PT fans are not extinct, and they’ve actually somewhat increased in number since TFA.

Right before TFA came out, parts of the internet were filled with pre-teens/young teens who either hadn’t seen SW before or just hadn’t in many years and watched them all before the next movie.

Before long, all of them became fans of all of the movies, PT included, and they started making posts on Tumblr and other places about “shipping” characters (mostly PT for some reason).

It’s a bizzare thing. I expected TFA to bring new OT fans, but didn’t expect new PT fans to spring up with them.