How Disney Destroyed Star Wars | Video Essay

Star Wars I used to laugh at people when they joked that Disney were killing Star Wars when the sequel Trilogy came out everywhere I looked there were headlines and frustrated fans expressing their disdain toward Disney over them seemingly ruining Star Wars and killing Star Wars and I remember reading those headlines back then and reading the comments and thinking are you kidding me Star Wars can't die it's Star Wars well I think I might have been a little naive back then a few years ago I would have considered myself to be a mega Star Wars fan I created a YouTube channel around it and turned it into a job but here I sit a few years later in 2024 and the mere sight of the brand makes me want to crawl up into a ball and die because I have watched something I love wither away and become a shell of what it once was and any new product pushed out from this brand is being met with extreme amounts of hate look at the acolyte trailer for example and even Star Wars Outlaws both were absolutely smashed online now I've made videos talking about the state of Star Wars before but this time it's different I have never been so disenfranchised with Star Wars as I am right now and the state of Star Wars has arguably never been in a worse place than it is today and as a form of therapy I knew I had to talk about what the hell Disney have done to ruin something that I used to love and my life just about revolved around and I know a lot of you guys out there watching feel the same way now look if you still love Star Wars and Disney they're cooking for you then that's great tell me I'm a in the comments that's fine I can take it but for the rest of you like me let's just go on a therapeutic journey of how Disney destroyed Star Wars let's vent a little bit before we do though we are closing in on 100,000 subscribers and it would mean the world to me if you you could hit that subscribe button so we can reach that massive Milestone and be sure to follow us over on Twitch where we chat a 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you'll get 27% off your order if you buy three or more you'll get 37% off your order so be sure to check it out through the links below and of course a mass thank you to displate for sponsoring this [Music] video so it's fair to say that when George Lucas signed Star Wars over to Disney Star Wars as a brand was there but it was just kind of Meandering Disney without question brought it back to the top of the pop culture Zeitgeist with the release of the force awakens that movie still stands as the highest grossing domestic film of all time it was a a cultural phenomenon star warss was back and the film was received relatively well generating strong reviews with the average push back you'd expect out of the Star Wars fandom then Rogue one came out a year later and to be honest was actually pretty good I still think it's by far the best Disney Star Wars movie that's not really saying much I know but I dig the out of Rogue one still to this day but then the Last Jedi came out splitting the fandom in two half of the fandom saying it was the the worst thing to happen to Star Wars and an insult to the franchise and the other half saying it's a masterpiece regardless of whether or not you hate the Last Jedi or you love it it's undeniable that this was the moment in time that put Star Wars on a path that leads us to where we are now with the Star Wars IP being a bit of a laughing stock this was the moment where things started to go wrong retroactively The Last Jedi made the force awakens a worst movie as any interesting setup was just thrown away it was clear that there was just no vision from Disney here with JJ Abrams and Ryan Johnson's films both feeling like they weren't even a part of the same trilogy there was nothing cohesive about these films together and it had the fandom in a frenzy but that's okay because there's still One More film to come one that can conclude the trilogy and make it all make sense yeah that didn't happen the rise of Skywalker concluded the sequel Trilogy and was probably the worst of the three films Kathleen Kennedy got rid of Colin tavaro who was supposed to direct episode 9 and she brought back JJ Abrams who somehow had to pay off the mystery boxes he planted in the force awakens whilst also acknowledging The Last Jedi which basically threw them away in favor of subverting expectations and as you can imagine it didn't work they brought Palpatine back to try and save a dying story they retconned half of The Last Jedi they made Finn for sensitive because I I still don't know to this day and basically it's just the perfect example of everything a massive Hollywood Blockbuster shouldn't be the rise of Skywalker made money yes but it continued the downward trajectory and it was released in 2019 which for some reason was Notorious for bad and medoc movies joining the $1 billion Club it was clear come 2020 that Star Wars whilst not completely in the ground had definitely taken a massive hit with the disappointment of the sequel Trilogy in fact many people were so disappointed by the sequel Trilogy that they turned into Thanos and said perhaps I treated you too harshly to the prequels yes the sequels being bad made people who hated the prequels like the prequels that's powerful stuff but little did we know that the sequel Trilogy was only really the start of the downfall of Star [Music] Wars over the past few years it's become abundantly clear that Star Wars has a serious problem with its inability to abide by one of the main themes of The Last Jedi that being letting the past die as it's become clear in the past few years through a series of good mid and bad shows on Disney plus that Disney simply cannot let the past die often relying on bringing back past characters to make the present shows worthwhile relying on Nostalgia to carry the dead and tired storytelling from writers who have admitted to knowing nothing about Star Wars yet for some reason Disney continue to hire them the Mandalorian was a nice return to form for its first two seasons giving us a fresh idea with characters that were actually interesting and a story that didn't make me want to put my head in a microwave but even the golden egg that was the Mandalorian wasn't immune to how bad Star Wars would become with season 3 being a masterclass and being a big old nothing burger and a complete and utter waste of time like seriously I can't tell you what happened in season 3 of the Mandalorian besides people walking around slowly and Jack Black and lizo now even though season 2 of the Mandalorian was good it still felt the need to rely on the past which was frustrating because the show was already good without characters like Ahsoka and Luke Skywalker making an appearance but it just went to show that regardless of the quality of the story good or bad Disney were intent on Nostalgia baiting everything they do book of Boba Fett came out and the only thing that was actually worth watching were the two episodes in which there was no Boba Fett the Mandalorian came in and hijacked the show and reminded us how bad the rest of the show was Boba Fett wasn't booba Fett at all and it's clear it was just another case of bringing back a fan favorite character like booba Fett so he could do the Leo DiCaprio meme because Star Wars is now a cameo simulator after book of Boba Fett Obi-Wan Kenobi was the next big thing for Disney Star Wars regardless of it making absolutely no sense they decided to bring back fan favorite Yan McGregor as the iconic Obi-Wan Kenobi for a showdown with Darth Vader now this was one of those situations where canonically it makes absolutely no sense but people were willing to let it go based off the premise of the show alone that being Obi-Wan and Vader have a rematch of the century those are Disney's words not mine and that would have been fine but that's not what the show was at all as time was taken away from Obi-Wan and Darth Vader and given to a new character called raver who character was a copy and paste of the second sister from the video game Jedi Fallen order but devoid of any likability sympathy or use to the story that made the second sister such a great character in that game not to mention Deborah Chow's Direction was sloppy lazy with an overreliance on shaky cam to hide the budget because the budget just did not match the scope of the show the show's writer Joby Harold openly admitted that he doesn't know anything about Star Wars and for some reason was still hired and let's not forget that the first fight between Obi-Wan and Vader looked like it was ripped from a fan film and shot on a construction site down the road to save money save for a couple small moments this show was a massive disappointment for a lot of people oh yeah and Obi-Wan also doesn't know how to walk around a gate now like what is this man now it was great seeing Yan McGregor and Hayden Christensen back and they both did a great job with what they were given especially Hayden Christensen who was about the only bright spot in the entire show but man this one was a let down and this is where my love for Star Wars really started to dwindle and I know I'm not alone here if they couldn't get this right what could they get right but then Andor released and it ended up being by far the best show we've seen on Disney plus dropping the Nostalgia baiting and just letting good filmmakers and good writers tell a compelling story with depth and Nuance within the Star Wars Universe the main complaint people have about Andor is that it doesn't feel like Star Wars and that's the point the fact it doesn't feel like Star Wars is why it's so great because Star Wars has evolved into an empty Cameo simulator where everything looks like a high budget fan film Andor goes completely against that the dialogue in this show makes the rest of the Disney Plus shows look absolutely pathetic it might not be everyone's couple of tea because there's no lightsabers but Andor is by far the best show on Disney plus when it comes to the story the writing the direction the characters the dialogue it's just not even close so after Andor came out I had a little bit of hope that Star Wars might actually get back on track but then it was back to regular programming with Ahsoka now for context Ahsoka is a top three Star Wars character for me she's amazing in the Clone Wars and Rebels so I was really excited Ed for this show but I did say to myself that if they screw this up then I'm pretty much done with Star Wars and yeah they screwed it up previously likable characters were dull and boring thrawn was a massive letdown the production design screamed Disney plus mediocrity and once again there was a Reliance on cameos to make things interesting with Hayden Christensen returning again as Anakin Skywalker which makes sense due to the connection between him and Ahsoka but these cameos are meant to be the cherry on top not the reason you watch the show which is exactly what this was the only original bright spot from this show was the character of balen skull who we unfortunately probably won't see again as the actor who made the character so likable and intriguing passed away last year so Ahsoka was yet another disappointment and then we looked to the Future and unfortunately yeah it's not looking any better [Music] so when we look to the future of Star Wars I would love to say to you that I'm optimistic but I'm just not the acolyte is next on the agenda and that show has been absolutely smashed online Leslie Headland has been the punching bag for this Show's discourse and it hasn't even come out yet now I did the due diligence of watching several interviews with her talking about Star Wars and it's clear that she does have above average knowledge of the law but it's also clear that she's extremely egotistical with her film making and intends to use the show to project her beliefs as opposed to just telling a good story you get the vibe that she's using Star Wars as a platform instead of an opportunity to contribute to one of the greatest fictional worlds ever created and it looks like that's where this show is going to go off the rails having said that the show has not come out yet and I'll always give something at least the benefit of the doubt so I'm sure we'll be talking about the acolyte again very soon but then we have the ray movie that's going to be coming out in a couple years and this just screams Disney just being completely out of touch with fans I think the writers of the sequels did the ray character so damn dirty Daisy really did everything she could to make that character likable but she was severely let down in the writer's room and at worst for her I'm glad she's collecting the bag with this movie given how screwed over she was with the character's lineage being chopped and changed a million times but the fact this movie is going to even exist is just blatant evidence that Disney are hellbent on staying as disconnected as possible with the people that these films are made for there's also an original movie coming from James Mangold who brought us Logan but also brought us Indiana Jones 5 so yeah make it that what you will and there's also the Dave Fon movie that's going to bring to aead all the Disney Plus shows which would be great if most of the shows were actually good but I'm sorry I just don't care where the end of Mando season 3 or book of Boba Fett leads to it feels like they're trying to build up to an Infinity war or an end game but imagine if everything pre- Infinity war and end game was Thor the Dark World probably not the greatest idea the only thing I'm actually looking forward to is the third Jedi game with the character of calus fall in order and Survivor are great and I can't wait to see the conclusion of that story but that's about all that is keeping me interested in this IP at the moment it's honestly really sad and I know a lot of people are going to say well if you don't like it anymore why' you make this video I made this video because I'm a Star Wars fan this is a letter to Disney in a way I'm frustrated and I don't want to be this way but the way Disney have controlled this IP and driven it into the ground has forced me in this direction and that absolutely sucks so to bring this one all together it truly is is tough as a massive former Star Wars fan to sit here and say without joking that I just don't care about Star Wars anymore this IP was everything to me a few years ago but the mere mention of it in passing conversation just frustrates me now and I know for a fact I haven't grown out of Star Wars because I can watch the original trilogy or the prequels or play full in order in Survivor and I remember why I loved it in the first place but the vast majority of shows coming out under Disney's Reign are just pushing me further and further away from the franchise and that sucks and I know that I'm not alone on this one we used to point and laugh at the people that said that Disney were killing Star Wars well here we are in 2024 and they basically have killed it and it's really sad now before I go I just want to say be sure to follow me on all my socials Instagram Twitter twitch I never plugged them so I'm just starting to you know actually be a YouTuber for once you'll get more of a behind the-scenes look for the channel and just what I get up to in my day-to-day life and again again be sure to subscribe to this channel as we're closing in on 100,000 subscribers and it would just be insane if we could hit that as soon as possible like it just be crazy but that is it for me today thank you so much for watching and take care

Channel: Movie Overload

Views: 76,541

Keywords: star wars, movie overload, star wars video essay, disney star wars, disney, the acolyte, leslie headland, rey skywalker, disney plus, acolyte star wars, film video essay, lucasfilm, the high republic, rey movie, ahsoka series, kenobi, movie video essay, film, video essay, kathleen kennedy, dave filoni, acolyte, rian johnson, star wars sequels, sequel trilogy, leslye headland, ahsoka, prequels, jedi, disney rant, george lucas, bob iger, star wars outlaws, the last jedi, sith

Id: T7ymHGzgwgI

Length: 17min 42sec (1062 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2024