Third, and last, I believe Star Wars needs to rest. From 1985 to 1991 Star Wars was fairly dead in pop culture. It was a beloved movie series, but not one which most people discussed daily. Then a slow drip of new material formed, starting with games, then novels, comics, and building slowly until we had the special edition releases of the movies and, finally, a new film. Eight years were spent teasing the public and making them crave more Star Wars, doling it out in small doses while waiting to unleash greatness upon us. I believe Star Wars needs that again.

I hate to kick a franchise when it’s down, and I’ve already hit on Star Trek once this article, but it is an apt scenario. Star Trek has been pushing new product on us regularly since 1979. Between ’79 and ’87 we had four movies, followed immediately by a new television series. That franchise is empty now, every possible avenue for exploration mined and then mined some more until there was nothing new left. Star Wars already has some of that occurring in its expanded universe (a third Death Star, a planet-of-the-week phenomenon occurring in the prequel era novels, etc.) Perhaps some down time will allow the public to rebuild the nostalgia for Star Wars and then again something tremendous can happen.

In the end I doubt if this will happen. Star Wars, like Trek before it, is a business. Businessmen see ways to profit through television, through books, through figures, statues, and games. Perhaps the quality will lessen, perhaps not, but either way I am satisfied because in 2 days (8 hours, 9 minutes, 5 seconds) the final pieces will fall into place and I, as a fan, will be content.

In the hearts of the pure, Star Wars Is Forever.

As such we will get not one television series (which would likely satiate fans’ appetites) but two. I believe the movies will be altered even more (and maybe they’ll find a way to fix the herky jerky special effects in the Greedo shoots first scene) and eventually the fans will fade. First the fair-weather hyped fans will move on to the next “big thing”, then some of the die-hards who cannot live without the hype will start to move on. Celebration IV will happen without nearly the crowd (or, hopefully, the lines) of C3 because of the fickle nature of the public.