Saga What do you remember about Star Wars popularity after 1983?

Since Return of the Jedi was the last Star Wars movie back then in 1983 and the action figures craze dying off. What did everyone do back then from 1984 to 1987? Star Wars popularity was probably still going on at home where kids that watched Return of the Jedi in theaters in 1983, they didnt have much to watch except for maybe regular sci fi and horror movies like C.H.U.D. on VHS and Halloween 2, Halloween 3 and Friday the 13th Part IV.


So what did you guys do back then after 1983 of Return of the Jedi?

 

The popularity of SW gradually dwindled, and effectively went into hibernation in early 1987. Plans by Kenner around 1985 for a new line of toys beyond the films were scrapped. The two made-for-TV Ewok films came out in 1984 and 1985, there were the Droids and Ewoks cartoons in 1985-86, the Marvel comic series continued until 1986, the Star Tours ride was opened at Disneyland in January 1987.
In March 1987, the long-running SW fan club magazine Bantha Tracks published its final issue and announced that it was finishing up until GL returned to making more SW films. This basically marks the end of the First Era of Star Wars.

Virtually nothing happened in the four years after that in terms of new content, the only real continuation of the franchise during that period was the West End Games roleplaying game (which would provide a massive amount of material for the upcoming Expanded Universe), but that was a very niche market. There were plans for Marvel to revive SW in comics in 1989 with the series Dark Empire (it was actually advertised in other Marvel comics), however, the deal fell through, and Dark Horse picked up the rights instead.

SW began its return in 1991, with the publication of Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire, followed soon after by Dark Empire in 1992. With both being such huge successes, GL officially announced in 1993 that he would finally be making his long-awaited Prequel Trilogy. I think we know the rest.