I think it’s interesting there is a thread on SW jumping the shark or/and over-saturation in the same reality that has Marvel just releasing its what?..umpteenth flick about superheroes.
IMO it seems SW fans want their films to be rare events and in reality their wish for more comes with a lot of caveats.
Consumers eat up multiple comic book movies and 10-hour+ series every year. Marvel’s success suggests frequency and over-saturation aren’t the problem.
Not a problem with the MCU for sure but I think that is starting to erode a bit. How SW is different with respects to how fans respond to more content is a bit of a confusing topic for me. I love that there is more content and movies but many do not. I think it’s due to what I already posted. There is a very vocal percentage of SW super fans who look at the OT as sacred texts that should not be messed with in any way. The release of more and more movies (which appears to me to be the only medium that effects these fans) seems to anger them as it dilutes the religion so to speak? Not sure.
That sounds about right. It’s probably no surprise that a certain segment of fans find RO to be the best film they’ve done - a film that does little to expand the narrative beyond unnecessarily plugging a perceived “plot hole” in the original, and fulfilling the ultimate fan service of seeing Darth Vader commit a massacre (something that had simply been implied before). It’s very much a supplement to the OT.
Marvel’s success seems to be the exception rather than the rule. No one else has replicated it. Honestly the reason is painfully obvious - Marvel is a collection of franchises plural, rather than just one singular franchise. If there was a Guardians of the Galaxy movie out every year, it’s no guarantee whatsoever that they would all be a success.
Your last paragraph is spot on I think. I was rattling similar ideas around my noggin while I was posting before. The post Lucas SW is just getting started and with a new trilogy coming out by Rian it appears they will take a more MCU direction with the franchise.
The thing is, while that approach sounds like it could hypothetically work on paper, there isn’t any evidence yet as to whether or not it’s possible. Marvel took multiple franchises and combined them into a mega franchise. Star Wars is a massive franchise, yes, but the question remains if a massive franchise can be split into parts that are each expected to be equal to the whole. There’s really no precedent for that. The closest I can think of is the X-Men films’ Wolverine spin-offs, but even then there are some obvious key differences. Mostly returning actor vs. new actor, but also release date timing. I think the idea that Star Wars could put out a billion dollar movie every single year if they are all universally loved is an incredibly faulty one. Which is to say nothing of the fact that it is probably beyond impossible for anyone to ever to make a new Star Wars movie that is universally loved.