Episode VII: The Force is Strong With This One

Disney buying Lucasfilm was destined to make the Internet go bonkers. Adding Star Wars: Episode VII to today's announcement made it doubly so.

But why all the hatred? For me, today is a dream come true.

About 15 years ago, after reading the Star Wars Encyclopedia - I'll pause so you can absorb the ridiculousness of that sentence - nine-year-old me dreamed of the Star Wars movies George Lucas never got to make. 

Young Darth Vader going bad and fighting his master, Obi-Wan? Wizened Luke Skywalker, having conquered the Force, opening an academy to repopulate the universe with young Jedi? Where do I sign up?

As we all now know, the former was made reality shortly later, and we asked how we could have been so foolish. Rather than expanding the glory of the Star Wars saga, the prequel trilogy became a calling card of everything ill-conceived, greedy, soulless and flat-out wrong with modern movies.

Still, does that mean Hollywood shouldn't try again?

As countless media franchises - not least the the Star Wars expanded universe - have shown us, belonging to a great franchise isn't enough to make a film, comic, novel or game worthwhile (see... well, pretty much any franchise). But, on the other hand, it's also not enough to make a project not worthwhile (see also Knights of the Old Republic and Episode I: Racer). 

What's more, we already know three very promising things about Episode VII.

The first: George Lucas is not involved. The benefits of Lucas stepping away should be obvious, but let's spell them anyway: the man has made four mediocre-to-awful franchise sequels in the past 15 years. The best Lucas films had other directors. Lucas has nothing left to prove and, thus, no reason to work hard.

Disney's backing is a more subtle issue, but let me put it this way: don't you want the studio behind The Avengers backing Star Wars? (I'm ignoring the crossover capabilities for now, but of course they're myriad.) Disney not only poured cash into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also hired a visionary director in Joss Whedon to write, direct and oversee the project. Here's hoping Episode VII gets similar treatment.

Promising a further trilogy, of course, makes that decision even more critical to Disney. This isn't a matter of throwing together a cash-grab; Star Wars: Episodes VII through IX will be one of Disney's signature projects for the next decade, beginning with stiff competition from its own Avengers sequel in 2015. That stakes for Episode VII couldn't be higher, high stakes mean high dollars, and high dollars usually mean a better director, actors and effects.

So while many Internet columns and forums are whining about corporate greed and the ruination of sacred things today, fear not, Disney: if nothing else, you've made one nine-year-old's dream come true.

Now please, please don't screw it up.