Why has Star Wars come back?

Written by: Jonathan Ecarma, staff writer

DAYTON, Tenn.—Star Wars has always been a classic and popular franchise, but recently it has swelled in popularity. But why is this? What has made the company blow up?

In late 2019 and early 2020, the Star Wars franchise experienced a huge surge in popularity. There are several small factors that caused the franchise to come back into the spotlight.

First, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released into theaters. While the movie is in the spotlight, it has also been heavily criticized by many. It has a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with their critics saying it has a “frustrating lack of imagination.” 

The Rise of Skywalker hasn’t made a huge mark in the box office either. The original Star Wars movie grossed $775.5 million, while The Rise of Skywalker has $5.4 million in the box office. It hasn’t been a huge benefit to the popularity of Star Wars, but it has still contributed to the rise of the franchise  in culture.

Along with this, Star Wars is trending on the social media platform, Tik Tok. Millions of users of the app have changed their profile pictures to characters from the Lego Star Wars video games. 

The community within this app shows support for the trend by making many of their posts on the app based off of the fictional series and receiving millions of likes, comments and shares.

Disney+, a streaming service, has been a contributor to the comeback of Star Wars. With 24/7 access to the Star Wars series, many fans have been revisiting these classics, along with the new Star Wars movies.

One of these series, The Mandalorian, has skyrocketed in popularity. The show overtook Stranger Things, beating the Netflix original’s five month record of having the most views. This resulted in the Star Wars franchise regaining even more popularity. 

With many fans discussing and making memes online about the Mandalorian, the show has blown up not only in views, but in online culture as well. 

The tv show character known as “Baby Yoda” has been a huge contributor to this. Not only fans, but people who haven’t seen the show are taking part in the online trend of “Baby Yoda.”

Star Wars is a series loved by many. Although in recent years it has not yielded the same results as in the past, the franchise has been steadily regaining popularity in recent months.

Jonathan Ecarma is a big sneakerhead, he loves ‘90s hip-hop, urban streetwear, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. He’s a freshman, who is a business administration: marketing option major. He’s a staff writer for the Triangle, and he likes to write about media, entertainment and pop culture.