Whether as tribute or corrective, these movies have proliferated in recent years in part because the studio’s trilogy has inspired strong reactions.
For the first time in half a decade, a year has gone by without a new “Star Wars” film, a planned pause that happened to coincide with the pandemic. But across YouTube, there are plenty of movies set in a galaxy far, far away: those made by fans. Instead of the sci-fi saga’s familiar title crawl and brassy score, though, their work usually begins with notices affirming that rights to the story belong to Lucasfilm. Such films have existed almost as long as the franchise itself. Early examples were spoofs, like the 1978 short “Hardware Wars” and a 1997 Stormtrooper-centric sendup of “Cops” called “Troops.” Lucasfilm held annual fan-movie contests in the decade before Disney acquired the company in 2012. But Disney’s stewardship, coupled with the wide availability of higher-quality moviemaking tools, has inaugurated a new era of fan creativity. “If anything, it’s been more alive than it’s ever been,” said one filmmaker, David Ortiz. “You have all these high-budget fan films that you didn’t have 10 or 15 years ago, and people have more easy access to things like VFX,3-D modeling and Blender,” a free digital animation software. “I think right now, if anybody’s wanting to do a fan film, this is the time to do it.” Far from the amateur, camcorder-in-the-woods aesthetics of some past efforts, recent productions range from intricately plotted live action to digital shorts made with motion-capture suits. Sometimes the monthslong passion projects of industry professionals, an increasing number feature props, special effects or original scores that approach studio quality. Some filmmakers credit Disney with raising viewership for their tributes. A New York Times analysis of nearly 150 fan films on YouTube with at least 100,000 views found that more than 75 percent were uploaded in the six years since the debut trailer for “The Force Awakens,” the first entry in the latest trilogy. And several popular examples have eagerly built on the new films’ characters and lore. But others chafe against Disney’s narrative choices. Some have revived characters and plotlines that the studio dropped or that hark back to an older era of “Star Wars” filmmaking. In a moment of both broad excitement and deep disillusionment with the franchise, these works have flexed fandom muscle in a creative tug-of-war over whom the galaxy really belongs to. “A lot of people were really frustrated with some of the films” in Disney’s trilogy, said Jason Satterlund, a professional writer and director who in 2019 made a live-action short about Obi-Wan Kenobi set during the Jedi master’s exile on the desert planet Tatooine.
