Topic: Why do people think Star Wars is dead?

Star Wars producer Rick McCallum has unofficially "confirmed" the projects at conventions for the last year or so.

I think star wars is dieing because they are degrading it to apeal more to younger children AND IT TICKS ME OFF!

I'm not so sure there.

I mean, Star Wars was one of the first films to produce the vast variety of merchandise targeted at children that we all benefit from today. It is common for films to make action figures based on the characters now  but before Star Wars that was not really done on any scale. And there is the sea of other merchandise, everything from children's underwear to educational materials (The Star Wars question and answer book about space, 1979).  I think Star wars was able to achieve the overall success that it did largely because of the younger audience.

Also, I think a strong argument could be made that projects aimed at kids, Droids and Ewoks cartoons for example (regardless of how good or bad they were), kept Star Wars on the media radar during the late 80s and early 90s.

I think I understand what you are saying but people my parents' age were "adults" when the films were in the theaters and you do not see nearly as many 55 year old SW fans as you do 40 year old fans. People my age and a little older, I was seven when SW came out in the theaters, are the first group of consumers to contribute directly to the financial success of the films and related merchandise.

I think what is really different is that kids have changed, society has changed. I know a lot of people don't like a lot of the new material being produced but a lot of people hated the prequels too. I can't even watch the prequels and the original films on the same day without getting a stomach ache. But on the other hand, for a lot of people "their" Star Wars IS the prequels.  For me It's Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi---- NOT episode V,IV and VI.

So anyway, maybe it's just a generational thing like with Star Trek.

star wars is kinda made for kids up to 15 or something

it's not that adulty. But then again, I like Horrid Henry, and that's aimed at 8 year olds......

the action figures are for kids, full stop in my opinion.

Adults are acting too much like children about " Cool " or " rare " action figures

* sigh *

:/

Star Wars is very much for adults as it is kids! Why do you think you only hear kids talk about all the lightsaber fighting, and adults about the philosophical components and such! People have written books on this stuff!

StarWars isn't a kids movie, its, well, just a movie if that makes sense. A lot of things rush over kids heads. Kids like cute and funny things, and the action scenes, but much is lost on them. Like the moral struggle Luke goes through, and how he changes from a whiny teenager to a serious adult.

Star Wars is not a kids thing. It is for everyone. If anything Episodes 3, 5 and 6 are more for adults(except the ewoks in 6, the rest was adulty)

Most Star Wars stuff is aimed for adults yet also works for kids.

okas, true.

And the books are written so adults can understand them

I was just curious if it was....

but the figures are a little childish for adults.

Some figures are for adults, like Star Trek and Halo

But Star Wars?

LOL :P

;)

What makes Star Wars figures different from Halo figures?  I fail to see the path of your logic.

uh, the books are written for the fans, and for the authors to make money and create new characters, etc.

adults collect figures. not play with them.

those figures are meant to be more like collectables. you can still play with them, just as you can with star wars figures.

I think my post above may have turned this thread in a not so productive direction. Of course, there are aspects of SW that appeal more to adults and a those that appeal more to the younger folks. What I was trying to point out was something a little more simple. Star Wars is built on its merchandising empire as much as it is on anything else.
Let's be frank,The story in not that complicated. The characters are archetypes that can be found in any number of the world's mythologies. (See Joseph Campbell's work for more on this, especially the interview he did with Bill Moyers at Skywalker Ranch back in the 80s). What made the first film a success, in my opinion, was 1.) the fantastic visuals, this includes design work (costumes, sets,vehicles etc., special effects and art direction etc. and 2.) all the crap that people my age moaned and whined to our parents to buy for us when we were kids. As I pointed out above, before SW that kind of merchandising was unknown. "Adults" today were kids then so there is also a continuum to the purchasing pattern. That's one of the reasons why modern figures are so well done compared to the originals, Adults can collect them and kids can play with them or in my case you can do both. 

So, I'm not saying it's a kid's thing or a grown up thing so much as I am saying it's a discursive phenomenon that has transcended its original concept. By which I mean, it has a life of its own now but in the beginning, as has been pointed out countless times by myself and others, Lucas did not have all this worked out. Things just evolved. And I think, to bring it back on topic, as long as things keep evolving we will have Star Wars!

whatever.

I'm just saying adults playing with figures is stupid

but collecting them is fine.

No its not. o.O I very much prefer the adults who still play with the figures to the ones who keep them in a box neatly lined up in a giant room. Toys are made to be played with, and there is nothing wrong with playing with action figures, even if you are an adult. Or a girl. Or both. Its like saying cartoons are for kids only. Or that video games are just a kids thing.

Cecilia I love you!

Sounds like you ran into some Dead Heads LOL.... yeah I've known a few too... I guess they are just not fans or simply out of touch with reality.

Not really sure as to what this post refers? Dead Heads? Ya kind of lost me.

LOL just a joke... that fell flat.

How many of you know what the word "insidious" means?

Without looking it up in a dictionary.....!

I've definitly heard the word before, but to be honest, no, I cannot recall its definition. What kind of a test are you puttin on us?

uhh.. the opposite of sidious? lol i forget its exact definition, though i have heard and used the word before.

There's a reason that is relevant to the topic that I am asking this question  "How many of you know what the word "insidious" means?" so please don't feel bad if you don't know or think that I am trying to be a "smart guy"

After a few more people chime in I will go into more detail.

It's when you shrink yourself and go inside Palpatine. :D:D:D

The only poeple I have witnessed say that Star Wars is dead are those who are old and used to be Star Wars fans back during the original Trilogy. I guess most poeple used to hold a perception of Star Wars that was twisted during the new trilogy movies, the comics, the novels, and the cartoons. Star Wars definatly isnt dead, but I guess it is to THEM.

TW

It will never die. It may go to the way of Books and Eu but I dont seeing it die out. There are to many fans out there to let it die.

Well, you have to consider in which way we mean die. It could die off as in the truth and canon, the beauty and magic of the REAL SW story will die because the only fans around will be kids who never saw the movies or read the books, but could quote every line from every episode of Clone Wars.

I wouldn't call them fans. Not at all. It's one thing to see something that takes place in between episodes (a la SOTE which should definitely be counted as canon IMO) and then it's something else to see what that material was based off.

I don't call them fans either, but if things keep going the way they are they're all that will be left. Or all that will matter to mass society.

I liken this new generation of fans to the jock riders of football teams.  When it is good they jump on the bandwaggon. When it starts to get bad they jump off I see that happening here. If it gets to that point maybe it should die out so it does not get ruined.  You know retire with Dignity.  ( Not that I want it to happen)

i'm sure when the live action show comes out, the real fans will once again come out.

Oh, the live action will be a bazillion times worse than Clone Wars. My stomach twists in anxiety every time I hear that they might just be stupid enough to attempt something so pre-doomed to failure as a live action show.

Well, there's six movies and a ton of books. And a LOT of people who don't read. I didn't even consider myself a SW "fan" until I started reading the books. Don't stone me or anything... I just like to read, and I find the books so much more (how do I say this?) detailed than the movies.

meh, it's like with The Old Republic: something we haven't seen yet. plus the live-action show is set to focus more on minor characters from either the OT or both trilogies (lucky us, this does not include Jar Jar!).

Yeah, minor characters who will have this big impact on the main story and without them all would be doomed and no one in the movies know they did it. And the budget will by tiny and they'll hire actors who've never even seen the movies and don't care, just another paycheck. And the music will probably be bad. And actors might drop in and out and not really care. And it'll be just like any other fan made movie that you can find OL. Fake-looking costumes (though some of them do do good on the costumes), bad effects, bad acting. Where's the line? What separates the fan vids from the tv series? Officiality? Like the person writing the script or directing it will care about continuity or the depth it should have. They'll have to either make it sitcom-ish or soapy and have a running story, or have each episode be a one-shot so that people can drop in and out of watching it. And sooner or later we'll be just like Star Trek. Several versions of the story to choose from, several "time periods" of stories to choose from. We'll have good versions of SW and bad versions of SW and no set story and the fans will be divided and no one will have any clue what's going on and we'll all be so pathetic as to hang on to the last little remnants of the good old days we might scrounge up in our basements.

TV died sometime between the 80s and 90s and no amount of SW shows will bring it back, they'll just be dragged down into the spiraling pit of muck and along with it will go the movies and books. Sucked into the black hole that is TV.

Star Wars is not dead, but it could come a time when there will be no more new things.

It may be just as well there are no more new things. Some of these new things they're coming up with are stupid.

For reals.  The Robot Chicken series for Star Wars is funny and all, but how low is such marketing to RC, Family guy, and anybody else who waves a buck under Lucas's nose taking the franchise?  And these Lucas Films endevors are even worse; at least RC and Family Guy are SUPPOSED to be spoofs that poke fun at Star Wars - The unreined rewriting of established cannon material by mindless kid shows that are failing to make up for the flaws in the prequals are ruining everything about the expanded universe.

That being said, there will always be the Original Trilogy, and as long as ppl market spin-offs and products from sucessful films, there will always be Star Wars material out there.  The only question is how poluted it will be with trash from the newer matieral.

good thing the clone wars can't touch the films. as long as lucas didn't decide to go adding anything else into the movies.

I personally like the clone wars

No its not, star wars is a legacy that must be passed to our kids for generations. It is a one of a kind series that is better than all of those in present today.