When George Lucas made Star Wars, he had no idea that what he was creating would become the most popular science fiction franchise of all time. He just wanted to make a good movie. Lucas has said over and over again that when making Star Wars, he imagined its core audience would be pretty young. In a speech given at 2017's Star Wars Celebration, Lucas said that Star Wars was intended to be enjoyed by twelve-year-olds.
To be sure, when Star Wars first came out, many of its most intense fans were children. Each time a new movie (or new trilogy of movies) gets released, kids of the era fall in love with the galaxy far, far away. But for most people, Star Wars fandom doesn't disappear with age. The kids who loved Star Wars back in 1977 still love it today, they're just grown-ups now. That begs the question: does Star Wars always have to be aimed at children?
Lucas says yes, and he's repeated that sentiment over and over again. Despite that insistence, he also created a prequel trilogy that seems designed to bore kids to tears. That's not to say kids didn't love the prequels. A whole generation of Star Wars fans exists today because they first sat down to meet the galaxy at a screening of The Phantom Menace. One of that movie's main characters was himself a child. However, much of the screen time in the prequels is taken up by trade negotiations and cringe-worthy romantic subplots.
No one is asking for those elements of the prequel trilogy to be expanded on in future Star Wars adventures. However, the question of whether or not Star Wars can be directly aimed at adults remains very much on the table. The original Star Wars fans are now parents or grandparents. The kids who fell in love with the prequels are all adults now, too. The Disney sequels, despite their failings, certainly brought some younger fans on board. At this point, though, there's no denying that most Star Wars fans are adults.
As the fans get older, Star Wars seems to stay the same. One of the major complaints lobbed at the sequel trilogy was that it rehashed too many elements from previous movies. If those movies brought the kids in, why would Disney change their formula? As long as Star Wars is going after the same demographic, it doesn't have a need to evolve. So adult fans are left watching near-remakes of old movies and bingeing animated shows like The Bad Batch while waiting for something more.
Star Wars fans come in all varieties. Some are kids who first fell in love with the series watching Rey beat down baddies in 2015. Others are longtime diehards who can explain in detail the differences between the VHS and Blu-ray editions of A New Hope. First Lucas, and now Disney, pretended that the Star Wars audience was homogeneous and easily summed up. Doing so is a disservice not just to fans, but to the storytelling capabilities of the Star Wars mythos. It's time for a change.
New Opportunities
There's no need for Disney to abandon Lucas's ideal of a science fiction series designed for twelve-year-olds. Star Wars has always been and will always be popular with kids. If anything, Disney should try to capitalize on that aspect of the series to keep their fan base thriving with new admits.
At the same time, pretending that the only people who watch Star Wars are kids leaves the adult fans out in the Hoth-level cold. Back when Lucas was still at the helm, he had to make some tough choices about who Star Wars should be targeted towards. When the trilogies were in production, Star Wars was getting a new movie roughly every three years. He decided that those big moments should go to the kids, and the adults could find their way through EU material.
That's not the case anymore. With Disney Plus, new Star Wars material is coming out so quickly it can be a challenge just to keep up. Disney has eleven new Star Wars shows lined up for release on the service right now. In addition to that, the studio has a new film trilogy in the pipeline, this time set to be directed by Rian Johnson.
There's finally screen time for every type of Star Wars fan. Disney can't realistically expect all of their shows to do well if they're all targeted at the same demographic. They don't need to sacrifice Lucas's ethos entirely by filling a show with blood, gore, and sex. Star Wars doesn't need to go full Game of Thrones to become more engaging to its adult audience. The franchise just needs to acknowledge that not everyone sitting in front of the screen is twelve years old anymore.