May the Force Be With… Disney?

Unless your permanent residence is somewhere even Survivorman star Les Stroud wouldn’t venture, you’ve heard that Disney has bought Lucasfilm – in other words, the Star Wars franchise. For $4 billion, Disney now has the rights to the movie series and all the characters in it, meaning that after the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, Star Wars continues.

When I first got wind of this deal, I immediately thought of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and their satirical take on the most recent Indiana Jones, which ranked 11^th on Comcast’s list of the “Worst Sequels of All Time.” Indiana Jones is also owned by Lucasfilm, which has me worried that a new Disney Star Wars could find itself on that list. At the moment, the company has plans in the works for a 2015 release of Episode VII, with a new film following every two or three years.

Reactions have been mixed. I feel that Star Wars, while it had some sub-par aspects in the prequel trilogy, was generally a huge success. Despite the remaining profit potential, maybe it should be allowed to end that way. An MTV article quotes George Lucas as saying, “We could go on making Star Wars for the next 100 years.” Absurd, but what do I know? Was digging up the franchise a good idea?