The Mouse House now owns the Star Wars trilogy. I am saying this for the benefit of the one person who does not know this, in his comfortable bubble. The internet has been all a Twitter (I made a funny!) over the news, especially the news that a seventh episode of Star Wars is a comin' for 2015. George Lucas will be "consulting", although its probably no secret he wants out of the empire he created, which probably motivated the decision to sell Lucasarts.
Lucas was never the biggest force in creating Star Wars, and it is to the detriment to the movie series that he had iron-fisted control over making the prequels. It wouldn't surprise me if he wanted out, and probably has for the longest time. Star Wars has been a creative albatross around his neck. He cannot do story and characters as well as he would like to (as evidence, look at the fact the best Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, had a cowriter and a different director), and its for the best if he sticks to the avant garde visual stuff he's always wanted to do but never got the chance to because of his indebtedness to the Star Wars trilogy.
He's out of his cage now, and I hope he uses his new resources wisely. Ideally he should be a producer, nuturing and encouraging a new generation of talent. I'm not forbidding him from making movies: I'm not a spiteful fan who hates him from everything he's ever done. If he wants to retire, put his feet up and enjoy having enough money to give everyone in the United States a university education twice over, then good for him.
Good news is that Lucas cannot release anymore insipid revisions to the Original Trilogy. Furthermore, a release of the original, unmolested trilogy is pretty much guaranteed---yes, Disney loves money and there are legions of nerds who want it badly enough to pay considerably for it, a match made in heaven. Original trilogy fans will sleep comfortably.
I am suspecting that a Star Wars revival towards the middle of the decade would work out well for science fiction the same way the original Star Wars did back in 1977. Expect more science fiction movies coming out and probably more adaptations of science fiction novels. I've been suspecting that more adaptations of novels into movies, in the vein of the Hunger Games, will continue, accelerated by the Ender's Game movie that comes out next year. I don't think it will affect literary science fiction one way or another but for the genre I think it will create good optics. Frankly, superhero movies are getting tired, and I look forwards for a cinematic Sci-Fi (capital S, capital F) renaissance.
For the most part, good news. Granted, Disney dosen't have a sterling reputation, especially regarding the most picayune lawsuits regarding its intellectual property. Still, I suspect the Force is strong with this one.
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