Star Wars Ain't What It Used To Be
There's a bit of brouhaha going on about the new Star Wars TV series 'The Acolyte'. Like with 'The Marvels', I've avoided seeing it. It seems prudent to know when the content isn't targeted for you. Just as I don't go and seek out Country and Western Music or Lesbian Political Poetry, I have decided I won't be seeking out 'The Acolyte'. As such I have nothing to say about its quality, lacking or otherwise.
I do want to pass some judgement overall on Disney+ and its effort to bring these products to screen. Star Wars products that have been devised since Bob Iger bought Lucasfilm from George Lucas, have been underwhelming, with only a few exceptions. The Skywalker saga sequels were resoundingly awful while 'Rogue One' did manage to tell story that appealed to the old Star Wars audience. 'Solo' was alright except grossly miscast. These were a very bad sign for the TV shows that came along.
'The Mandalorian' started out okay but as the second season gave way to The Book of Boba Fett, it kind of drifted off into a weird diversion that went nowhere. 'The Bad Batch' has been passable but it's not something to write home about. 'Andor' season 1 was good, but that one will come to definite end at the end of its Season2. 'Ahsoka' had its most triumphant moment when the casting was announced and they got Rosario Dawson to play the titular character. The show didn't exactly live up to the hype. With 'The Acolyte', they appear to have hit a new low.
Two questions arise out of all this: Why do they want to make stuff that alienates the original audience so much? And when will they run out of money to keep doing this, because they're not winning.
Who Are These Customers?
It's crazy, when you think about it. The original Star Wars movie opened up an entire new generation of audiences to cinema. The modern blockbuster as they call it, was borne from that moment in history when the audience for movies exploded, thanks to that movie in 1977. Cinema worldwide has ridden that wave of Gen-X kids who flocked to see Star Wars, and kept watching movies well into their adult lives. That's pretty much it. The Millennials are not married to cinema the way Gen-X were married to cinema - they're married to the internet and streaming and the golden age of television, but not cinema the way Gen-X were.
For the last few years, Hollywood Box Office receipts have dropped off significantly. There has not been significant post-Covid recovery. here has been much discussion about why this might be, but what people are failing to notice is that at 50-something, Gen-X just doesn't get out to the cinema every week any more. So they blame streaming and people falling out of the habit of going to the cinema, but really, it's because the generation that gave Hollywood the Blockbuster for 40 years has passed on from being their regular customers.
But even that is by-the-by. The very real problem Disney+ has on it stands is that the people most positively disposed towards Star Wars - arguably the reason why you would want to buy Lucasfilm and bring it under the House of Mouse - are absolutely up in arms with the terrible product made by Disney+ creatives. This is the audience they bought when they slapped down all those billions for George Lucas. The trick is, you have to keep on making stuff for the same audience, but by the looks of things, there is no intention of doing so.
Imagine you buy McDonalds worldwide. Do you keep running it as is, or do you change the menu so it's nothing but Vegan? If you do the latter, what do you think happens to your global customer base?
Are Disney then really that surprised when 'The Acolyte' - with its episodes about Communist Lesbian Space Witches - gets some of the worst reviews? People are calling it the worst Star Wars TV show ever, including the Christmas Special. Now, I was around to see that Christmas Special when it first aired. If you have people thinking you have made something even worse than that, you might want to review your entire organisation.
Why Are The Audiences So Angry?
It's because it's the end of the road. The angry, are actually the old-farts who are forced to reckon with the fact that we are no longer young and times have passed them by. Maybe Gen Z is really as queers as they say, and this shift to addressing a 'woke' audience is what the marketing hacks ordered, but this bunch just don't like it. They don't like being called racists and homophobes by Disney's shills either.
For a long time, movie marketing has been about the 18-24 demographic. Gen X hasn't been that demographic for a good 20 years now. Film and TV products - now referred to as 'content' - is decidedly aimed at people much younger than Gen X. The older generation is tacitly being told to go quietly into the night - the movie business is no longer interested in their custom.
And perhaps maybe that is what is freaking out the Gen-X cohorts who pretty much supported Hollywood for 40 years. It's a two-way street. Gen Xers seem like they've stopped going to the cinemas except for absolutely-once-a-year marquee movies. I think we're seeing just how disinterested the current 18-24year old demographic is, when it comes to spending cash at the cinema. Box office receipts have been terrible. We'll see how long Hollywood holds out before it starts making movies for the people who want to go see movies.
Grogu-X
Have You Looked at Baby Yoda Properly? He's 50 years old but still a baby and he throws his psychic weight about. Surely that's Disney's view of the Star Wars fanbase - a bunch of emotionally immature 50-year old man-children.
Disney's Other Disasters
It's not just Star Wars. Disney also screwed up the Indiana Jones franchise, and made a truly abominable TV series out of 'Willow'. The latter was so bad they've had to pull it from Disney+. Beyond the issues of mishandling Lucasfilm, they've also contributed to the carnage that has been Marvel Phase 4. None of the Marvel TV series they have produced have been anywhere near as good as the Marvel shows made with Netflix. None. And I've watched all of that stuff.
At this point, I'm waiting to see 'Andor' season 2, and then I'm cancelling my Disney+ subscription. There's just no point in staying with them. The jig is up, It's over.
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