Star Wars opinions are not generational. I don’t know why this is such a common idea when people of all opinions are at pretty much every age.
I think this idea comes from the fact that prequel fans tend to be younger. But people have been saying this for two decades now, and the 12 year old prequel fans of 2001 didn’t grow up into 32 year old prequel fans of 2021, they grew up into 32 year old OT fans. The same thing is happening to the 12 year old prequel fans of 2011 and will happen to the 12 year old prequel fans of 2021.
For the inevitable “I grew into a 32 year old prequel fan” responses: The previous paragraph was a generalization of a larger trend to which there are inevitably many exceptions.
Who exactly the prequel generation is keeps getting pushed back, though. Once upon a time it was the preteens and kids who saw the prequels in theaters with a fresh mind who were the prequel generation. Then it was the kids who grew up with them on DVD in the 2000s. Now it’s the people who watched TCW as kids. The prequel generation is whoever’s in the 12-18ish age range, and it’s been that way, unchanging for longer than the current prequel generation has been alive. I bet it will continue to be pushed back, at least until the prequel generation was born after the Force Awakens came out.
The sequels are too young to call yet, but since there’s a lot of people who cite the generational nature of Star Wars opinions to show that opinions on the sequels will change as the “sequel generation” gets older, it’s also worth mentioning that that’s probably not true.
If the general opinion on the sequels change, it won’t be because of any generational shenanigans.