brings an end to the Skywalker characters, but also Episode IX will be John Williams last Star Wars movie he will score.
New Storylines
There may be some more stand alone movies that come out to add fillers to the Skywalker storyline, such as The Mandalorian, which takes place between The Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. This shows guides us through the events from the Empire falling to the New Republic taking over. The story follows a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the Empire. T.V. shows like The Mandalorian can offer a buffer between switching to a new story by building up certain characters to do a trilogy story in the future.
Merchandise
As the world becomes more digital and more people use smartphones and technology, children are starting to play less and less with actual toys. Merchandising, especially in the toy industry is where the majority of the revenue from Star Wars comes from. This means the Disney will have to adapt their marketing and product strategies to the new digital market place. Currently Disney does put out videos games, the two most recent being Battle Front and Star Wars Battle Front II. The Disney theme parks also generated $5.2 billion in revenue, reported in February, 2018. With the additions of the new Star Wars theme parks, Disney should not have a problem with making a profit off of merchandise sales in the parks.
Conclusion
In the end, no one knows what the future of Star Wars holds. This is not new as we have seen several times before with the release of the prequels and when The Force Awakens came out in 2015. Every time a new one is rumored to come out, the hype around Star Wars sky rockets. With the amount of fan fair and content generated outside of Lucas Films, there is no shortage of possible movie ideas that can come from the Star Wars universe. Star Wars was also very toyetic in a unique way. Every part of Star Wars has the potential to be turned into a game, toy, movie poster, etc. There is no doubt that Star Wars will continue to produce great space stories.
