But it also succeeded by elevating the likes of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo to the kind of status usually reserved for totemic superheroes such as Batman, Superman and Spider-Man, characters destined to be wheeled out time and time again in different big screen iterations. Yes, The Force Awakens gave us a return to the masked dark side disciples, bright-eyed wannabe Jedis and fast-paced action of the early films – as opposed to the prequels’ constant tedious trade federation blockades and bloodless visits to the Galactic Senate. The answer they appear to have come up with, if the studio’s current five-year plan for Star Wars is anything to go by, is that it’s all about the characters.

Why was the original Star Wars trilogy so successful, while the prequels are now considered by many to be the worst examples of space fantasy since the retirement of Ed Wood? That is the question Disney executives must have asked themselves countless times after buying George Lucas’s Lucasfilm for $4.05bn in October 2012.

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