Star Wars receives ‘Marvel Treatment’

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Opinion columnist Sam King discusses Disney’s recently announced plans to release a new trilogy of Star Wars films after Episode IX.

SAM KING, Opinion Columnist

“Star Wars: Episode VIII” is coming to us in just a few weeks. I’m pretty excited to see the new movie, but perhaps not as excited when I first went to see Episode VII.

I love Star Wars and have for some time; however, I do have a fear that after episodes VIII and IX I’ll be a little Star Wars’d out.

Apparently, Disney is not Star Wars’d out in the least.

Recently, Disney announced that they plan to make yet another Star Wars trilogy with the same director who is directing Episode VIII (Rotten Tomatoes).

Yep, you read that correctly. We will be getting yet another three films out of the Star Wars saga. I assume it to be episodes X through XII, but I’m sure we’ll have to wait a while before Disney lets us know.

To be honest, this only slightly surprised me.

Disney acquired Star Wars a few years ago, and with that merger I got the distinct feeling they would try to give the franchise the “Marvel Treatment.” By this I mean, making blockbuster after blockbuster under one franchise all while profiting massively off of it.

Well, with three spin-off movies, episodes VII through IX and this next trilogy, it seems that Star Wars is getting this so-called “Marvel Treatment.”

But, is this a bad thing? Well, to tell you the truth, I’m really not sure.

The Star Wars films are among some of my favorite movies ever. I loved the books and comics made about the series, and some of the video games from the franchise were golden.

Despite all of that, I’ve recently felt conflicted about the series itself.

Episode VII felt disappointing to me, but I loved Rogue One. Some of Disney’s choices surrounding the auxiliary material like books and video games have also confused me. I really love this series, yet I’m not sure I want more of it.

From Disney’s point of view, I understand why they’re making more movies. It makes no sense to not try and cash in on Star Wars fever.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” had a worldwide gross of over two billion dollars, while “Rogue One” had a total gross of over one billion dollars (Box Office Mojo).

Disney would be silly to not keep making Star Wars movies. Their success is extreme.

Still, here I am confused about how I feel. I’m sure I’m not the only one either.

Many people in my generation grew up with Star Wars and now get to experience a new era of the legendary franchise. I include myself in this group. It is really cool to see this series continue.

My concern stems from the belief that there can always be too much of a good thing. This additional content is something to worry about.

I’m not alone in this concern too. Inverse Magazine points out that these additional movies may be “ruining what made Star Wars special in the first place.”

The exclusivity of the original movies helped make them feel fresh and inventive. These films did well because there was nothing like them.

Now, it seems like the new movies are competing against themselves.

I really do love Star Wars, but I can’t shake the feeling that a new trilogy might be a bad idea. However, Marvel has their cinematic universe that I’ve stuck with so far, so there’s no reason I should be too worried about a new set of Star Wars movies.

Yet, we’re not just getting a new Star Wars trilogy.

A few days ago, Disney announced that they were going to make a live action Star Wars series for their new streaming platform (Ars Technica).

This opens the door for several more live action series in the future or even animated ones if Disney felt so inclined. They do already have a successful animated series known as Star Wars Rebels.

To me, it’s pretty obvious that Disney is gearing up for a massive flood of Star Wars content. Recent years have seen a surge of comics, books and video games for the series, but now movies and TV shows are following suit.

This does nothing to ease my concern.

Whether or not this is a good thing, I think it’s pretty undeniable that Star Wars has basically lost all of its exclusivity or will lose it with this new flood of media. We have so much content now, which is nice for the dedicated fan, but that “special feeling” each entry in the series had is slowly vanishing amongst the tsunami of new content.