Two of my favorite franchises, “Star Wars” (which regular readers may have noticed I’m obsessed with) and “Veronica Mars” (my No. 6-ranked show of the Aughts, and on my to-do list for “rewatching and reviewing the classics”) showed different approaches on how to treat their fanbases this month. Disney broke fans’ hearts by canceling “The Clone Wars” after five seasons (about two more seasons of stories were planned, with several character arcs yet to be wrapped up), while “Veronica” copyright owner Warner Bros. is working with creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell to make a movie.
This is a flip-flop for both franchises. When “Star Wars” was owned by Lucasfilm, George Lucas had all the power, but that was OK because he loved his creation as much as fans did. And while we had to wait a long time for a new movie between 1983 and 1999, and while there are some examples of canceled projects within the franchise, there was never a shortage of “Star Wars” out there. The cancellation of the deftly plotted, sharply acted and just-plain-cool “Veronica Mars” after three seasons in 2007 was a blow to fans of quality TV, and — although it’s generally had at least one decent show on the air since then — it marked the end of The CW as the one-stop shop for smart and cool shows.
In the back of my mind, I was wary about Disney owning Lucasfilm when the sale was announced in October, but not in my wildest dreams did I imagine they would cancel “The Clone Wars.” Reasons for shows being cancelled are almost always low ratings or high production costs (or a combination of the two), but that didn’t apply here, since “Clone Wars” drew a respectable 2 million viewers and Disney owns Lucasfilm’s animation wing outright. Some have theorized that “Clone Wars” toy sales were lower than expected (which is possible, as a large chunk of the audience was adults rather than kids), but essentially this was an outright flexing of power by the new owners of “Star Wars.” With vague promises of releasing the unaired episodes as “bonus content” somewhere, and allusions to a new animated series, Disney canceled “The Clone Wars” mostly because it could.
As with the cancelation of the rest of the movies in 3D (“The Phantom Menace’s” 2012 release was supposed to start an annual rollout of the series), the axing of “The Clone Wars” — while it won’t necessarily be GOOD for the company — will not seriously HURT Disney. “Star Wars” is so popular that it’s idiot-proof from a marketing and public relations standpoint. Because of this crass business move, I may not get to see the conclusion of the arcs of Hondo Ohnaka, Aurra Sing, Asajj Ventress, Darth Maul, or — most notably — Ahsoka Tano (who left the Jedi Order in the Season 5 finale), but will I take a pass on buying a ticket to “Episode VII” out of spite? In all honestly, probably not.
While Disney is teaching a free session of How Not to Treat Your Fans 101, Warner Bros. is doing the opposite. Through the website Kickstarter, Thomas and Bell raised the $2 million needed to make the movie in just 10 hours (making a mockery of their self-imposed 30-day deadline), and Warner Bros. will handle the marketing side.
Kickstarter is a brilliant free-market exchange that allows people to pay money toward the making of a product (often a book, CD or low-budget film), with the guarantee of perks if it gets made and a total refund if it doesn’t get made. This “Veronica Mars” deal might mark an intriguing flip-flop in the TV/movie industry. Ever since the start of television, success was measured by the size of the audience rather than the passion of the audience. But thanks to Kickstarter directly connecting fans with creators (along with the intelligent foresight of Warner Bros. recognizing a sweet business deal), a “Veronica Mars” movie will be made. Maybe it’ll even be the start of a movie series.
Meanwhile, “Star Wars” is so huge that the passionate fans within the larger fan base are drowned out. Sure, the creative team loves “Clone Wars” as much as we do, but there’s a reason why you won’t hear producer Dave Filoni passionately speak out against Disney’s decision (although we can read between the lines): He doesn’t want to get fired. Playing the game on the inside, he needs to stay aboard in order to fight for the mysteriously promised “bonus content.” And I’m sure he’d like to be involved in the equally mysterious “new animated series.” But “The Clone Wars” won’t go to the Kickstarter market, because Disney is all about total control when it comes to “Star Wars.”
This would’ve been unheard of a couple years ago, but now it’s reality: We’ll see Veronica Mars solve another case, but we may never see Ahsoka Tano swing her lightsabers again. What crazy times we TV geeks live in.