Supplemental material has literally been a thing since the OT.
Side note:
That's actually not
exactly true. The "supplemental" material was either novelizations of the films (which, if memory serves, was usually based on some non-final-stage screenplay), or took the form of the newspaper comic strips or Marvel comic books.
The newspaper strips were later republished as Dark Horse Comics' "Classic Star Wars" line. The original run was from '79-'84.
The Marvel Comics run was from '77 (apparently starting 1 month prior to the film's release) up through '86.
Aside from that, you had Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the NPR radio dramatizations of the first two films, and...that was about it.
The
real explosion in Star Wars background material began in '87 with the publication of West End Games' Star Wars roleplaying game. You'd be stunned at just how much stuff from the source books there made its way into the wider Star Wars universe, even continuing today. That, I would argue, is really the point where the Star Wars universe begins to become "canonized." By that, I mean that the universe starts to have people impose rules, order, backstory, continuity, etc. The Marvel comics and the newspaper strips did some of that, but they were more just concerned with the immediate plot in front of them, rather than coherence of backstory or consistency in terms of worldbuilding. I mean, yeah, you'd make sure that Character XYZ who had met Luke Skywalker in Issue #54 didn't meet him again in Issue #83 and act like it was the first time, but otherwise, there wasn't the kind of minutia that we now apply to Star Wars.
The West End stuff really reached the broader public with the Zahn trilogy, which Zahn himself wrote with copies of the West End source books to provide background.
Anyway, my point here is pretty simple: the notion of "Oh, you have to read all this backstory stuff to understand" wasn't really an issue up through production of the PT. Lucas didn't bind himself to anything written by any of the EU authors. And during production of the OT, he never concerned himself with what the comics writers were doing. It just didn't factor in.
There's a ton of stuff we've come to just kind of "accept" as part of the background of Star Wars, but it didn't really exist contemporaneously with the development of the original films, and it didn't affect them or serve to explain them. The films just...were. You took them at face value.
I'm thinking that Yoda probably did try to talk to Luke in some way, but Luke wasn't hearing any of it from anyone, especially after what happened with Ben. Luke was probably in a funk about everything: basically his entire livelihood and purpose in life was gone in an instant because he made a stupid mistake. It was basically Luke being in a slump and depression about everything that transpired.
Yeah, I think sometimes the best teachers know when their audience is receptive, and when their comments will fall on deaf ears and it's best to wait til later.
Sure, there are stories there. Star Wars is literally filled with the implication that a lot of things are happening in the background or have happened in the past. The thing is, those stories don't serve the main narrative of the films we are watching.
Bingo. A huge part of the stuff we now sort of treat as established Star Wars backstory just...wasn't touched on in the original films. Where'd the Empire come from? How'd the galaxy shift from Republic to Empire? Who was the Emperor before he was Emperor? How'd he gain power? Remember, prior to -- at best -- his one scene in ESB, the Emperor's Sith abilities are never referenced at all. Implied, sure, but never explicitly referenced. But it's ultimately immaterial to the ongoing tale. There may be stories to tell about those issues as well, but it doesn't matter for the purpose of
this story.
With an aggressive slate of releases, an annual or perhaps biannual, SW “Saga” or “Trilogy” films should perform similar to the Avengers releases and “Story” films inline with GOTG or the recent Thor film. It’s wildly unrealistic to think they can reach towards $2B globally with any consistency. And that’s fine, box office is only one part of the revenue picture. Add further dilution with a TV series will make it much more similar to the Marvel model although SW will never match that release schedule.
I think (so far) the theory is an annual release.
At this point, I think TLJ is likely seen by Disney as a financial success. The degree of that success remains to be seen (e.g. all the merchandising you've mentioned), and Disney has taken a few bruises lately for issues unrelated to TLJ itself (e.g. Battlefront 2's loot crate fiasco, which may have resulted in industry-wide change and regulation), but aside from one DLC tie-in, that product isn't really what I'd consider a "TLJ" product specifically.
Honestly, I think the truly shaky, risky film will be Solo. I've thought for a while that the basic concept was a really risky one, and the film's troubled production history makes me think it could end up the first serious Star Wars theatrical disappointment we've seen (financially disappointing, I mean).
Beyond Ep. IX, I'm most curious about where else their "story" films go from here. Mining the backstories of OT/PT-era characters ain't gonna cut it. Rian Johnson's trilogy will hopefully branch well out of that realm. I'm hoping for more Rogue One-like stories that deal with entirely new characters in eras that remain familiar to us.
