Duckth Vader

Yeah, that's the best joke I could come up with, sorry.

Anyway, now that my Part-3-Athon is over, I can finally comment on all the stuff other bloggers have been discussing all month. As we all know, the Internet has been abuzz with the recent acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney for the low price of $4.5 billion. And I'm not being facetious when I call it a low price, considering how Disney bought Pixar for $7 billion or how Facebook bought Instagram (Insta-fucking-gram!) for a cool billion. All things considered, that's a hell of a deal, and I'd bet just the Star Wars Lego division will make that money back in just a few years.

But what's my opinion on this deal? Frankly, I don't give a damn.

I certainly find it interesting from a business point of view, but I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about business.

Am I afraid for the future of Star Wars? No.

I've heard from many people who are afraid for how the upcoming films and TV projects will be without the influence of George Lucas. Did those people see the prequels? I'm of the opinion that less influence from old George might be just the thing Star Wars needs for its return to glory. Don't get me wrong: I love the prequels. I own them all on DVD and on Blu Ray and rewatch them more than I rewatch anything. But they're not good movies, and they feel so far removed from the original trilogy that they feel like Star Wars as written and conceived in a parallel universe. So I don't see how any upcoming trilogy can really damage a franchise that, frankly, has been damaged and living on life-support for decades. And, really, the people who are complaining about Lucas selling to Disney are probably the same people who complained about how the prequels raped their childhoods. I hate those people.

So if I feel anything about this project, it's curiousity and a sense of excitement that we'll finally get more films. I think that's cool. If I have any hopes or desires for things I'd like to see in the new films, I guess my main wish would that they are all live-action and not CG. I enjoy the Clone Wars series (both of them!), but Star Wars just doesn't feel like Star Wars to me when it's not live action.

I'd also love to see the original cast back together, even if they're just in supporting roles. Mark Hammil as an aging Jedi Master would be amazing, and anybody who's seen Cowboys vs Aliens or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull knows Harrison Ford is still a badass. I haven't seen Carrie Fisher or Billy Dee Williams in forever, but if either of them are cast in the movie, that would be awesome. Billy Dee is still alive, right?

And, finally, I'd like to see an original story. Well, that's not entirely true, since a lot of stuff from the Expanded Universe is very cool. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't want to see a film version of the Thrawn trilogy, which is a suggestion I've read all over the internet. I seem to be the only Star Wars fan who thinks Timothy Zahn's trilogy of novels that continued the story after Return of the Jedi are awful. Zahn is a fine writer, but the stories are so trite and weak in conception that I found them to be far more obnoxious and lacking than the prequel films. Oh, and Thrawn is just a lame character.

But whatever they do, I'll go see it. I mean, it's Star Wars.