Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Disney Wars

I think just about every geek in the world has already heard about Disney buying Lucasfilm. It seems like 90% of them are hating it, and I'm not sure I understand why.

Now, if this had happened back in 1997 I'd be one of the people leading in the weeping and gnashing of teeth over this, but at this point the franchise is pretty much dead to me anyway. The worst that Disney could do to it would be to completely fail to revive it, which would essentially leave it in the exact same position as it is now under Lucas.

Of course, there will be the inevitable crossovers with Mickey Mouse wielding a lightsaber, but let's face it, George just approved a Star Wars/Angry Birds crossover, so even that is a step up from what we have now.

Disney also has a decent track record when it comes to managing their big acquisitions. They're certainly a lot better than EA is when it comes to that kind of thing. Although Pixar may not be quite the same studio under Disney that it was when it was independent, Disney hasn't ruined it, and the Marvel purchase led to the Avengers movie!

The only real concern I have over the deal is what's in the fine print in regards to current licenses. I'm particularly concerned over what it might mean for the future of the Fantasy Flight Games license. While I still have some concerns over how the RPG is going to turn out, I'd at least like to get a chance to see the finished product. I'd also like to see at least a few more releases for the X-Wing miniatures game.

So, overall, I'm actually mildly optimistic about what this might hold for the future of Star Wars. If it turns out I'm wrong and Disney is just as bad at managing the franchise as Lucas has been, then we're really just back to the status quo.

2 comments:

Liz Rogers said...

The trend I am seeing on the internet is that most people aren't really happy about it, but think that Disney can't do anything worse than Lucas. Most who are freaking out about this are those who seemed to enjoy the prequels.

There is a concern about what Disney will do for groups that are using Star War IP. Some might fall under the Parody law (Like http://darthsanddroids.net/). Others who create really neat derived products will probably get a C&D letter.

Of course whenever someone mentions a sequel, the Thrawn Trilogy comes up. The Thrawn Trilogy is awesome, but there is little or no chance that it will be made in the sequel.

Fulminata said...

Heh, made my new post before I saw this comment (actually wrote the post last night, but waited to put it up until now).

Good point on the IP, hopefully Disney will not want to alienate the existing fan community any more than they already have just by buying the IP in the first place.

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