I won’t say anymore on it personally, but I’ll share this post that I would recommend reading (check out the whole thread too if you’d like!) that might explain it better than me.
Yep, good article which all makes perfect sense. I still think Warner/Disney could have taken a different approach to better manage their PR.
I also have to wonder how many fan films to date they have actually felt compelled to claim in order to protect their IP, when it’s clear it is a fan film and he has been upfront about not making any money out of it yet still making it all the same. It’s not every day that a Star Wars fan film gets the success that this one did and I think this is a significant factor in the action Warner/Disney (in association?) has taken.
Also I think 4throck hit upon one of the points Thor was making in that SWT has essentially done free work for them that ultimately benefits them since SWT himself isn’t making a penny from it. If he had monetised it then it would certainly make sense for them to claim their IP in order to protect it or launch a lawsuit. I agree with Thor that ultimately it generates interest and excitement for Star Wars which could be fed back into Disney’s official movies and content and helping to generate good will in those that don’t currently hold a favourable disposition towards Disney due to any number of issues.
As to SWT himself - he makes his living as a YouTube content creator, it is a valid occupation with the masses always craving and demanding more content to consume. So it makes sense to have merchandise to subpliment that and allow people to represent something they like and enjoy being involved in that part of the Star Wars community.
He undertook this project understanding he wasn’t allowed to make money from it as he normally would yet poured a ridiculous amount (by most people’s standards here I would assume) of his own money into it knowing he wouldn’t be getting it back. His original plan as I understand it was to make a full feature length fan film but has had to break it up into sizeable episodic chunks in order to realistically be able to afford and achieve that dream, one episode at a time as he can fund them. I honestly think any noticeable regret of not being able to monetise the fan film stems from being able to fund the other episodes. Think of it from a faneditor’s point of view such as Adywan where they take donnations to fund the cost of the edit itself.
Now in saying all that, I think he does play a slight negative angle against Disney in that he obviously isn’t to taken with Disney’s choices in their Star Wars movies, whether that just be TLJ or all of them. But that’s just his opinion, no one has to agree with it to enjoy his film or feel that the situation could have been handled another way that wouldn’t instantly make many think the worst of Disney.
Val