Welcome to the third in the series of articles looking in detail at the Walt Disney Companies merger with Lucasfilm. All opinions are my own and do not necessary reflect those of this site or its owners.
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This blog we will look at Lucas Licencing, LucasArts and lastly Lucasfilm Animation…
PART THREE: LUCAS LICENSING, LUCASARTS, LUCAS ANIMATION
The company mantra is “Star Wars is Forever…” – argument can be made that Lucas Licensing is responsible for having ensured that Star Wars is still a relevant topic of discussion, and for ensuring that we sit of the cusp of perhaps the most radically changing and exciting time in the history of the Star Wars franchise.
The licensing element of the Star Wars franchise has taken in more than $20 billion revenue sales in the last 30 years. Star Wars licensed products sit at the top of the best selling boys toys, the novels sit a top the New York Times bestsellers lists, and Star Wars products are sold into more than 100 countries.
Any licensed Star Wars product passed through the halls of Lucas Licensing – has been subject to intense scrutiny and decision-making. The franchise could be used as a means to print money, but there is a great deal on intelligence that goes in to the decision process of what products to license, and to what type of company a license is given. That control and business intelligence is what has made the licensing of Star Wars so successful.
As a licensing conglomerate, Disney has 80% marketshare, and some $39.4 billion in retail sales according to the International Licensing Industry Merchandiser’ Association. Far surpassing any other franchise or studio. Disney clearly knows what they are doing when it comes to getting their products out there. They have undisputed access to markets and distributors. Something of massive value to Lucasfilm. But this is a merger and both sides bring value and skills to the table. Lucas Licensing know how to market and sell to boys – historically Disney’s biggest failing, they also know how to balance quality and quantity.
Being a much smaller concern Lucas Licensing has also been more open and able to work with smaller and or new start licenses. Perhaps the most prominent and known to fans is Her Universe. Ironically a firm who operate in predominately Disney’s female marketplace. Formed by Ashley Eckstein, of Star Wars Clone Wars fame, with her partners The Araca Group they founded a company to create merchandise for female sci-fi fans. It was an area traditionally ignored by mainstream licensees – and Ashley had the vision, passion, and skill to find that niche and turn in to a hugely successful and popular Star Wars licensee.
You have to wonder if the sheer size of Disney would have even enabled such a company to get their foot in the door. Lucas Licensing have that skill to see such partners, and it should remain a key part of their practice moving forward. For Her Universe they now also carry SyFy, Walking Dead, Trek, and Doctor Who merchandise, and represent a significant part of empowerment to female fandom.
Novels and comics and the Expanded Universe are arguably the area that reinvigorated the Star Wars universe back into mainstream conscious. Between the release of Return of the Jedi and the Heir to the Empire novel, Star Wars entered a dark time where it became more and more sidelined in the social conscious. The franchise was slowly stalling. Lucas Licensing moved to create an Expanded Universe and novel series, starting with a trilogy of novels from Timothy Zahn. Heir to the Empire captured the hearts and minds of Star Wars fans around the world. It became an almost instant hit, and topped the New York Times Bestsellers list. For me it is no surprise that comics would follow, coupled by the Special Editions of the films, the Prequel Trilogy, and ultimately maintain Star Wars relevance and fan base through to its purchase by Disney. Can Heir to the Empire take all the credit for this? No. It was the first piece in a kaleidoscope of events pushed and processed by Lucas Licensing to maintain and reforms the power of Star Wars in media. But credit must be given to Lucas Licensing whom reignited that passion and flame.
Comics and novels will continue to play a strong part in the future of Star Wars. They will continue to enrich the films, their characters, and backgrounds. Lucasfilm have always referred to the films, and TV as being canon, with the Expanded Universe being a secondary canon. They have worked hard to maintain the continuity but priority will always be given to the silver screen. It makes the future clouded to a degree. The Star Wars universe will be radically changed from Episode 7 onwards. Perhaps large parts of the EU will be lost to the main chronology as history is rewritten. It can be hard to accept, but it is inevitable. The value of that as entertainment is not however lost. At the forefront of the EU has been Del Rey and Dark Horse Comics. Working with Lucas Licensing to create an amazing depth of story and history that will always be treasured to EU fans such as myself. Both of these great creative companies face upcoming contract renewals.
Del Rey’s contract has never been discussed in a public forum, but I understand it to renew in 2014. Dark Horse Comics have openly said that their contract expires at the end of 2014.
Dark Horses’ license was openly debated after the Disney purchase as to whether it would be renewed. To the extent that Mike Richardson, owner of Dark Horse spoke out about it admitting that the deal “changes the landscape, so we’ll see what it means for the future.” With Marvel Comics being part of the Disney family, many automatically saw the future of Star Wars comics moving to Marvel. I don’t see that as being an automatic choice. Dark Horse has built up a 20-year relationship with Lucasfilm – producing some exceptional products, and 2013 is arguably one of their strongest. Yes there are cost benefits to Marvel producing the comics, but you must remember at each renewal Marvel have been invited to bid for the license, and they have bid – but have never been successful since they lost the license in the 1980s.
I believe strongly, and my gut tells me that Dark Horse will keep the license. Based on quality not finance. I think creatively they can bring more to the table than Marvel would. Marvel may be a significantly larger force, but is Star Wars priority to them? No. That lack of creative, and drive could be the deciding factor. I believe that Dark Horse may even be asked or push to expand their license. Perhaps into international publishing markets, perhaps into motion comic books. Dark Horse has a very intriguing relationship building with Madefire, a motion story telling book format that they are breaking ground with on “Hellboy in Hell.” I have been watching this format with great interest. It is this amazing hybrid between cartoons and comics, and could revolutionise comics in the digital age. You should check it out at madefire.com and take a moment to envision Star Wars in the format.
IF, and it is a big capital letter IF Dark Horse are pursuing the Star Wars license using creativity like this, then how could you consider taking that away from them. I have a deep love of Dark Horse’s Star Wars content, and it would make my Xmas if DH announced the renewal of their license. I believe that announcement for or against could come soon, as there is generally a years worth of planning to comics, and 2015 could be a sparse year if calls on this are not made soon.
As for Del Rey, they again have a strong working relationship with Lucasfilm under the Lucas Books imprint. For me their quality has dipped and peaked but perhaps that is more on personal taste rather than enjoyment. John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi was for perfection. I am a huge JJM fan so that perhaps comes as no surprise to many. If the Del Rey do face renewal next year, then a great part of the bid may be around the new movies and how they would support that. If the EU is to be nixed, and specifically the storyline that Del Rey have pushed – surely they get the chance to complete that version of the Universe with style.
Toys are obviously a HUGE part of the licensing of Star Wars. I am no expert in that area, and people whom follow that collecting line could do worse than follow our own James Burn and Dan Curto on their Curto Burns podcast. They have the inside track on everything Star Wars toys. As for the initial development of this area it is well reported that Hasbro has the Star Wars rights through 2020 – paying an additional $250 million in additional royalties’ to account for the new film in the franchise. This relationship is tight, secure and Disney will only look to enhance that.
One the first major decisions that the new Disney owned Lucasfilm made was the closure of LucasArts. I don’t wish to dwell on this too much, as it has been discussed and debated at great length and detail elsewhere. With many former employees speaking eloquently on the demise of the company.
What I do wish to mention is that the former LucasArts President Paul Meegan was quoted once as saying “We should be making games that define our medium, that are competitive with the best of our industry, but we’re not. That has to change.” They never achieved that, the quality of LucasArts game were on a declining slope – unable to compete with games with movie sized budgets.
LucasArts was once a legendary establishment producing innovative and groundbreaking games – in recent years it became a bed of dark rumors about indecisiveness and continual reboots of games. The Presidential role became a revolving round about, and there was no real drive from the top of LucasFilm. One can only assume that it became a loss making organization as the terrible development cycles with limited releases just do not make business sense.
It was clear from day one that Disney would not stand for this apparent dysfunctional loss leading division. Disney had a history of closing games divisions from its prior acquisitions and business groups. With Star Wars and Indiana Jones being the franchises driving LucasArts development – the licensing model was a clear direction to head in. Guaranteed income, and profits with none of the risk. It also has the benefit of allowing a broader range and portfolio of games to be developed in tandem that LucasArts could not hope to do.
The divisions, finance, skills and desire of EA now leading the video games development we can hope the quality of games will rise. I actually applaud the fact that they will not make movie based games – as these have never been a success for any games firm.
For EA they have a 10-year deal that they can attack and develop in multiple platforms and genres. Coupled with the unrivalled Disney marketing force, and Star Wars reach – this could be a fantastic scoop for EA. We can but look forward to Star Wars: Battlefront in 2015.
As for Star Wars 1313 – a LucasArts game under development, and hotly anticipated. My understanding is that why that game may never see the world – the tech used to develop the game, is being incorporated into Lucas Animation and ILM and so will have an impact in the larger Lucasfilm business.
Formed in 2003 as the vehicle to develop Star Wars Clone Wars, Lucasfilm Animation is one of the most debated pieces of the Lucasfilm Empire. Can it exist under Disney? Will Disney merge it into one of their own animation houses? The initial answer seems to be a resounding no, but long term I am not convinced that it will not become a division of Walt Disney Company or Pixar. Perhaps Rebels will be the real test of this, and perhaps that change is not negative in anyway.
Clone Wars was a nothing short of an unexpected sensational success. It will see a more fitting end that people expect by having in excess of 10 episodes or extreme high quality to end the series. Many campaigned, and continue to campaign to “Save the Clone Wars” but the frank business reality is that Clone Wars was a high budget, pet project of George Lucas – and undoubtedly did not make a financial sense of Disney to continue to pursue long term. It perhaps represents the change in leadership under Disney from George Lucas. There will be no pet projects, each project, and each division must stand on its own two feet and profit and succeed. That is probably practical business policy. The one perhaps negative of this – would Clone Wars have survived under Disney following the badly thought of movie launch and early seasons. It certainly would have had a question mark over it.
Rebels will be a lower budget, but not necessary lower quality series. The knowledge and tech developed for Clone Wars continues to exist and can be utilised. Coming from Dave Filoni it will get immediate fan interest and support, and will open with great fanfare and promotion. Expectation will be high, and it will be expected to deliver. It will not get a few seasons to find its feet. This will be the way of product releases in all mediums moving forward – and is something we will have to embrace.
I hope to see this animation part of the business expand, all signs point to that being the case. Star Wars and indeed Indiana Jones makes a great platform for development. I am interested in seeing if they will move towards Star Wars animated movies. What I don’t see is diversification into other franchise creation. Lucasfilm will be a Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchise. Other projects would surely be developed by other parts of the Disney group. Which does put a question mark over the oft mooted Filoni led fairy movie.
One project shelved under the Disney purchase was Star Wars Detours. A highly anticipated Star Wars comedy series from the Robot Chicken team. It was even promoted by George Lucas himself at Star Wars Celebration VI. I don’t read too much into this other than a decision of “do we really want to poke fun at the potential heroes of Episode 7” conversation having been had at some point. It certainly looked fun, but was never going to be anything other than cult TV. I expect at some point in the next few years it will see light of day in some digital release with respectful low promotion perhaps aimed at the older guard of Star Wars fans.
Join the debate, and meet me back here soon for the completion of the series where he first look at the other assets purchased by Disney as part of the Lucasfilm deal, before ending the series with a discussion on the future of Star Wars, Lucasfilm, and The Maker himself.
Sources:
lucasfilm.com
thewaltdisneycompany.com
businessweek.com
variety.com
comicbookresources.com
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