While Japan has been a huge influence in my life from a young age, the other great inspiration for me has always been Star Wars, as the 400+ Star Wars figures displayed in my office can attest. I was therefore quite interested to read the news that Disney was buying the rights to the Star Wars franchise, and spent a few hours chuckling at entertainment blogs as they tried to come up with variations on “When You Wish Upon a Death Star” puns. I enjoyed seeing the range of reactions by fans on the J-List Facebook Page, some of which were negative (“I’m surprised my childhood was only worth 4 billion dollars”) while others were hopeful (“it can’t get any worse, I think it will get better”). In some ways it seemed like we were “kids” being told by our parents of a divorce and remarriage to a new parent, and some fans seemed to really be in shock about the news. Personally, I’m upbeat about the ownership change, since Disney and Star Wars have been joined at the hip ever since Star Tours opened in 1987, and the fit seems to work pretty well. (The marriage of Star Wars and Japan isn’t too bad either.) My main passion is for the really excellent Star Wars games like the Battlefront series, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for some good news in this area in the future.
What are your thoughts on the Disney + Lucasfilm marriage?
