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Popular Culture and Nostalgia
  • ISSN: 2045-5852
  • E-ISSN: 2045-5860

Abstract

Nostalgia is a necessary element of (2008–20) and the ‘new’ comics (Marvel, 2015–19), recent serial narratives in the ever-expanding transmedia Star Wars universe. The anticipation (and consequential reception) of these works is, in part, driven by nostalgia: the original Star Wars film, , was released in 1977 and as the series has expanded in the decades since, in film and other media, nostalgia has become ingrained within the fandom as audiences are invited to repeatedly return to ‘a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away’. As a result of decades of content, there is a sense of ‘ownership’ amongst the fandom and, at times, a resistance to new content that attempts to ‘weaponize’ nostalgia as a marketing tool, such as in the ‘Sequel Trilogy’ (2015, 2017, 2019). , first mentioned in , is set between two Star Wars (Prequel) films that feature key events in the overall saga, while the comics take place between and (1980). and the comics succeed where the sequels (and prequels) arguably do not because they use nostalgia to serialize and capitalize on transmedia, allowing the audience to revisit characters and narrative events that have already been established for decades. Both works allow for character and narrative development between two fixed (cinematic) points in the story canon, with the spaces in between and around those points that frame their place in the Star Wars universe allowing for rich exploration.

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2020-09-01
2024-09-11
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Keyword(s): comics; narrative; nostalgia; serialization; Star Wars; transmedia

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