QJPop: May the force be with you

Rachel Herscovici is QJBlogs’ Pop Culture Columnist. She’s a second-year English major and one of the Journal’s Assistant News Editors. Follow her on Twitter @rachelhersci.

You know when you witness something beautiful and you don’t want to touch it because nothing could make it more beautiful? Or when you hear someone speak and they say what they needed to say so perfectly there is no need for more words?

Well, Disney didn’t get that.

Last month they announced that they would be releasing something like a Star Wars: Episode Seven with their purchase of for $4.05 billion dollars.

They claim it will be a better business move with the success of Star Wars and the failure of their other original releases from the recent past.

But, why throw away your creativity Disney? What happened to making new dreams come true?

I honestly don’t know what happened because this is my nightmare.

I get it, there have been comic book fan fictions and stories about what happened after the episodes drew to a close, but there is no need for a new franchise series.

It’s fun to speculate what happened and I’ll be in line for this film for sure, but it was perfect the way it was.

If you start pulling at all those loose threads, the whole thing is going to fall apart and I fear that Disney is pulling too hard here.

In a 2008 interview with the Los Angeles Times, George Lucas was quoted saying one of the smartest things I’ve ever read.

“I get asked all the time, ‘What happens after Return of the Jedi?’ and there really is no answer for that. The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that’s where that story ends … [Possible futures have] been covered in the books and video games and comic books, which are things I think are incredibly creative but that I don’t really have anything to do with other than being the person who built the sandbox they’re playing in.”

And that, my friends, is why he is a genius.

He eloquently distanced himself from any future sequels, like the Disney Star Wars franchise, but allowed a space for others to be created, enabling Disney to embark on this adventure.

Whether the new Star Wars flops or flourishes, Lucas wins no matter what.

So may the force be with you Disney, you’ll need it because you won’t ever have the innovation and artistry of the original movie magic maker.

This is the last QJPop column of the year. Check us out again in January. If you have a suggestion for a topic, email journal_blogs@ams.queensu.ca.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content