What Would Star Wars Really Be Like Without Disney?
Some people think Disney has 'ruined' Star Wars, but would the franchise really be better off without Disney?
When Disney bought Star Wars, many worried about what this would mean for the movies and TV shows. Since then, opinions on Disney's Star Wars projects have been mixed.
On one hand, some of the best Star Wars TV shows have been produced since Disney took over.
On the other hand, a few movies considered among the worst in the franchise, including the sequel trilogy, were also made by Disney. This makes us wonder: how different would Star Wars be today if Disney had never acquired it?
George Lucas Would Probably Never Have Made the Sequels
George Lucas did have ideas for a sequel trilogy, but they were quite different from the Disney Star Wars films we got.
Lucas envisioned Darth Maul as the main villain and Darth Talon as his apprentice, a choice many fans wish they had seen.
In his plan, Princess Leia would have been the central hero, completing the trio of trilogies with the Skywalker family, while Luke Skywalker would have worked to re-establish the Jedi Order.
These ideas sound exciting, and it's natural to wonder how they would have turned out. However, it's uncertain if Lucas's sequel trilogy would have actually been made.
According to Robert Iger's book, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Lucas wrote these sequel scripts mainly to boost the value of Lucasfilm before selling it to Disney.
He was aiming to match the high sale price that Pixar fetched, which was about $7.4 billion.
In the end, Lucasfilm was sold for about $4.05 billion. It appears that George Lucas created the drafts for the sequel trilogy mainly to increase the value of Lucasfilm before selling it to Disney.
This suggests that, if Disney hadn't bought Star Wars, these sequels might not have been made at all. While Disney could have used Lucas's ideas, which might have been popular, this doesn’t mean Disney ‘ruined’ Lucas’s plans.
The Clone Wars Would’ve Continued Without a Break
One of Disney's early decisions that upset many fans was canceling Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Although the show is now a favorite among Star Wars fans, it had mixed reviews at first, which might be why Disney decided to change the direction of Star Wars TV shows. Eventually, The Clone Wars was brought back and finished.
If Disney hadn’t bought Star Wars, it’s likely that The Clone Wars would have continued without being canceled and revived.
However, we might never know exactly how that would have turned out. The creators of The Clone Wars probably had a plan that was interrupted by the cancellation and the delay before the show was renewed. Whether or not that original plan was followed remains unclear.
