Have you seen Disney+ lately?

I watched Star Wars: A New Hope for the first time recently.

During viewing, I did a little research along the way. As someone unfamiliar with the Star Wars universe, besides hazy memories of watching The Phantom Menace when I was a child, it's safe to say I missed the boat on becoming a real Star Wars nerd in the way that many of the generation before me did.

However, when I watched, it was easy to understand why that film shaped the minds of a generation - because for many people, they would have never seen anything like it before.

There were a few elements that annoyed me, which I soon discovered were actually several revisions and edits that have been made to the original - added CGI changes to certain scenes, including the infamous Han and Greedo scene. Nevertheless, George Lucas's magnum opus still stands firm almost fifty years after its release.

I tell you this to set the scene for today's email.

Obviously, Disney made George a very rich man when they decided to relieve him of his IP universe. And I don't know if you've checked Disney+ lately, but if you jump into the Star Wars section... boy, are they milking it for everything that it's worth!

I was unfamiliar with the watch order to approach Star Wars with, and I was informed by FapGPT that the 'Machete' version was the best - cutting much of the fat, as there are now eleven films (yes, you heard that right, eleven) where you only really need five.

I was expecting to see just eleven films to choose from in the Star Wars section of Disney+, but my gawd, was I wrong. There are hundreds of different pieces of content: shows, shorts, animations, cartoons, films, and various bundles.

I realised how important George Lucas has been to culture over the last fifty years.

I also realised how important it is to create a universe for yourself.

Now, without looking it up, I'm fairly sure that Disney made that man a billionaire for the privilege of extracting every last drop of IP from the LucasArts universe. But I think it hammers home a number of copywriting and email marketing truths.

Part of the reason that Star Wars is such a phenomenon is that there had never been anything like it before. The reason it's taken such a beating and remains beloved in the hearts of many a Gen X child - who is now not so much a child anymore - is because it doesn't matter if they change the name of the first film. It doesn't matter if they add questionable CGI twenty years later. It doesn't matter if they change an important scene to make you feel differently about a certain character.

The story is so unique - and not just the story, but the world in which the story is set - that it really has zero competition.

Now you might be thinking, "Well, that's all well and good for George Lucas, but my business is a lot less interesting than Galactic Federations and Rebel Alliances."

To that I say, "Well, yeah, you're probably right."

If you think of your business as uninteresting, I'm sure that you'll find it difficult to create a marketing universe for yourself.

If you'd like to rectify that, and you don't mind - like Disney didn't - paying for the privilege...

I'm currently looking for private clients to work with in 2026.

If that sounds like something your business would benefit from, send me an email with the phrase 'PRIVATE CLIENT', and I'll be in touch.

James Perkins

P.S. Refer me a client I end up working with, and I'll stuff cold, hard cash into your pockets. I'm serious.