It has taken me longer than I thought to get my brain around the fact that Star Wars is now, not only a Disney property, but about to have an unprecedented resurgence in fandom and in the mainstream community by way of new live-action films.

That being said, my current level of fanboy excitement is tempered with a “fool me once” attitude as the prequels, while entertaining on the whole, weren’t quite what I/we expected despite knowing where the story eventually had to lead us. The other side of that coin is that we are all about to take our next step into a larger world as the future of the saga is an unknown, as it promises to be an all-new adventure not covered in any literary works that have preceded it. That’s not to say the Expanded Universe won’t have its influences or that there won’t be some familiar themes explored in the story and that leaves me optimistic. Star Wars has always been bigger than one man’s vision and that will be very apparent now that “the flanneled one” has loosened his grip on the property allowing for fresh new talent to not only expand his original tale but to reshape it again for a new generation of fans.

I close my rambling with this: whatever the next chapter in the Star Wars saga brings it won’t be what we expect and I hope to not be fooled twice. Whatever the result, it will not change my affinity for the Original Trilogy or my love of Star Wars as a whole.