Star Wars is a science fantasy film with space magic and swords made of light where the main character goes into the evil warlord’s dungeon to save the princess. Oh, and it made most of it’s money by selling toys.
That’s not to say other media in the same universe can’t be gritty war films, not that it can’t be good. But the issue isn’t that Disney are “infantilizing Star Wars and profit”, the issue is that they are, for the most part, doing a bad job at it. The first season of The Mandalorien was arguably the best thing to come out of the brand since the original trilogy because, like the original trilogy, it had charm, lovable characters and (to a lesser degree) some nice world building.
I think part of the issue is that people at Disney realize why Star Wars was successful, but think along the lines of “Well, if people loved this chocolate cake, I could double the amount of chocolate and people will like it twice as much”.
Star Wars is a science fantasy film with space magic and swords made of light where the main character goes into the evil warlord’s dungeon to save the princess. Oh, and it made most of it’s money by selling toys.
That’s not to say other media in the same universe can’t be gritty war films, not that it can’t be good. But the issue isn’t that Disney are “infantilizing Star Wars and profit”, the issue is that they are, for the most part, doing a bad job at it. The first season of The Mandalorien was arguably the best thing to come out of the brand since the original trilogy because, like the original trilogy, it had charm, lovable characters and (to a lesser degree) some nice world building.
I think part of the issue is that people at Disney realize why Star Wars was successful, but think along the lines of “Well, if people loved this chocolate cake, I could double the amount of chocolate and people will like it twice as much”.