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by kartan 2901 days ago
> I have a hard time seeing something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe happening if it wasn’t for Disney being as big as it is.

I have read the comics. The stories are better. But to maintain a big corporation, stories need to be dumbed down to appeal to as many people as possible.

Everybody gets to see a good movie, but nobody gets to see the movie they would like the best.

> It’s possible that Disney is the only reason Star Wars is back too.

Disney and extended copyright is the reason you don't see more Star Wars content. If Star Wars copyright had expired, you will see a lot more content about that fictional universe.

Look for "Alice in Wonderland" and you will find card games, video games, reeditions, new interpretations in comic, film, and books (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/27554.Best_Retellings_of...)... Because it is part of the public culture.

Star Wars is part of a lot of people youth. If Star Wars was free to use it will have one hundred times more content than an old book, even a very famous one, like "Alice in Wonderland".

Disney has its own negative word to describe how negative is that impact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyfication

Disney does good movies, indeed. But it doesn't mean that it is the best option to do so.

2 comments

> Disney and extended copyright is the reason you don't see more Star Wars content. If Star Wars copyright had expired, you will see a lot more content about that fictional universe.

When Disney acquired LucasFilms my first thought was that they will probably kill the Star Wars Extended Universe and in a sense they did. There was a tremendous amount of Star Wars comics from Dark Horse during the 90s and 00s that built upon the whole Star Wars mythology. The "Old Republic" series (including the games) is probably the most enjoyable Star Wars story I've ever encountered but alas everything was rendered non-canon when Disney worked their magic. Now everything Star Wars revolves around the original chronology rehashing the same things over and over again in a "panem et circences" manner with no hope of seeing any new stories of any kind.

It's a shame

> If Star Wars copyright had expired

Star Wars's copyright would have only expired if we were still under copyright law from before 1909. And even then, that would technically be only for the first movie. So the characters from that movie could be used, but not any characters in the later movies. You could have Han Solo, but not Lando. Obi-Wan, but not Yoda, etc.

And you'd likely also have to deal with trademark issues, which are separate from copyright.

And there is still plenty of Star Wars content out there and being made.