Star Wars After Lucas:
A Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy
Dan Golding
University of Minnesota Press, 2019
Politics, craft, and cultural nostalgia in the remaking of Star Wars for a new age.
Focusing on The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One (2016), The Last Jedi (2017), and the television series Rebels (2014–18), Dan Golding explores the significance of pop culture nostalgia in overcoming the skepticism, if not downright hostility, that greeted the Star Wars relaunch. In its granular textual readings, broad cultural scope, and insights into the complexities of the multimedia galaxy, this book is as entertaining as it is enlightening.
Reader reviews for Star Wars After Lucas
Endorsements of Star Wars After Lucas
Dan Golding’s wonderful book strikes a perfect balance between criticism and knowledgeable fandom. Approaching Disney-era Star Wars, his writing provides important insights into the workings of nostalgia culture, transmedia storytelling, and the power of transnational media industries in the age of global capitalism. His readings of individual Star Wars texts are thoughtful, nuanced, and theoretically informed, while at the same time relating them back to the complexities of branding, cross-platform marketing, and global entertainment franchising. Star Wars After Lucas is essential reading for anyone with an interest in media franchising, globalization, media industries, and entertainment in the Disney era.
Star Wars is almost too big a subject for any one mind to grasp, but Dan Golding’s look at how the franchise maintains its nostalgic glow in the Disney era stays on target, excavating the unique combination of art and commerce that holds Star Wars together.
Star Wars After Lucas is a useful and welcome review of the past four decades of Star Wars, as well as the strategies that corporations are increasingly adopting in order to perpetuate franchises. In particular, Dan Golding aptly describes Lucasfilm’s struggles to balance nostalgic appeals with a growing commitment to diversity and inclusivity.
Press Reviews and Mentions of Star Wars After Lucas
“As Dan Golding lays out in his new book Star Wars After Lucas, nostalgia is at the core of Star Wars’ appeal, but nostalgia for what, exactly, is hard to suss out.”
“Star Wars After Lucas is both fan book and scholarly monograph, a neat trick pulled off by Swinburne University media lecturer Dan Golding.”
“Anyone fascinated by the post-George Lucas Star Wars universe will find Dan Golding’s Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy an essential read.”
“‘I’m holding my breath,’ [Golding] said. ‘A lot of people are relieved… you can’t just begin the film with, “And between episodes, Leia died”. You have to do more than that’.”
“[Star Wars After Lucas: A Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy is] an interesting read for anyone who is following the franchise.”
“Golding has been diligent in writing in a way that both keeps things as clear as possible for those new to the franchise whilst also avoiding being overly descriptive for those that are not; this also enables the book to concentrate on its other core focus, that being a critical guide to this new era of Star Wars.”