So, I’m clearly not in tune with all fandom news because then I would have realized that the trailer I shared for the latest volume of Star Wars: Visions on Wednesday was but one output of a massive Star Wars marketing shindig last week (aka Star Wars Celebration 2023).
There’s numerous articles about the various announcements made at the event, but I found myself interested in one 19-minute interview with showrunners Dave Filoni and John Favreau with IGN about the announcements and, more importantly, how they approach world-building:
One of the bigger takeaways was how aware they are that different people will have different entry points to Start Wars. They were part of the original cohort of fans that loved the first trilogy, but now they have a whole generation who began with the prequel trilogy. They want to make sure potential fans can enter at multiple points.
There’s a bigger corporate logic as well that understands Star Wars is now something that parents introduce their kids to (it might help that there’s so many Gen X and millennials involved with making Star Wars who began as fans thanks to their parents). So now they’re looking to codify that phenomenon even more, something Lucasfilm head Katheleen Kennedy talks about in her 12-minute interview. Actually, the two interview are a nice contrast as Kennedy is clearly from a strategic point-of-view, but the goals mirror what Filoni and Favreau talk about on a more tactical storytelling level.
Overall, it’s nice to see storytellers take their joy in storytelling so seriously… and joyfully.