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‘The Force Awakens’ Has Changed The ‘Star Wars’ Universe To A Franchise Like Marvel And ‘Star Trek’

By Tony Smejek
Published on: 08:49 PST, Jan 3, 2016

Star Wars: The Force Awakens fans contribute their feedback regarding the “expanded universe” when it comes to ushering the space opera back into a “galaxy far, far away.” Some are of the mind that The Force Awakens has altered what was once the trilogy into a different path according to Wired. It looks like Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley, and John Boyega are the trio of heroes in this film who take on roles that set themselves apart from the old cast from the Star Wars trilogy.

John Boyega plays a stormtrooper, or “Finn,” who decides not to follow The First Order’s orders. He soon joins up with Poe Dameron, played by X-Men: Apocalypse’s Oscar Isaac and they seemingly become the best of buds right off the bat.

Star Wars and The Force Awakens fan/author Matt London, on the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, gives his take on where the franchise is going since J.J. Abrams helmed the film. So far, there are “in-between” Star Wars solo movies, or touted moreso as “Anthologies,” that fill the cracks between the next two installments of the trilogy. London is saying that the franchise will completely change from here on out. London is of the mind that the original trilogy was more of a story that is told from beginning to end with a “happily ever after.”

Now, the Star Wars franchise has become “serialized” with cinematic or expanded universes out there involving franchising of the brands, much like Star Trek and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is a concern for London. It seems there is a focus on what happens after the “happily ever after.” Sure, the princess married the prince and that where the story ended in a generic fantasy novel. They are still young adults though, right? How can there possibly not be anything after? London explains his point of view.

“Star Wars is the modern myth. It’s the epic that you can use to teach narrative structure, because it fits it so well. And the thing that made me so mad about this movie is, how do you tell the story of Star Wars to your kids now? You say, ‘At the end all the heroes that you loved lived happily ever after … and then two hours later [they didn’t].”

One may be familiar with the 1984 film Romancing the Stone, and according to Wikipedia, author Joan Wilder wonders after having written so many romantic novels what happens after the happy ending. It seems that the idea of adding a little more reality into fiction is becoming the common practice these days.

“Because life goes on and it’s not always happily ever after. And I think that says something about our society today, that we’re willing to see what happens after, and that it’s not always pretty.”

The Force Awakens was also made comparable to J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot. Science fiction editor John Joseph Adams expressed his thoughts on this comparison, and even though he wasn’t too thrilled with the plot, he did enjoy what Abrams did with the young characters.

“It’s kind of the same thing he did with the Star Trek reboot, where I didn’t really like the plot, and the scientific stuff was ridiculous, but I still enjoyed the first one because I really liked what he did with the characters. And I felt like he was doing a similar thing here.”

Science fiction writer Rajan Khanna explained that the grittiness of The Force Awakens couldn’t quite compare to the likeness of the grittiness of the original trilogy, regardless of the usage of practical effects.

“You can touch it, you can feel it, everything is a little dirty. And I didn’t feel that so much in this, except for the scenes on Jakku.”

Now, George Lucas mentioned in an interview with CBS This Morning, reported via Slash Film, that he didn’t want The Force Awakens to be “retro” film.

“Popular is okay with me. I think it’s a very important part of society. If you’re making a work of art or a film or whatever and nobody sees it, it does nobody any good.”

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens it was mentioned by Slash Film that it could be hard to argue Lucas because it does use a potpourri of elements from the original trilogy, be it the Tatooine-ish planet of Jakku or even usage of massive, destructive technology such as the Star Killer that takes out multiple planets which is reminiscent of the Star Wars: A New Hope’s Death Star. That must have been quite a big “shovel” they used to dig out the planet and place a big gun in its center in The Force Awakens.

It seems as though the “crippled” Empire had bounced back by demonstrating this war machine’s destructive abilities by taking out Republic-associated planets and crippling the backing that was going to The Resistance. Do you think this move was made to think the audience would realize that it’s not over until the fat lady sings, as the on-going Star Wars saga saunters forward?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently in theaters and has amassed $1.51 billion globally at this point according to Entertainment Weekly.

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News]

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