The Creeping Fear

The Shadow Lord and a Deep Cut Obsession

The official trailer for Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord was just released, and it looks very black and red and Sith-y and underworldy. I’m excited to get sinister with our Darth-less Maul and his endless supply of mechanical legs. April 6th! It’s very much coming soon.

But what made my eyebrow raise and my eyes simultaneously rolled was this:

Chapter 8 is entitled The Creeping Fear.

This title is a pushing-up-your-glasses-on-your-nose Gen X early internet joke. It was the incorrect title scooped by to (now zombie) Aint It Cool News of Revenge of the Sith. (Can anyone confirm that it was also the fake-leaked original title of Episode I somewhere? I seem to remember it was, but that was a long time ago.) Someone on the writing staff is having a good guffaw.

I instantly clocked it because I’m that kind of dork. But I also clocked it as in-keeping with the way the current Star Wars storytelling regime loves its self-referential Easter Eggs. (I mean, they brought back Stinky The Hutt for the new movie.)

I’ve said it before: I’m wary of Star Wars that’s too inside baseball. Star Wars is, at it’s best, a multi-generational cross-cultural mass audience experience. It’s for everyone. Whenever Star Wars is aimed too much at the kind of people who watch every single episode of everything, it risks losing the broad cultural appeal in exchange for an in-crowd focus on the Most Dedicated Fans. Basically, I really don’t want them to write Star Wars just for guys like me.

This is not to say it’s not a really awesome trailer. It is. It looks incredible. It’s just my little hang up - please don’t make Star Wars for the Sickos - and since it’s my Substack, you get to hear about it.

Please don’t cut me in half!