A perfect example of how PR is affected regardless of the cold hard facts:
https://movieweb.com/star-wars-9-boycott-disney-darth-vader-fan-film/
Just wanted to say as well that while I think this could have been handled differently by Warner/Disney, I think SWT could have handled it differently as well though I can understand his frustration.
Val
Agreed. I get where his frustration is coming from, but yeah he definitely could’ve handled it differently.
But the attention is good publicity for him. I personally think this article is just verbatim repeating SWT’s own perspective he gave in his video, not really giving us any new, objective information.
SWT doesn’t really have a case, though, and I’m not really expecting this “boycott” if that’s what you want to call it, to go anywhere. Even now if you go on reddit it seems like his supporters in this situation have become a vocal minority, and even people who hate the new films see that he is taking a stand on really shaky ground.
This whole issue is definitely more related to the growing problem YouTube has regarding copystrike regulation, in my opinion, rather than anything that should be directed at Disney. I’m not sure what people want Disney to do, or what they should apologize for. Both Warner and Disney are legally bound to take the actions they did. People keep going on about him “having a deal” with Disney (literally a few generic emails), but I’m sure the use of the Imperial March composition wasn’t discussed by SWT. Maybe if the music had been more generic (or put on a different platform than YouTube) he wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.
All of this just feels extremely entitled, in my opinion. Like, SWT is making money off unlicensed Star Wars merch and other things but he is the one who deserves an apology. Haha.
I personally think the best thing Disney could do is not even achknowledge this situation. If he tries to fight this, he’s not going to win. And if they say anything at all people will just twist it to still make them look bad, because Disney.
And yeah you can talk about Disney’s optics but that’s a whole other story. But for how evil Disney apparently is people really seem to drool over Marvel still. Really sticking it to the man, there.
And I agree Zerome, with Despecialized and the 4K projects, I personally don’t care if Disney releases the theatrical versions officially or not. We practically already have it.