The Growing 'Star Wars' Franchise is Getting Scarier

Disney is definitely milking their acquisition of the Star Wars franchise for all its got. Not only is a sequel trilogy promised (and in the works) but now they are planning to make 'spin-off' movies to be released in the intravenous years. Starting 2015, we will get one Star Wars movie each year for however many years its going to take. While I should love this news, there are many things about the production that set me back. The first comes with my reservations about the previous attempts at making more Star Wars movies. I really liked the prequels, especially when I was young, but I grew to see their flaws. But for so many years now the Star Wars fanbase has been lambasting those prequels (often for legitimate reasons). I am happy now that enough time has passed for people to start looking at the good things about the prequels, instead of just the bad. I don't want these new movies to fail and send us back into another torrent of Star Wars hate. I also have my reservations about J.J. Abrams. Again, I am not going to hold anywhere near an extreme of a position against this guy. The movies of his that I've seen I've liked, but there was always something to dislike too. I think MovieBob said that Abrams was the "King of Mediocrity," or something to that effect, and I would side with that opinion. The thing though is this: J.J. Abrams is now in charge of not only the Star Trek movie franchise (though he will likely not direct the third Trek chapter), but now the Star Wars. He holds the top two sci-fi licenses in his hands and many die-hards have not been happy with what he did to their beloved Star Trek. As I said, I think Abrams' movies are alright, not great, but alright. The troubling thing is that an "alright" director has a monopoly on two franchises that have the world's most devoted fans following them. And then all this comes back around to the promised spin-offs. That is a notion that scares me, despite Abrams only working on the 'canonical' Star Wars films, because it sounds like quantity over quality. To me it seems Disney is trying to push as much Star Wars branding and merchandise out there hoping that people will buy it up, just because it's Star Wars. Seriously, why does one make a spin-off series of movies, while making the actual movies? Spin-off sounds like something that has no bearing on the world or story set up in the main saga. So when you have the actual property, why make fan fiction? This whole spin-off business makes little to no sense outside of a business model. It sounds like a great way to rake in cash, and nothing else. Ultimately I want this new series to succeed. I want to hear all the complaining stop, and maybe just one person say, "We have another good Star Wars movie." But the problem is, the franchise seems to be moving towards profit as opposed to quality art, a scary proposition at best.   Photos via: Google and IGN