The recent announcement of the Star Wars Episode IX title, The Rise Of Skywalker, caused ripples of delight through Star Wars fandom, particularly with the enigmatic trailer suggesting an unexpected return by Emperor Palpatine in some capacity as his signature cackle closed out the exclusive preview. With Disney CEO Bob Iger stating that the Star Wars franchise will be taking a break to plan and re-group following the release of the final film in the sequel trilogy, much debate has occurred online around the notion that Disney and Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy have mis-managed the franchise by not having a plan in place when Star Wars creator George Lucas sold the franchise to Disney, particularly with the fallout on the previous film The Last Jedi. Is there merit to this claim? Steve and Ben discuss the Star Wars franchise as it exists under Disney, the fandom, and whether or not we should be expecting anything at all given the franchise has gone well beyond Lucas’ original Star Wars outline.

Listen to the audio version of this episode at this link: MP3 Audio (RSS)