A final threat of post-processing the force out of them and dragging them into 3D seems to have been thankfully - and silently - abandoned.
It's amazing to me there's any fans left. At this point Star Wars has sucked for far, far longer than it was ever good. There's a whole generation whose childhood was defined not by a rollicking space adventure but instead by a trilogy about a minor political trade dispute. Yawn.
But now ... there's been a disturbance in the suck and things are looking up.
For the longest time Star Wars had a major George Lucas problem. He created the universe but proved time and time again that even on the most basic, fundamental level he had no clue as to what it was that made Star Wars resonate, what made Star Wars fun, what made Star Wars, well ... Star Wars.
His answer to the criticism was to double down on fans' despair. He displayed an obstinate attitude in the face of overwhelming, global hatred that really is quite admirable. He didn't want fans' love or acceptance, or even, ridiculous as this sounds, their money.
Okay, he did want some of that. But I believe that most of all he wanted to complete his singular vision without compromise. The great tragedy being that his singular vision totally sucked.
Myself? I got out a long time ago. After spending far too long picking up whatever CGI turd Lucas was putting down and then wondering why my hands were all shitty, I called time.
The exact moment I quit was when Jabba the Hutt's nappy-wearing baby wiggled into the Star Wars universe. As a fan I'd weathered a lot of indignation and humiliation from Lucas over the years, but this? No. This was too much.
So when Disney forked out for the franchise in late 2012 I was disinterestedly optimistic. I figured they couldn't do anything worse than Bubba the Hutt, right?
Besides, these days the House of Mouse comes correct. They get it. They know what to do. Then they do it. As a business plan it's a hell of a lot more viable than repeatedly flipping your audience the bird. As a fan it's a whole lot more satisfying too.
For precedence you only have to look at Disney's stewardship of superhero home Marvel Entertainment since acquiring it in 2009. It's been exemplary.
Sure, it'd be great if their superheroes could chase after something other than glowing blue balls (snigger) in every damn film, but the stuff in, around and propelling these chases is always entertaining and always manages to find wide audience appeal.
Marvel reigns supreme at the box office by simply giving fans what they want. Solid, watchable, fun entertainment starring their favourite characters. They stay true to source and it works. Simple.
But even knowing all this it still took me almost a week to get around to watching the teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney's first handling of the franchise and the first new Star Wars film in a decade.
App users: tap here to watch the Star Wars:The Force Awakens trailer
And believe me, you have no idea how great it is to say that the trailer's pure Star Wars. The Star Wars fondly remembered. Not the Star Wars watched in head-shaking horror.
Even though nothing happens, even though it's only a random assembly of disparate scenes, even though there's not even one shot of space for crying out loud, it still only took mere seconds to awaken that long dormant thrill of Star Wars excitement.
When the orchestra kicked in to power through that familiar and grand motif as the Millennium Falcon pirouetted out of the deep black to soar through the blue sky in dizzyingly vertiginous glory, I knew Star Wars was back. And I was too.
Because for 90 seconds it was exactly like that barely remembered time long, long ago and a young boy in his mid-30s found himself staring at the screen in stunned disbelief and wondrous excitement at everything he had just seen.
