The data is coming in from the last seasons of The Book of Boba Fett, and while we’ll have to wait a while for the Nielsen statistics, there’s a pattern worth recognizing. I won’t post a Google Trends chart this week: we’ve had issues with those embedded charts not playing nice with Apple devices. But I will relay to you what I’m hearing in the background, as well as what internet searches reveal.
On the night of the finale for Season 1, The Book of Boba Fett generated a massive online interest spike. However, unlike the episode before it, the interest quickly dropped and then was followed the next day be far less interest. This was a 180 degree change from the episode in which Luke Skywalker appeared and trained Grogu. When that episode appeared, interest was huge, but the next day it eclipsed the opening day. This indicated that The Book of Boba Fett episode which featured seconds of Boba Fett, but had long stays with Luke Skywalker, was tremendously successful. It was so successful that a source we’ve trusted and been right with in the past told us it looked like the episode had tripled the 24-hour ratings of the other episodes before it.
If it is true, then, that the finale of The Book of Boba Fett jumped out with incredible interest which then fell to 59% interest the following day, it would seem to signal that there’s something about Luke Skywalker in the form of the original trilogy that drives the market. The character drives the market in a way that no other Star Wars character does.
The Book of Boba Fett Finale Interest
The problem for The Walt Disney Company is that either they, or their studio Lucasfilm, seem to be hellbent on making sure not to deliver that character to the market. From a money standpoint, it’s baffling. Clearly, a Luke Skywalker live action series would be expensive to produce due to the need for deep fake and CGI technologies. But likewise, it is almost certain to make money rain inside the halls of Burbank. It’s quite the conundrum to figure out why a company would not want to make money when the market is speaking so loudly, but that’s the situation with Disney.
If Luke Skywalker is so ridiculously popular, and he most certainly is, then why did The Last Jedi lose money as compared to The Force Awakens? Why did it open just as strongly, then taper off? And if this version of Luke Skywalker we’ve seen in the Favreau-Filoni Disney+ series is so popular that he drives episodes he appears in beyond anything else on any streaming platform anywhere, why is this not the version of Luke Skywalker we’re getting?
No, instead, Disney seems determined to revisit, re-explain, and return to the version of Luke Skywalker that Mark Hamill famously called “Jake”. But why would a company do this if they will lose billions upon billions of dollars in doing so? I understand that Disney had a great last quarter, but I don’t see how it is sustainable if your business’ value is predicated on a streaming viewership bubble and gouging your theme park guests under the belief they won’t catch on. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so because I don’t take a pessimistic view of the consumer.
What Disney and Lucasfilm are getting wrong about Luke Skywalker is that they are treating him as if he is just any old character in a fictional world. But that’s wrong. They have failed to understand that what drove Star Wars into being the biggest franchise on the planet (once upon a time) is that Luke Skywalker is an archetypal persona. In the first film, he is the naïve youth who faces evil with optimism but faces unexpected loss as a result. In the second, he represents the revelation that everything is touched by malevolence and sin, right down to his father and his own ability to turn to darkness. And in the third act, Luke Skywalker is the mature warrior who puts down his sword to redeem the the sins of his father even at the potential cost of his own self. It’s an archetype story of good and evil, redemption and sacrifice.
That’s why you can’t strip Luke down into being a hermit or a failure without seriously damaging everything about the franchise. When Luke sends a child back into a warzone (Grogu), it damages the archetype. When Luke makes Grogu choose between personal relationships and the higher good, this is a false dichotomy that the Luke of the original trilogy (the Luke the market wants) did not accept. When Luke attempts to kill his own nephew because he senses darkness, it is as if the franchise is urinating on its own narrative.
The market wants Luke Skywalker as the archetypal hero. There’s no doubt about it. Maybe the audience would tire of it, but hey, we’re how many decades from 1977 and Luke Skywalker still sends ratings off the charts. For the folks at Lucasfilm and Disney, they have to reconcile with what the market, what the culture wants. If they choose to keep the original version of Luke’s persona from the marketplace, they will be punished. If they bring back the beloved archetype of Luke, they will flourish. To bring back Luke, however, Disney and Lucasfilm will have to somehow set aside their own hubris.
Let us know what you think in the comments below. Do you want to see Luke Skywalker in his Return of the Jedi form, or are you keen on The Last Jedi destination? And, as always, keep checking out That Park Place for all the latest news, rumors, rants, and opinions on Star Wars!
