Legacy in the Age of Disney’s Star Wars
When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 and announced that they would produce new Star Wars films, it was a moment of both anticipation and apprehension for fans. Although the Star Wars universe had lived on in novels, comics, cartoons and video games, the Star Wars films, under the purview of George Lucas, had fairly definitively wrapped up. New storytellers taking on his mythology would raise the question of what direction the series would go and what the new movies would even be about.
While all five films produced by Disney since the acquisition approach this question differently, they’re all unified by the core thematic idea of Disney having to introduce the property to a new generation, and how they would carry on the legacy of one of the most widely known franchises in pop culture history. In essence, they made the new Star Wars movies “about” making new Star Wars movies, and with their initial wave of films now concluded with The Rise of Skywalker, it’s time to look at all the Disney Star Wars films, and how the studio’s approach to this problem changed with each film they made.
Cats Has One of the 20 Worst Box Office Opening Weekends Ever
Forget the box office Force not being as strong with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, it was a horrible weekend for Universal's big holiday outing, Cats.
It appears the hilariously bizarre word of mouth wasn't enough to garner enough audience interest (especially after truly dismal Cats reviews came out) to make the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical adaptation anything better than a box office disaster. In fact, Cats now ranks as one of the 20 worst opening weekends of a movie in wide-release at the United States domestic box office of all time.
Cats Has One of the 20 Worst Box Office Opening Weekends Ever
Forget the box office Force not being as strong with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, it was a horrible weekend for Universal's big holiday outing, Cats.
It appears the hilariously bizarre word of mouth wasn't enough to garner enough audience interest (especially after truly dismal Cats reviews came out) to make the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical adaptation anything better than a box office disaster. In fact, Cats now ranks as one of the 20 worst opening weekends of a movie in wide-release at the United States domestic box office of all time.
The Witcher Season 2: Mark Hamill Is Game to Play Vesemir
With the first season of Netflix's The Witcher now available to stream, it's time to start looking forward to Season 2. There are tons of different characters in the series that Netflix can pull from — and it looks like Mark Hamill might interested in playing Vesemir, an old, wise man.
As pointed out by Redditor Grayjaw on r/TheWitcher, Hamill responded to a Twitter thread in 2018 where someone suggested that he'd be the perfect fit to play Vesemir. While Hamill's comments are over a year old, the Tweet has recently resurfaced among fans after Season 1 received fairly positive reviews.
The Witcher Season 2: Mark Hamill Is Game to Play Vesemir
With the first season of Netflix's The Witcher now available to stream, it's time to start looking forward to Season 2. There are tons of different characters in the series that Netflix can pull from — and it looks like Mark Hamill might interested in playing Vesemir, an old, wise man.
As pointed out by Redditor Grayjaw on r/TheWitcher, Hamill responded to a Twitter thread in 2018 where someone suggested that he'd be the perfect fit to play Vesemir. While Hamill's comments are over a year old, the Tweet has recently resurfaced among fans after Season 1 received fairly positive reviews.
The New Mutants Trailer Coming in January, Says Director
The X-Men spinoff film, The New Mutants has been stuck in a purgatory of sorts after the big Fox-Disney merger earlier this year. However, with an April 3, 2020 release date set, director Josh Boone says that fans will get a new trailer in January.
Fox released the first official trailer in October 2017, and since then things have been pretty quiet — with some wondering if the film will ever actually be released. However, on Instagram Boone replied to a New Mutants fan account revealing that a new trailer will be coming soon in 2020.
The New Mutants Trailer Coming in January, Says Director
The X-Men spinoff film, The New Mutants has been stuck in a purgatory of sorts after the big Fox-Disney merger earlier this year. However, with an April 3, 2020 release date set, director Josh Boone says that fans will get a new trailer in January.
Fox released the first official trailer in October 2017, and since then things have been pretty quiet — with some wondering if the film will ever actually be released. However, on Instagram Boone replied to a New Mutants fan account revealing that a new trailer will be coming soon in 2020.
Star Wars Honors Hero Who Tackled UNC Gunman By Making Him a Jedi Master
Riley Howell, the heroic 21 year-old student who lost his life protecting his classmates by tackling the gunman who opened fire at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte on April 30, 2019, has been immortalized in Star Wars canon by Lucasfilm.
In the newly published book Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary, a character inspired by Riley Howell is cited as the Jedi Master who assembled the sacred texts featured in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
In the description of the texts known as the Aionomica, it reads, “Jedi Master and historian Ri-Lee Howell collected many of the earliest accounts of explorations and codifications of the Force in the Aionomica: a two-volume combination of codex, correspondence, and scrapbook. Though much of its contents would later be stored in holocrons (which have since been lost), the physical books have passages written in the hands of the original sages, carefully preserved by Howell.”
Star Wars Honors Hero Who Tackled UNC Gunman By Making Him a Jedi Master
Riley Howell, the heroic 21 year-old student who lost his life protecting his classmates by tackling the gunman who opened fire at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte on April 30, 2019, has been immortalized in Star Wars canon by Lucasfilm.
In the newly published book Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary, a character inspired by Riley Howell is cited as the Jedi Master who assembled the sacred texts featured in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
In the description of the texts known as the Aionomica, it reads, “Jedi Master and historian Ri-Lee Howell collected many of the earliest accounts of explorations and codifications of the Force in the Aionomica: a two-volume combination of codex, correspondence, and scrapbook. Though much of its contents would later be stored in holocrons (which have since been lost), the physical books have passages written in the hands of the original sages, carefully preserved by Howell.”
How The Rise of Skywalker Mirrors The Phantom Menace
Warning: Spoilers follow for The Rise of Skywalker.
While watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, I had a flashback to just four years ago, watching The Force Awakens for the first time and realizing it was largely a spirited remix of A New Hope. The Rise of Skywalker, too, feels like watching another previous entry in the saga. Many have already noted the parallels to Return of the Jedi, and that comparison is justified when it comes to Rey and Ben’s final confrontation with Emperor Palpatine. But beyond that climactic sequence, this last chapter actually bears a stronger resemblance to the first Prequel, The Phantom Menace.