Star Wars Saga (OT/PT/ST) Discussion Thread

[Felinx]

Do you know any boomers that are huge SW fans? If you do they are the rare exceptions, New SW is kid centric , as was the OT. It was never ment to last with that age group. The PT was (and still is) an abomination to me because I was an adult when I saw it. So it really has not lasting impact on me besides more SW content. Same as the DSW universe , more content , much of it is not lasting to me. Entertaining , but it can never capture us the way OT did when we were kids.

Biggest of them all - Steve Sansweet.

Not to mention Fran Tarkenton from NFL/"That's Incredible" and pop heartthrob Rick Springfield.

All in their mid 70s to mid 80s.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Similar tonal shift that occurred with Indy.

Changes culturally and movie-wise from late 1970s to late 1980s, also what was going on personally for Spielberg/Lucas (divorces, kids, ageing, etc.)

You could say that about Bond as well, which had gotten silly long before Star Wars and Raiders. I think its the nature of milking a franchise -- eventually it all becomes a wink and a nod -- a joke. The filmmakers lean into the humor.

Mad Max (Mel) became silly... Die Hard became silly... Lethal Weapon became silly... Alien, Terminator, Predator... all silly.

 

[xipotec]

Biggest of them all - Steve Sansweet.

Not to mention Fran Tarkenton from NFL/"That's Incredible" and pop heartthrob Rick Springfield.

All in their mid 70s to mid 80s.

They are abnormal .....it's definelty not the norm.

 

[Johnny Utah]

New trilogy coming from Simon ******* Kinberg. Not episodes 10-12.
https://deadline.com/2024/11/star-wars-trilogy-simon-kinberg-movies-1236169916/

 

[jye4ever]

They will be released after the Rian Johnson trilogy.

 

[Khev]

They will be released after the Rian Johnson trilogy.

Exactly. They need to just stop "announcing" projects altogether. Wake me up when something is actually filmed and has an assigned release date.

 

[xipotec]

New trilogy covering episodes 10-12 coming from Simon ******* Kinberg
https://deadline.com/2024/11/star-wars-trilogy-simon-kinberg-movies-1236169916/

Bring back the old hits.....

Maybe.

 

[Felinx]

They are abnormal .....it's definelty not the norm.

Well, you did say "do you know of ANY boomers that are huge SW fans?" - like as in "name one" - so I named three who are (or were) semi-famous. Because otherwise it's just like "my teacher in grade school loved SW as much as we did" and that's just anecdotal so doesn't exactly prove much.

But yeah, certainly a majority of SW fans were young back in the day, whereas I'd argue that SW today is a (slim) majority of older fans vs younger fans. Like back then it was 3/4 teens/kids and 1/4 adults, today that's reversed (some of that is admittedly the decline in appeal of movies to younger people vs in 70s/80s.) I never quite bought all the press about a "new generation of SW fans" that were turning out for the ST in 2015-2020. Rather mostly older fans bringing their families and maybe shared parent-kid fandom.

Which, when I was a kid, would have thought was a bit weird (ie my dad taking me to a fantasy film he loved and me sharing in that fandom.) But adults are different today than they were in the 1970s, and I'm sure there must have been a bit of that parent-kid shared fandom with stuff like POTA, Lost in Space etc that had large adult audiences but also major toy lines.

 

[jaztermareal]

Kids went mental for MCU (until it went crap). They didn't for the sequel trilogy.

Both Star Wars and Marvel are old brands now but 1 did it right from the start and the other did not. Iron Man was not aimed at children, and they embraced it because it was more mature than most kids movies. They did not embrace the Star Wars sequel trilogy.


Make good movies rhat appeal to everyone and the kids will embrace it, even in this age of ADD tiktok attention spans.

 

[Johnny Utah]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-wars-simon-kinberg-trilogy-1236055848/

New characters. I tried to tell Star Wars Theory on his livestream but he wasn't reading the chat and completely went off on another rant based on the Deadline article.

 

[xipotec]

Well, you did say "do you know of ANY boomers that are huge SW fans?" - like as in "name one" - so I named three who are (or were) semi-famous. Because otherwise it's just like "my teacher in grade school loved SW as much as we did" and that's just anecdotal so doesn't exactly prove much.

But yeah, certainly a majority of SW fans were young back in the day, whereas I'd argue that SW today is a (slim) majority of older fans vs younger fans. Like back then it was 3/4 teens/kids and 1/4 adults, today that's reversed (some of that is admittedly the decline in appeal of movies to younger people vs in 70s/80s.) I never quite bought all the press about a "new generation of SW fans" that were turning out for the ST in 2015-2020. Rather mostly older fans bringing their families and maybe shared parent-kid fandom.

Which, when I was a kid, would have thought was a bit weird (ie my dad taking me to a fantasy film he loved and me sharing in that fandom.) But adults are different today than they were in the 1970s, and I'm sure there must have been a bit of that parent-kid shared fandom with stuff like POTA, Lost in Space etc that had large adult audiences but also major toy lines.

Spot on. I'd peg the original adult fandom ratio much lower , if you use the bench mark of (fans like we are, collectors and such, on forums etc etc) I would say currently maybe less than 10% are over 70.

With the new fans it's hard to gauge as they do not interact with SW the way we did. They are not buying traditional toys the way we did, (I believe if I had the digital entertainment they have, figures would not have been as big as they are to us). Playing in a digital world is easier and larger and much more creative possibilities then the good ol' figures. I say "possible" but at least I SW we have not really seen a good open world game yet.

I would peg the younger generation fandom at about 25-30% percent. Many of these kids , as you pointed out, engaged in SW as a family activity, and it stuck in large part due to that. (Like summer beach trips) it just became thier childhood because that's what was given to them. I would say the "natural" SW younger fan is pretty low also (found SW without any influence from a family member,) That may be lower than the boomer SW fan IMO.

 

[Asta]

 

[Mondragon]

Stars Daisy Ridley. Now searching for its fourth writer. Was expected to release December 2026

Writer 1: So Rey, not Luke, brought about the true Return of the Jedi? And is the greatest Force User ever?
Disney Story Group: Yes, the Skywalker's all failed, she fulfilled the role and took their name.
Writer 1: Sorry, I can't write this $#!&, I'm out!

Writer 2: Says here The Force is Female?
Disney Story Group: Men corrupted it, hence it took women too bring it back to it's true essence!
Writer 2: I'm out!

Writer 3: So it's no longer the Force?
Disney Story Group: That's right, it sounds to aggressive and was corrupted, we now invoke "The Thread".
Writer 3: I'm out!

Writer 4: Skywalkers failed!, Force failed!, ... "May the Thread Unite us!" Am I right!
Disney Story Group: You got It!

 

[jaztermareal]

I hope the new Rey movie will have a new cast for 98% of the movie then right at the very end we see Rey hiding on an Island because all her students where killed by her neice. No dialogue or anything. Then, in the next movie she can toss her yellow lightsaber into the sea and be a grumpy a-hole before near the end having a sudden change or heart where she force skypes to a battle then just fades away into death so that in the final film of the trilogy the new dude can kill the somehow not already dead Palpatine in the wreckage of starkiller base in order to stop a fleet of millions of Death Star super laser equipped Tie Fighters that were built in secret by the Second to Last Order.

 

[Felinx]

Spot on. I'd peg the original adult fandom ratio much lower , if you use the bench mark of (fans like we are, collectors and such, on forums etc etc) I would say currently maybe less than 10% are over 70.

With the new fans it's hard to gauge as they do not interact with SW the way we did. They are not buying traditional toys the way we did, (I believe if I had the digital entertainment they have, figures would not have been as big as they are to us). Playing in a digital world is easier and larger and much more creative possibilities then the good ol' figures. I say "possible" but at least I SW we have not really seen a good open world game yet.

I would peg the younger generation fandom at about 25-30% percent. Many of these kids , as you pointed out, engaged in SW as a family activity, and it stuck in large part due to that. (Like summer beach trips) it just became thier childhood because that's what was given to them. I would say the "natural" SW younger fan is pretty low also (found SW without any influence from a family member,) That may be lower than the boomer SW fan IMO.

Well, it should be pointed out that stories - movies etc - have to have a "reason for being." Films that are remade "should" re-emerge because something in their theme is relevant again, not because they are a known brand. Ghostbusters is a good example of something that had strong cultural meaning (mirroring, but also driving, a zeitgeist cultural moment) in the 80s but GB sequels today have none of that, trading solely on the shiny/cool things and nostalgia.

I'd argue that the deeper cultural/sociological basis of SW, what made it part of the zeitgeist to such a massive degree, isn't all that relevant today, or certainly as cutting edge and compelling as it was in the 1970s. So young people were drawn to SW by all the shiny and cool visual/storyworld things back then, but it stayed with them because of the wider package: the cultural power of its underlying story/themes. The newer SW films to me have the same issue as GB - they trade solely on the story world's cool aspects and tropes, then obviously along with nostalgia for a known brand.

So, paired with the idea that movies just aren't the cultural force they were in the 70s/80s (I'd argue they were once THE premier art form, especially in the U.S., above novels, TV, theater etc, - a single original movie once had the ability to both mirror and shape the culture) it shouldn't come as a surprise that there are so few "natural" younger SW fans today. We don't play with toys because they look cool, but because they touch something deeper in our own personal story worlds.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Films that are remade "should" re-emerge because something in their theme is relevant again, not because they are a known brand.

This.

 

[goatchumby]

I hope the new Rey movie will have a new cast for 98% of the movie then right at the very end we see Rey hiding on an Island because all her students where killed by her neice. No dialogue or anything. Then, in the next movie she can toss her yellow lightsaber into the sea and be a grumpy a-hole before near the end having a sudden change or heart where she force skypes to a battle then just fades away into death so that in the final film of the trilogy the new dude can kill the somehow not already dead Palpatine in the wreckage of starkiller base in order to stop a fleet of millions of Death Star super laser equipped Tie Fighters that were built in secret by the Second to Last Order.

Now we know who the fourth writer is

 

[jaztermareal]

Now we know who the fourth writer is

let's not give Disney too many ideas...