You can’t equate Marvel and Star Wars and say if there is no Marvel controversy then Lucasfilm must be doing something wrong. I understand why people compare them, but they’re not the same
It’s not just Marvel. Star Wars has become a poster boy for fan toxicity in the eyes of the media. Its fans are at war with each other over the future of the franchise. I would say the franchise is in a deep crisis, yet LFM seems to be oblivious to this, or is ignoring it altogether.
What are they supposed to do to fix this? I can’t think of any feasible solution. You speak out against toxicity, fans complain that you’re calling everyone toxic. You make a movie doing something interesting, fans complain it’s not what they want. You make a movie catering to fans, fans complain it’s not what they want. You make no movies, fans complain that the franchise is dying. You make lots of movies, fans complain that the franchise is dying. The truth is there’s no winning. Star Wars as a franchise just has a lot of shitty fans. This has been true and obvious for almost two decades now. There’s nothing anyone can do to change that.
I think it’s too easy to blame the fans. The fact is that TFA and RO were generally well recieved by fans and critics alike, despite being derivative and rife with fan service. Evidently something changed after the release of TLJ.
People realized that TFA was hollow.
As much as I disagree with your assessment, I do think there’s a kernel of truth somewhere in there. I would argue that the reason TLJ was so divisive is only partially because of TLJ itself, I think a significant amount of the hate comes from people who like TFA conditionally, who saw it and thought “well I don’t know, I guess it was fun but let’s see where this goes.” Since TFA was just the start it was easy to put aside the elements they didn’t care for and try to imagine things would be more to their liking next time. When TLJ doubled down on that track, and with 2/3 of the ST in existence, it makes sense that we’re now seeing some pent up frustrations with the overall direction of the trilogy coming to the fore only now.
The truth is I think the large majority of what’s divisive about TLJ can be found in TFA as well. The only thing, in my mind, besides what I mentioned above that makes TLJ more divisive is that it is less easy breezy and fan servicey/conservative than TFA.
Which is to say nothing of the fact that, if this forum is any indication, TFA was not universally loved by fans. I personally thought the TFA debates would never end. Thankfully I know now that the TLJ debates will subside once IX is released.