Can an independent visionary who created a vast sci-fi entertainment multiverse really think that a pop-culture multinational can better protect his brainchild? You bet your asteroids, kid. And he's not alone.
"I felt I really wanted to put the company somewhere in a larger entity which would protect it," Lucas illuminates in the corporate-astic promotional video below explaining Disney's recently proposed $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm. "Disney is a huge corporation. They have all kinds of capabilities and facilities, so there is a lot of strength that is gained by this."
That seems a galaxy far, far away from the resolutely independent filmmaker who determinedly built a next-generation digital entertainment powerhouse -- which ranges from franchises like and to production heavyweights like Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound -- mostly outside of Hollywood's reductive reach. At the turn of our still-new century, Lucas argued that "it's very important" to be independent.
"You try to get yourself into a situation where you only have to answer to yourself, where you can ask advice of people and work with your peers and mentors and things to try to do the best job that you can possibly do," he said in 1999. "There's nothing worse than the frustration of having somebody who you feel doesn't get what you're doing, trying to turn it into something else."
And yet, that is exactly what has happened, to Lucas, ever since the first film reshaped both pop culture and its industry and production back in 1977. His evolving vision for the sprawling franchise, as complex as it may have been or still is, has been exponentially tossed around like C-3PO's head in , from fandom to medium and back again. One could argue that the franchise more or less stopped being Lucas' creative baby the minute Luke Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star.
Disney and Lucasfilm's blockbuster merger is the apotheosis of that private-public design. No longer the fierce independent, Lucas is happily selling out to the Mouse House monolith. And that's a good thing, if you ask fandom, and even Jedis.
"Disney and are the most recognizable entertainment brand names of the 20th century, and by and large Disney has been an extraordinary steward of both its own legacy as well as that of Jim Henson, Pixar and Marvel," Javier Grillo-Marxuach told me. His geek-centric cult sci-fi TV series was stuffed with Lucasfilm in-jokes, and he even once penned a hilarious essay about trying to go an entire year without .
"If this buyout results in some great films made by the type of world-class talent Disney attracts to their other franchises, and simultaneously frees George Lucas to make the next , then everybody wins," he added.
That's the plan, according to both Lucas and Disney, who explained in its conference call that future films, perhaps a new one every few years, are now coming in for much-anticipated landings. Except it will be Lucas' and Steven Spielberg's longtime production partner Kathleen Kennedy, and not Lucas himself, who will be calling the shots. Which is, evidently, music to fandom's ears.
"Now that Lucas has let loose the reins of directing, I can't help but make fantasy lists," said Pinback guitarist and vocalist Rob Crow via email. He's a deep geek, whose solo efforts include songs like "Jedi Outcast" and whose side project Goblin Cock includes a bandmate called King Sith.
"The Pixar stable alone!" Crow told me. "When I watch a film like or Toy Story 3, I am often predisposed with thoughts like, 'Why couldn't the prequels have anywhere near this much heart and intelligence.'"
As Crow suggests, along with the surly fandom excellently captured in the documentaries like , it is the independent visionary's overly tight hold on the franchise's lucrative reins that has been holding back its real-world potential and value. Without Lucas' overlording, the conventional fan argument posits, the franchise could perhaps even achieve immersive spinoffs like Star Wars Land to, Crow's wish fantasy, a ride and bar.
But right now, that's all the Disney and Lucasfilm merger really is: A wish fantasy. It first has to be approved, before its ceaseless creative spawn can start trying to pass fandom's smell test. And whether or not they ever truly will is a matter that will take many years to fully settle. But the fact remains that this may be the most optimistically received sellout in pop culture history.
"My two favorite things, Disney and , have now become one," enthused Ashley Eckstein, the merchandising queen of the -centric Her Universe label, as well as the voice of CGI Jedi Ahsoka Tano.
"It's truly the perfect partnership," she told me. "I've had the honor and privilege to work for both Lucasfilm and Disney for several years now, and I am just overjoyed with this announcement. There are amazing people coming together from both companies who are going to do great things with this new relationship. This is a monumental day for and Disney fans."
This article originally appeared on Morphizm.