Matt Walsh

Nearly a decade and a half after Disney purchased the rights to the franchise, it's now without any doubt time to write the obituary of Star Wars.

And yes, plenty of critics have declared that Star Wars already died at one point or another, and many of them were probably right, but now there's no denying it.

And whether you're a big Star Wars fan or not, which admittedly I'm not,

It matters because the culture matters.

When multibillion-dollar conglomerates ransack and murder parts of the culture, it's worth talking about.

And we know that the murderous plot is now complete.

Time of death can officially be recorded on the coroner's report.

And we know that because the new Star Wars film, The Mandalorian and Grogu, is out in theaters this weekend, and absolutely no one cares.

No one is even pretending to care.

The executives at Disney and Lucasfilm managed to completely annihilate perhaps the most beloved entertainment franchise in American history, which would have been totally unthinkable back in the 1990s.

And anyone who grew up in the 90s, you well remember this.

When people were lining up at midnight to get into the premiere of The Phantom Menace, this now, looking at this, it's like lost footage from another civilization.

Watch.

It's one of the biggest premieres of all time.

The level of sustained interest in this franchise over time was unlike anything else in the history of filmmaking.

It was, at the time, by far and away, the most wildly popular and iconic movie series ever.

It was basically the Michael Jackson of film franchises.

And like Michael Jackson, it is now dead under nefarious circumstances.

Now, you can see some photos from the 1983 premiere of The Return of the Jedi on the screen right there.

16 years later, The Phantom Menace drew similar crowds.