A long time ago,

Sean DiNicola '22, Staff Reporter

There is no doubt that Star Wars is one of the biggest movie franchises ever, and is loved by many.

In 2012, Disney purchased Lucas lm for $4 billion and with the 2019 release of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” completed the nine movie plan laid out over four decades ago by Star Wars creator and director, George Lucas. In six short years, Disney has more than made their investment back, grossing almost $5 billion as of 2018. Rise of Skywalker, alone, grossed $1.1 billion.

Since we were first introduced to our furry friend, Chewbacca, in 1977, the Star Wars movies have entertained millions of fans all over the world. Lucas released two sequels: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), after the debut of the hugely popular Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).

It wasn’t until 1999 that the next movies (Episodes I, II, and III) were released between 1999 and 2007. They were popular for being bad due to bad CGI, poor storytelling, and overall boring to the movie watchers. There were also a lot of high expectations after several years, yet when the sequels came out, most people were disappointed.

The only exception is the last movie in the prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2007), which almost made up for the previous two movies. Most fans would agree that it seemed George Lucas was running out of steam at that point, so it wasn’t a surprise when it was announced that Disney would be purchasing LucasFilm in 2012.

“I think George wanted to just quit after the prequel trilogy movies. He had a goal to make nine movies and probably thought it would be best if Disney took over and nished them up,” said Connor Situ ’22.

Since 2015, Disney has released five Star Wars feature lms and four spin-off shows. It seems that fans are divided on how they feel about the prequels, created by Lucas lm, and the sequels, created by Disney.

“I think that the prequel trilogy is superior to the sequels because the story is told better and there are not many plot holes,” said Araav Patel ’22.

How about the future? Fans are very excited to hear about the nal season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Disney+ and wonder what is next. This series, which started on Cartoon Network and is funded by Lucas lm, ended in 2014, and Disney is now reviving the series after a six year gap.

The show has excellent storytelling and animation, so there is no telling where they will take the saga, and Star Wars, in general. Aside from Clone Wars, which airs this month, there’s no telling where Disney will go next.

“I think there will be more and more spin-off series in the near future. Disney is going to want to keep making money, especially since they have one of the biggest movie franchises in the whole world,” said Dennis Polyack ’22.

Fans are very excited about the new season of “The Mandolorian,” which is set to debut Fall 2020. After December, they were left on a huge cliff hanger and there is not much information about what is to come.

English Department Chair Mary Dalton said, “The Mandalorian’s first season was very successful. I was totally into ‘The Mandalorian,’ and I’m looking forward to seeing more Baby Yoda.”