Solo No One Can Hear You!

Long, long ago, in a multiplex far, far away . . .

The Solo trailer dropped and I’m crazy-pumped up about it.  Honestly, I’m more excited to see Donald Glover take on the role of Lando Calrissian than anything else.  Here, take a moment to see what all the fuss is about:

Now, I’ve seen a lot of fan rage over, well, everything.  You can’t log into a social media platform these days and not keep yourself warm from the hate that burns hotter than a thousand desert suns.

Cheesy? Yes. But also yummy good!

Star Wars itself (and the first one was called just that "Star Wars") was always meant as Lucas' love-letter to B-movie serials like "Flash Gordon" among many, many, many others (so is Indiana Jones) but with a budget behind it. It still wasn't the budget he wanted, but it was enough to let him make the film. It worked. Space opera taken "seriously" was a great riff on an old classic. There are enough plot holes in the original film to fill a Super Star Destroyer, but no one really cared, and since there was no internet to really work people up, everyone just accepted the film for what it was—entertainment.

Along the way, however, Lucas started to take himself a bit too seriously. He decided that he had mythology embedded all along, and tried to build off that. He also decided that the real money was in merchandising, and he wasn't wrong. "Return of the Jedi" was as much a 132 minute commercial as it was the conclusion of the series—and it was meant to be the conclusion. Lucas stated in a few places that there would be no more films. And yet, he never stopped making Star Wars. The two made-for-TV Ewok films released in immediate succession to "Jedi" in '84 and '85. Animated series "Droids" and "Ewoks" ran through '86. There has been no end of extended universe stories, the Han Solo trilogy, and most notably the Thrawn series by Timothy Zahn. There have been really great games and so forth.

More entertainment for all kinds of audience members.

That’s really the point.  Since 1977, there has always been an appetite for more Star Wars Universe stories.  From the Holiday Special (egads) to online fan-fiction, there's no reason to suggest that they should end. Thankfully, Lucas let go of the reins. He was always better with the big ideas and not so much with the execution of nuance that makes a story palatable. JJ Abrams, for all his faults, knows how to tell a good story, and was completely able to tap into the original space opera themes and tropes and present them in an updated and exciting way. Rian Johnson did the same with his turn at the helm. I would have preferred he stayed for the next movie, but bringing Abrams back for the stability of this next "conclusion" is not a bad thing. Also, I'm SUPER excited to see a young Han Solo movie. If nothing else, Donald Glover as a young Lando Calrissian is DEFINITELY going in the right direction.

The Force will be with us, always.