So. Much. Star Wars.

During an investor event on Thursday, Disney announced approximately 18,000,000 new movies and TV shows set in the galaxy far, far away. There are a zillion articles on the internet detailing it all, so I’m going to skip all that and go straight to a hot take.

It’s about fucking time.

When I look back on the history of the forty-year-old property, one very clear thought comes to mind: really, that’s it? Nine movies, a few dozen video games, some cartoons, and a few hundred books they decided no longer count is all they did with it? Star Wars has made a lot of money for a lot of people, but it feels like its revenues were only a fraction of what they could have been.

I mean, we’re talking about a galaxy here. Do you understand how much creative stuff you can do with a whole galaxy? The Milky Way is an incredibly interesting, diverse place with bazillions of stars, planets, asteroids, dust clouds, black holes, quasars, pulsars…the works! And then you add some space magic on top of that in the form of the Force and link it all together with wildly efficient faster-than-light travel? My god, the things a creative can do with that are infinite.

That’s why I’m so excited for the future of the franchise. It smells like the Marvel Cinematic Universe in that it’s telling a wide variety of stories in a shared setting with tons of room for creativity, crossovers, and callbacks. And how cool is it going to be when they eventually weave all these new threads together Avengers style?

Although I’ll admit I’m less than thrilled with the unhappy ending the Skywalker clan met, perhaps getting that family out of the way to make room for other characters to take center stage is the best thing the new trilogy accomplished. Let’s see that galaxy already. I’m sure there’s some cool stuff in it.