Introduction

Lightsabers and Beetle-Effect

Abstract

In a context where the Disney empire seeks to transform the Star Wars franchise with the Marvel recipe, opening production valves on many platforms (comics, TV series, video games) – the flux of feature-length movies and transmedia objects seemingly unstoppable – it is fitting to question the evolution that the most famous contemporary fictional galaxy far, far away is undergoing at the moment. This Kinephanos issue will approach the phenomenon from a resolutely contemporary angle, since it targets first and foremost movies that were released after the Disney buyout. However, it is impossible to dovetail a diachronic approach: except the youngest of spectators and naysayers coming to the theatre to accompany fan friends, the vast majority of the Star Wars audience consumes these movies through a cognitive and affective capital inherited from their experience of the first two trilogies. The temporal span of the saga is full of change, even if creator George Lucas spent his time at the franchise’s helm trying to keep it forever present, notably through retouches keeping it in line with technical progress. Be it the typical style of mainstream fictions, the balance between production and postproduction, the films’ distribution or reception practices, many movie-making dimensions aren’t what they used to be in 1977. From there, one can observe three socio-anthropological “issues” that these transformations bring to the new Star Wars movies.