Star Wars after Lucas: A Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy

Star Wars was nearly extinct in 2012 when George Lucas sold the franchise to Disney. However, Dan Golding's book "Star Wars after Lucas" explores how cultural nostalgia and Disney's contemporary entries helped revive the franchise. The book analyzes the significance of music, CGI, audience demographics, and political responses to the new Star Wars, making it both entertaining and enlightening.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 04 July 2023
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, back in the early 2010s, Star Wars seemed to be nearing its end. But then, in 2012, something unexpected happened: George Lucas decided to sell the franchise, along with Lucasfilm, to Disney. This is the story of how, over the next five years, Star Wars went from being on the brink of extinction to what Wired magazine later called "the forever franchise," with more films in the works than its first four decades had produced.

Focusing on The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One (2016), The Last Jedi (2017), and the television series Rebels (2014-18), Dan Golding explores the significance of pop culture nostalgia in overcoming the skepticism, if not outright hostility, that greeted the Star Wars relaunch. At the same time, he shows how Disney, even as it tapped into a backward-looking obsession, was nonetheless creating genuinely new and contemporary entries in the Star Wars universe.

A host of cultural factors and forces propelled the Disney-engineered Star Wars renaissance, and all figure in Golding's deeply informed analysis: from John Williams's music in The Force Awakens to Peter Cushing's CGI face in Rogue One, to Carrie Fisher's passing, to the rapidly changing audience demographic.

Star Wars after Lucas delves into the various responses and political uses of the new Star Wars in a wider context, as in reaction videos on YouTube and hate-filled, misogynistic online rants. In its granular textual readings, broad cultural scope, and insights into the complexities of the multimedia galaxy, this book is as entertaining as it is enlightening, an apt reflection of the enduring power of the Star Wars franchise.

Dimension: 216 x 140 x 38 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517905415