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Has the Star Wars franchise lost its ability to maintain fan interest?

Following the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the beloved franchise faced a substantial backlash from begrudged fans. Aside the criticisms for its slow pace and inconsistent storyline, the film and indeed the trilogy itself have been controversially criticised for its overuse of nostalgia and alleged focus on socially-driven plot details.

Analyse whether the Star Wars franchise has indeed applied an overuse of nostalgia in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi or whether the fanbase is overtly critical of any additions to the film lore.

  • Great topic and right on time after the release of the new trailer (half old footage and half new ones)! I would be interested to know how people would translate fan interest. Commercial success? Rotten tomatoes ratings? Can we even measure it? That may be a key point to this topic. Cheers – kpfong83 5 years ago
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  • I think this is definitely a great topic, one that needs to be dispelled as partly true as far as nostalgia's concerned, buy widely false when considering the inconsistent original trilogy, socially driven plots of the prequels, and its overly attached fanbase. – dtsnow 5 years ago
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  • I agree with the problem that measuring fan interest will be difficult, especially since the more extreme fans, those that either despise the new ones or will defend them with their last breath, are the more vocal and active sections of the fan base; it will be important to establish a metric for this early on. Another thing to consider is how could new Star Wars movies exist without nostalgia?In a universe so focused on connectivity, removing any and all references to previous elements would seem to deliberately erase everything that came before. So finding the balance between creating something new while still honoring what has come before is something to think about. – InvertedMobiusStrip 5 years ago
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  • An interesting juxtaposition might lie in contrasting original trilogy fans (apparently summarily dismissed by Disney execs and talent alike) versus today’s children (cultivated by Disney without remorse through omnipresent product promotion and programming). Perhaps consult surveys, RT, sales demographic breakdowns, and blogs running census for the figures. – Will Nolen 5 years ago
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  • After watching The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi (and looking at the plot for The Rise of Skywalker), I definitely feel they rely heavily on nostalgia, besides the fact that a sequel series wasn't really needed. Yes, the prequels were supposedly not great (I haven't seen them yet, so I can't judge), but they at least had a purpose of existing. – OkaNaimo0819 5 years ago
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