Star Wars: The Quest for More Content

Sequels are rarely as good as the original movie, and for good reason. The best movies tend to be the complete package: characters solve their problems, complete their journey, and learn from their mistakes. There’s a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. No DLC required.

When a sequel is good, it usually means a larger story arc was already pre-written. For example The Godfather has three clear story arcs and one overarching story to tie them all together. Or sometimes, like with Aliens, the stakes are raised appropriately and the main character is given a new struggle that can only be overcome because of their experiences in the first movie.

The worst sequels tend to have the main characters magically reset so they have to relearn the same lessons all over again. Or I used to think so. Those were at least worthy of getting a numbered sequel. But you know you’re treading dangerous ground when you see a movie that isn’t worthy of being numbered, like The Crow: Wicked Prayer.

It gets worse than that. Far, far worse. With the advent of streaming services, all a content creator has to do is keep cranking out meaningless serialized content featuring your favorite characters, and they can keep you watching ad infinitum.

So long as the brand is well-established, the characters and/or world don’t have to change in meaningful ways to tell a story anymore. They just have to go through an “experience” like eating food, or going on vacation. Often, they don’t change at all.

But it gets worse than that, too. There’s a new breed of content that seeks to strip down and destroy beloved characters and their legacies, only to replace them with shallow pretenders and call it “canon”.

It should be painfully obvious to anyone by now that Star Wars has become a shambling corpse of its former self. And instead of learning from their past failures, Disney writers are of course doubling down. If you thought the series felt soulless since Episode VII (or maybe even sooner than that), wait ’til you see the glut that’s coming in the next twelve-to-fifteen months:

Folks, this is what “content” looks like, when creators have zero passion for their projects. Content is being created on a never-ending conveyor belt (with stamped-on Star Wars logos) to take advantage of all the suckers who still suffer from terminal brand loyalty. Consumers are gonna consoom, and that includes all the meaningless plastic merchandise.

Today, the remaining fans are what could best be described as die-hard, and I can’t help but wonder how many of them will survive this upcoming glut. If by the end of 2023 they can somehow still be excited about Brand, I’m afraid there’s no hope left for them.