Disney's Missed Layup of the Star Wars Franchise

So Disney didn’t kill Star Wars.

But they definitely devalued it.

And yes, even with most of the movies being good.

So now, they might be facing an expensive disappointment in multiple theme parks.  

Disneyland has become a bit of a theme park graveyard as they anticipated heavy crowds with the opening of Galaxy’s Edge, but instead what we are witnessing is a ho-hum reaction to the new land, nothing compared to when Wizarding World opened at Universal Studios or even when Pandora debuted in Animal Kingdom. Compound that with a violent fight and a descendant of Walt Disney going undercover and trashing the park for bad conditions, and you have a very underwhelming summer in Anaheim with a bit of unanticipated controversy.

So how on earth did it come to this? When Disney purchased Lucasfilm, it was seen as borderline-unfair, as a company with already so many great IPs and transforming Marvel into the biggest name in the entertainment world. Before the purchase of Star Wars, the franchise had already been worth billions, made billions at the box office, and made unfathomable numbers through merchandise and book sales. This was a layup, this was a sure-fire easy way to truly combat Universal Orlando’s emergence and improve certain parks in need of help (Hollywood Studios, forever drowning).

And then came Disney dismantling LucasArts, and allowing EA (disgusting) to make the video games.

And then came Disney denouncing decades of Star Wars-related literature by making them all uncanon.

And then Disney made a loose sequel seventh chapter by pushing the story decades ahead with Force Awakens, a great movie that still started killing off classic characters fans had been waiting to see since the 1980s.

And then Disney witnessed the complete ruining of the Star Wars gaming franchise with Battlefront II, a heavy microtransactioned-game that was ripped to shreds by social media----but kept EA in their gaming circle.

And then Disney didn’t keep the same writers to make the new trilogy, instead handing the reigns to a Rian Johnson, a director with a dramatic ideas that split a fanbase right down the middle with The Last Jedi---oh and more classic characters died.

And then Disney hired comedic and off-the-wall directors to make a Han Solo prequel with comedic directors-----then getting upset there was too much comedy and off-the-wall behavior. Oh and the movie flopped because the fans were still mad at Last Jedi.  

And then Disney decided to carbon copy the same land into two different parks, including a new-age Star Wars location for a park that’s notoriously successful for nostalgia.

And as a result of the ill-fated decisions and rather strong backlash we have Galaxy’s Edge not providing the boost they thought would happen in Disneyland, and the secret fears towards what might happen in Hollywood Studios are beginning to creep up. Granted Disney is a smart company and there were indeed some unforeseen circumstances (fanbase being more sexist than expected, Carrie Fisher’s death, Rian Johnson marching to the tune of his own beat), but they overplayed their hand by mishandling an IP they thought could be similar to Marvel and that brand’s business model. This overplaying of the hand extended to how they handled the Star Wars expansions in the parks.

The biggest cinematic mistake made by Disney concerning the Star Wars universe was its attempts to link the original trilogy with the new trilogy, as opposed to create a new stretch of stories with new characters and then reducing the classic characters we’ve loved to nice cameos. Giving Han Solo 2nd and 3rd act screentime and then killing him in Force Awakens was just a bizarre move. Reducing Luke Skywalker to a cameo in Force Awakens and then killing him off in a whimper on Last Jedi was also baffling. Fans waited forever to see Luke Skywalker in fully realized Jedi form, but the next time we see him he’s actually denounced the entire thing. The gap between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens is so big, it could fit dozens of interesting stories we could have seen from the classic characters. Instead, they were brought back by Disney only to be eliminated to make room for the new era of Star Wars films and merchandise. And this shows with the theme park decisions.

The universe of Star Wars is absolutely massive, and you literally could put a part of Star Wars into nearly each Disney park.

Side-Note: To be honest, I’m surprised that Disney didn’t just build an entire theme park based off of Star Wars---that would have worked even better.

Coruscant, the city planet, would have been a nice addition to the retro-named Tomorrowland. Endor, a forest-centric planet, could have fit in Animal Kingdom. Tatooine could have been a part of Disneyland as a slight extension of Frontierland. Even Tokyo DisneySea could fit Naboo, with its blend of lakes and green hills. Instead, Galaxy’s Edge features a rather obscure environment that doesn’t quite represent the mythos of Star Wars. Really, Batuu? On BOTH parks? So here’s the other missed layup, not using the gap of time between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens to tell untold stories of the fanbase’s favorite heroes and villains, and not using the opportunity to create multiple Star Wars environments to give each park an exclusive experience.

Imagine if Disney decided to continue the stories of Luke, Leia, Han Solo, C-3PO, Lando through theme park experiences? Imagine if they built attractions that would continue the stories that had not been cinematically told yet? Disney purchasing Star Wars could have been the first major time the company would not re-create an experience already seen, but craft a brand new story through purchased IPs and display it through a theme park experience. You could have created an unknown planet where Luke and Leia resides as they try to restore peace after the death of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. I would have loved to see a Luke Skywalker training young guests on how to become a Jedi. It would have been fun to see a Millennium Falcon experience featuring Han Solo and Leia Ortega. Or better yet, a roller coaster featuring a high-speed starfighter chase involving shadows of the Empire trying to rise up with stolen vehicles and weaponry.

You could have used any of the environments from the prequels and original trilogy as the next location. Disneyland could have gotten Tatooine to go more retro and then Hollywood Studios gets the newer IP environment Batuu. That way, classic characters are in the classic park, and the new generation characters are used in a park that’s desperately trying to establish its niche audience. This would have greatly increased the incentive to visit both Disneyland and Disney World, while expanding the creative borders of the Imagineers.

But it’s still Star Wars, and there’s still an expansion, so why is the hype rather waning? The fanbase diminished slightly, the Star Wars mythos isn’t as strong as it used to be, the product of the next gen films have been critically appreciated but the viewership response hasn’t been as positive, and lastly the decision to carbon copy the environments to two parks in the same country is a decision that feels very……..Eisner-esque, and this comes with a Toy Story Land that appears severely low-budgeted in Hollywood Studios. And like I said, the new generation Star Wars hasn’t quite been able to keep the investment of the hyper-crazed fanbase, which had been desiring more Luke and less Rey. A series of bad decisions and mishaps and surprises makes for a summer which sees a Disneyland not quite Star Wars crazy, and a projection towards Disney World that has been silently dipping.

Is there hope? Of course, even Marvel had a tough stretch (Phase II stumbled a couple times), and Disney has plenty of space (pun intended) to apply more Star Wars mayhem to the other properties. But, work needs to be done. There’s been several missteps and what should have been an easy consistent hype-filled moneymaking machine that is conquering all the news this summer has become background noise with an uncertain future. Galaxy’s Edge has become very quiet, the anticipation for the ninth chapter remains hesitantly hopeful, the video game aspect hasn’t quite taken off, and cinematically Disney has even halted all Star Wars productions until seeing the receipts of Episode 9. Maybe the future of Star Wars will be Marvel-strong, but seeing those crowds in Disneyland proves that the franchise is definitely not where it should be.