Filmland - The Star Wars/Indiana Jones/E.T. Shared Movie-Verse

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And so May 4^th is upon us once again, the one day out of the year we choose to celebrate the multimedia mega-phenomenon that is Star Wars.  Admittedly you probably aren’t reading this on one of the 364 days that doesn’t sound vaguely like “may the force be with you” but given that this is the Internet celebrating Star Wars is pretty much always in fashion.  This is even truer in the wake of 2015’s franchise revitalizing film Force Awakens, and with the Last Jedi on the way and Rogue One a decent success in its own right it looks like we’re never going to run out of Star Wars to celebrate. 

It’s not just movies that've been good to the Disney era of Star Wars either but also comics, with Marvel’s excellent Darth Vader ongoing series and the fairly popular Rebels TV show making a significant impact.  Actually, Rebels is the bit of recent Star Wars material that I’ve elected to zero in on today as part of a look at an emerging shared-universe theory going all the way back to 1981 and stretching throughout some of the most popular films of the ‘80s.  Let’s talk about the Spielberg-verse. 

Static Thoughts - History of Star Wars on TV

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Today marks the premiere of the 3^rd season of Disney’s CGI Star Wars series Rebels.  To mark this particular occasion, and because I want more Star Wars related content on this site, I’ve elected to celebrate with a look back at Star Wars’ history on TV.  A lot of this is forgotten now because of the strange way in which modern audiences remember geek phenomena but Star Wars actually has a very eclectic history in the realm of television going all the way back to the franchise earliest days and leading up to the present.  The series has been adapted through 2D animation, CGI, live action, and even stop motion in its 30 plus years of television adaptation.  Obviously, that’s a lot to cover so let’s dive in. 

Rogue One 2nd Trailer Analysis

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It’s amazing how quickly the cultural landscape can be almost completely redefined.  Go back just 2 years and the idea of Star Wars, as a continual geek media presence, would’ve seemed far-fetched at best.  Oh to be sure, Star Wars has always been AROUND but for the most part that’s been in the form of a handful of cartoons and a rampant expanded universe brand mainly propped up by the paperback genre fiction machine and the brand’s universal appeal in the world of video and board games. 

Now, however, Star Wars is set to have a new film come out every year like clockwork till at least the end of the decade, basically making the question of “what’s going on with Star Wars?” a perpetual one.  There’s always going to be the next episode or the next spin-off or the next TV series at least till the end of the new trilogy and probably beyond.  In just a year it’s become the equal of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; a constant force of culture that must always be addressed at any time.  With that in mind, let’s take a look at the latest Rogue One trailer.

Star Wars Force Awakens Photo Leaks

So, you’ve probably heard there’s a new Star Wars film in the works; The Force Awakens, first of a new trilogy slotted to open this Christmas.  As befits a new Star Wars film this is a pretty big deal.  Force Awakens will mark the beginning of Disney’s cinematic stewardship of the property and a major step in repairing some of the major tarnishing the franchise suffered throughout the ‘00s.  This is also a pretty big step for director J.J. Abrams.  Abrams has been brewing in Hollywood for a while now as a writer, director, and show runner.  He was the mind behind Lost and Alias as well as the director of the abysmal Star Trek reboots, though to his credit the direction in those films was pretty spot on.  He’s generally synonymous with an infuriating marketing gimmick known as the “mystery box” that involves teasing out very unimpressive reveals about his films via viral marketing and such. 

Thankfully he’s decided to eschew all of his worst impulses when it comes to Star Wars, relying on a marketing campaign that’s preserved the film’s secrecy without making that mystery central to enticing audiences.  Instead the trailers and teasers for Force Awakens have all worked through a unique blend of evocative tone and beautiful iconography.  It’s a ballsy move that just grabs the viewer and says, “this is Star Wars, YOUR Star Wars,” and so far it’s worked like gangbusters.  However info leaks still happen and I’m addressing one here today when a bunch of Force Awakens action figures & set photos leaked online.