Discussion Star Wars is Struggling to Win Over the Next Generation of Kids

I didn't really know where to put this and I didn't see anything with this title in the other Star Wars forums.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-struggling-to-win-over-the-marvel-generation

So we are all Star Wars fans, big Star Wars fans, what do we think of this?

To me it feels like a large portion of the blame rests on the lack of video games. When I was a kid when the Special Editions and Prequels came out there was a constant flood of video games. When I wasn't watching the movies I'd be playing the games. Even back then I wasn't big into the action-figures (the Legos though, I must have had dozens of sets), it was the games that kept me into the Star Wars galaxy. Today that is even more important, gaming is a lot more ubiquitous today than it was 20-25 years ago, not having a lot of Star Wars games for all ages is hurting the franchise.

 

I've often wondered about this. I don't have any way to quantify this and I don't interact much with children at this stage in my life, so I don't know if the sense of apathy I am feeling from the new generation is really there or just an illusion. To me, it doesn't seem like the ST is gripping the new generation the way the PT gripped my generation or the OT gripped the generation before me.

If it is the case, I would blame it on the ST lacking an identity of its own. The PT felt like my generation's Star Wars. It introduced a whole new era that was very enticing to explore through other media. The ST, on the other hand, borrows so much from the OT and relies so heavily on nostalgia that I imagine it doesn't have the same appeal to the upcoming generation. It's possible that they view it as something more for their parents than for them. George Lucas has always insisted that Star Wars is for 12 year olds and, while that has been a controversial idea, it's an idea that will bring in new generations of fans. The Disney films seem more targeted to people who grew up with the OT than a new generation.

 

Yeah, as much as I don't like the PT today when I was in elementary and middle school they were amazing. They worked as an introduction to the Galaxy in a way that the Sequels don't. Sure, there was Obi-Wan, Yoda, Anakin, Palpatine, C-3PO, and R2D2 but you didn't need to have seen the OT at all to understand the PT. The ST feels like you need to know these character's journeys beforehand.

 

I have a coworker from India and he told me that he thinks the reason that Star Wars isn't big in Asia is because they don't have the nostalgia for it. Not a lot of people have grown up with the OT, so TFA fell flat. It could be a similar thing with kids today.

Even TLJ, which at first glance, seems to reject the reliance on OT nostalgia until you realize that it is just as dependent on it as TFA was. In order to subvert expectations, you need to have those expectations in the first place. Even if kids have seen the OT and/or the PT, this expectation of what a Star Wars movie is supposed to be won't be baked into their bones like it is for us older fans.

I'm trying to imagine what TLJ would be like for someone who hasn't seen the OT or PT. That mysterious old guy from the last movie, who was supposed to be a hero or something, turned out to be a depressed hermit who doesn't want to get involved in the war. That's not a storyline that's going to make you want to run home and play with your action figures. If you haven't seen the Lucas movies, would you even know what a Jedi really is?

 

I think toy sales in general are flat not just Star Wars and the convoluted launch system for Galaxy's Edge didn't quite help and the fact that the park has been opened when it straight up is not finished with Rise of the Resistance taking up a huge portion of it that has been offset until December in Florida and January in California.

 

Star Wars is doing just fine, people are making it a way bigger deal than it needs to be. Merchandise sales are down across the country, with kids just not playing with toys anymore (video games taking over). Galaxy's Edge is still an unfinished product that they are trying to figure out how to perfect. I wouldn't make any judgement on it for another year. TFA, TLJ, and RO all made north of a BILLION dollars, and Solo was destined to see a poor Box Office due to multiple factors (Summer release, poor marketing, not a saga film).

Star Wars is still a loved franchise, don't let the small VOCAL minority tell you otherwise. TROS is going to have a big box office, and hopefully make this argument mute.

 

Kids just play with their parents phones instead of toys, it's kinda sad, really. That being said, I've seen plenty of videos showing the crowds are there in Galaxy's Edge and people that I know are wanting to experience it for themselves that aren't stereotypical Star Wars fans.

I haven't got any doubts about the Lucasfilm team running the Star Wars movies, I've enjoyed everything they've produced. All that I've seen from Galaxy's Edge makes it seem really immersive, something a video game can't give kids (or adults...this adult can't wait to go there in October!).

 

If anything, Star Wars needs a moblie game app, pronto! and not just a Pokemon Go rip off!

 

That is not in question. What is in question is whether or not the franchise is resonating with children today as it did in the past.

The lack of games certainly is a big problem.

 

I think Disney SW needs to be careful. It is riding on a lot of OT and PT and Clone Wars goodwill right now. A lot of folk liked TFA and TLJ but a lot didn't. The public seemed a bit neutral towards Solo. The last 2 Battlefront games were disappointments. They need to hit a home run again in some form of media.

 

Jedi Fallen Order looks to be a game that a lot of people are looking forward to.

 

I think that the B&W series could potentially get a lot of people back on board if it takes place in an era that hasn't touched by the films. If I was them I would do an adaptation of the KotOR games and I would remain pretty faithful to them. The story and mythology is already there, it will be a new story for most people, including children, and many disgruntled Star Wars fans would be happy to see a beloved story on the screen. I think it's the right mix of familiar and different that Star Wars needs right now. That's just my opinion.

I hear you. I do think the PT backlash was overblown. Some fans hated them, but I think the general public liked them well enough. I think it might be the real thing with the ST though. As with many things these days, I don't know what to believe, but I do know that I haven't seen much excitement for Star Wars out in the world following TLJ. The excitement leading up to and following TFA was palpable. Everyone was talking about Star Wars. I was having conversations about TFA with people who aren't into the whole geek culture thing at all. I don't see that anymore.

 

A few articles suggest that the franchise is not resonating with the younger generation. What do you think?


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...shing-worker-hours-star-wars-flops-source.amp

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-struggling-to-win-over-the-marvel-generation

 

No

 

Appreciate your cogent response.

 

yes.

 

I think IX will be more of a litmus test rather than Galaxy's Edge attendance or toy sales.

 

Is the answer no?

 

No. Iger. You aren't probably aware of the projection, but it is not Star Wars fatigue. It is quite the opposite. It is unanswered craving or thirst for well baked Star Wars. Star Wars that is rolled in casks through several drafts until it has the right profile. Star Wars that was thought about at the kernel level, the spine level, and not just the external appearance that barks in garish lights at innocent gen x passersby. Star Wars drafts, several of them, that were bounced off experienced story writers in LFL. The problem is not too much Star Wars, as if the market could not handle it. The problem is the premature delivery of a cloned Star Wars that is missing crucial properties of what made Star Wars successful. One now has to discriminate between instant-add-water Box Office quarterly earnings shareholder gets a Tahiti vacation (which is why they sought out Abrams), and, slow, glacial build of a foundation of investment by new blood that can in later additions result in a cathedral of loyalty.

Here is just one model that allowed young consumers during the OT's construction to develop loyalty and build the collective cathedral. Luke got his ass kicked by Sand people in Jundland Wastes, by Ponda Baba at Mos Eisley cantina, by a training remote on the Falcon, by a Dianoga in the trash compactor. Then he lost Ben Kenobi, that bond being amplified in strength because of a direct association to a familial lineage, his father. Then he lost Biggs, that bond of friendship going back to at least his young teen years. His occasion for a whoop of esprit due to his own unaided prowess comes when he takes out a TIE while escaping the Death Star. (One might argue it occurs when he bursts into Leia's cell.) Are your "the new trilogy’s heroes, like Rey and Poe Dameron" really qualified to be heroes if they do not follow this model? They would be more placeholders for heroes. Plastic inserts in the shape of a hero that are inserted into the dashboard in the place that when you bought the car you expected a working, operational hero to be.

 

the Lego games are keeping some kids into SW. My friend's kids love SW Legos.

 

I still have the PT Lego Star Wars game for the PS2. Good times as a kid playing that game, and just eating up everything Star Wars during that time period. Me and my cousins had all the different plastic lightsabers, and use to beat the tar out of each other with them