Star Wars: Familiarity seems secret to success

Daisy Ridley as Rey in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'. Photo / AP

The newest film ... includes many of the original cast members. Subimal Chatterjee is a marketing professor, Binghamton University, NYStar Wars: The Last Jedi is in NZ cinemas today.

In the 40 years since the original Star Wars film premiered, the franchise has been a pop culture powerhouse.

The Last Jedi, the latest edition in the series, looks to continue the trend, with a huge box office take expected.

It also looks poised to join The Force Awakens (93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes) and Rogue One (85 per cent) as Star Wars films that are hits commercially as well as critically.

Not all Star Wars films have hit that sweet spot. It's sometimes easy to forget the prequel trilogy — The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) — wasn't as popular with critics and fans and hasn't been looked upon kindly since.

What made the prequel trilogy such a (relative) dud? Why are the more recent films being so much better received?

If it isn't broke, don't fix it
Research I helped conduct on what makes for a good extension (sequel or prequel) may give some insight.

My colleagues and I tracked audience reactions to sequels and prequels over the course of nearly a hundred franchises, from Psycho to X-Men.

Our results show that the successful franchises make smaller, gradual updates — rather than sweeping changes — in each successive film. And it fits well with what we know about audience behaviour: They seek a balance between the familiar and the new; while they aren't looking for a carbon copy of the originals, they're hoping to relive some of the most vivid, nostalgic moments from earlier films.

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker is one of the loved faces from the very first films reappearing in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Photo / AP

With these findings in mind, let's re-examine prequel series of Star Wars. When The Phantom Menace, the first of the prequels, was released in 1999, it had been 16 years since audiences had seen a new Star Wars film.

(The original trilogy had just had a successful theatrical re-release.) But fans hoping to relive the magic of the originals were in for a surprise.

The beloved trio of Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) gave way to new faces: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman.

Instead of relying on real sets, models and miniatures for special effects, director George Lucas opted mostly for computer-generated and digital effects.

The Force was no longer being described as an all-encompassing life force that bound everyone together; it was now being explained as the result of special biological cells called "midichlorians". (And I won't even go into the widely loathed Jar Jar Binks.)

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker with Yoda in 'Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back'. Photo / Supplied

Out with the new, in with the old
In contrast the newest film, The Last Jedi, includes many of the original cast members. Hamill and Fisher return to portray Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

And it features the popular "hero's journey" plot device of the original films, in which an ordinary person's life is unexpectedly upended, and he is thrust into the role of the hero.

We see this phenomenon in other film series and even product lines.

Though the lead actor will occasionally change, the James Bond series never strays from its action-film formula. Apple has a similar approach when releasing new iPhones; before taking the leap to a radically new version, it will release an incremental "S" version of the previous model as a bridge.

That isn't to say the new Star Wars films aren't making any changes: There are more female protagonists, in addition to a host of new characters. But this isn't exactly shattering fans' expectations.

Our research also found that the deeper into a franchise you get, the more major changes audiences are willing to accept. The next Star Wars trilogy will expand the boundaries of the Star Wars world, exploring planets and featuring characters not yet seen on film.

With this move, the studio is willing to bet audiences are finally ready to accept some major changes — something they weren't quite ready for yet when the prequels came out.

But in order to ensure the Force remains strong over the franchise's lifetime, these future films would be wise to continue including at least a handful of nods to the original trilogy.

- The Conversation