A little over a week ago now a single piece of news shocked the tech world to its core. LucasFilm had been acquired by Disney, George it seems had passed the Star Wars torch on to a new generation of cinematic wizards.

Disney announced the news on October 30. Disney CEO and George Lucas finalised the deal, signing on the dotted line and requiring one very large cheque, Disney paid $4.05 Billion USD. Instantly the legions of Star Wars fans set electrons flying as the internet groaned under millions of concerned questions.

Lucas at the press event tried his best to allay the fears of the many, “For the past 35 years [35 it has been young Luke], one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next. It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

“I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment and consumer products.”

The Disney LucasFilm partnership makes far more sense when you consider Disney CEO Robert Iger and his team are the driving force behind the revitalised Marvel movies, setting records with this year’s monster hit The Avengers.

Working inside Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy prior to the acquisition had been promoted to co-chairman of LucusFilm, Kennedy will stay on as President of the company after the transition. This along with the continued involvement of George Lucas behind the scenes makes for an interesting proposition, a brand new hope.

Social Impact, no more Chad Vader and Google Stormtroopers?
Disney is legendary for protecting its intellectual property like a hawk, setting its extremely large team of very well dressed lawyers upon possible infringers. Disney will have to tread carefully though, the Star Wars fan base can be a tad sensitive when it comes to the Star Wars universe.

A fan base that over the years have lovingly recreated this alternate universe in the current media of the time. In the 80’s there was the ASCII animation of the Star Wars movies, 2000 saw the YouTube light-sabre boy and other homemade parodies along with the Family Guy and Robot Chicken parody shows. The recent re-enactment of the entire Star Wars film with Lego is a modern classic.

Chad Vader stands above the rest of the fan based spin-off shows, an hilarious twist on the worlds most popular bad guy. Based loosely on the premise of Vader in real life. Darth Vader’s younger brother Chad is working at the local supermarket when we join him. Will Chad Vader receive a visit from Disney’s infamous lawyers?

Recent photo’s released from inside one of Google’s data-centres have captured a storm trooper standing guard at a secure entrance. Will Google’s storm troopers be out of a job, or a uniform at the very least?

The Fastest and Funniest LEGO Star Wars story ever told

The New Films and TV shows
Not wanting to let the world take a breath and adjust Disney-Lucus have kept the news coming, announcing new Star Wars films as well as discussing their plans for the cinema franchise. It appears Disney will take the same approached used with the Marvel purchase, get lots of excellent content out there. The first new generation film Star Wars 7 is due for release in 2015, with a new epic to appear every two to three years there-after.

Harrison Ford has recently announced publically that he is interested in being involved in the new battle against the dark side, but he hasn’t been asked, yet.

The extremely popular Clone Wars TV series initially saw the fans fearing the worst. Series 5, the current, is half way through its season on cartoon network so that is safe. The question of series 6’s fate still hangs in the air. Disney has a history of being fairly brutal when executing a take-over. Marvel’s cartoon series Spectacular Spider-Man was given the chop very quickly, the fact that Sony produced the cartoon didn’t help. Clone Wars is popular and produced in-house at Lucasfilm’s studios so as long as people keep watching things should be just fine for Clone Wars fans.

George Lucas will still be involved with the future of his creations, while his company will slowly be absorbed into the Borg Empire that is Disney, the heart and mind behind the films will still be involved.

A new time of trepidation begins for Star Wars fans everywhere. While nothing could be more exciting than new Star Wars movies the anxiety over their quality will for many match the excitement.

Reference: Disney Press Release
Reference: Forbes