The current issue of Entertainment Weekly reports that Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy has told her employees she wants the company to produce two or three films a year starting with Episode 7 in 2015.
Two to three Star Wars films a year. Most of the geek/fanboy sites I have seen are delighted by this news. Here's Joey Paur on GeekTyrant:
Fanboys and fangirls are going to be in Star Wars bliss. In a recent interview with EW, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy revealed that the studio wants to pump out "two or three films a year"! How insanely cool is that?! It's crazy to think that there will be a point that every year we will get a new Star Wars movie!
It makes sense. Hell, Marvel pumps out two to three Marvel movies a year. This would go along with Lucasfilms' rumored plan to build a Marvel style movie universe for Star Wars that will include offshoot movies focusing on individual characters!
I'm extremely excited about this, how can I not be?! I was hoping that something like this would happen! I couldn't help but think though... "what if people get burnt out on Star Wars movies?" Then I thought, "Are you kidding?! If you're a Star Wars fan you'll never get burnt out!" Think about it, we fans continue to spend money on seeing the same Star Wars movies over and over again everytime they are re-released in theaters and various forms of home entertainment. Of course we're going to happily jump at the new stuff! Then there's the Marvel comparison... the movies just get better and better, and I can't wait for more Marvel movies! The Star Wars universe is just as big and even more exciting to me! So yeah, if Disney brings us three Star Wars movies a year, I will excitedly show up for every one!
There are 12 exclamation points in this passage (unless I missed some). Yet I remain uninfected by Mr Paur's enthusiasm.
The Marvel analogy is apt. By most accounts, the Disney Marvel films have been pretty good. (I wouldn't know as I haven't seen most of them.) But they're just movies. They appear, they disappear, and popular culture is left largely unaffected. Even when they're good, they don't matter.
But Star Wars did matter. It mattered immensely. And part of the reason why Star Wars was so precious was that it was a rare commodity: there were only three films, and they only came out once every three years. Pumping out two to three Star Wars films a year inevitably dilutes the emotional power and cultural significance of the franchise. As I've already had cause to note, the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney marks the passage of Star Wars from modern myth to global franchise.
Now that Star Wars is just a brand, you might as well churn out two to three a year. Kennedy's logic is unassailable, from her brand-management point of view. But it's the same logic that drove Fonzie to jump the shark. I've asked before whether Star Wars has jumped the shark, and my implicit answer has been yes. I'll try to reserve judgment until at least 2015, but I think I can tell which way the motorboat is running.
GeekTyrant: Disney Wants to Release 2 to 3 STAR WARS films PER YEAR!
Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 8:05AM