All of this plays up the sentimental value of the old movies and implicitly acknowledges the common complaints that Episodes I, II, and III were blatant, poorly conceived profit ploys. The new films have recruited thespian types like Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong’o—Oscar winners and hopeful in place of the green stars of the prequel series—and emphasizing that the story is more important than the release date. Both moves are the live-action realizations of many a wistful fan edit, and brilliant marketing.

Most of all, the new series is drawing attention to its handmade “practical effects”—props, physical sets, and the like—in contrast to the computerized shimmer of the prequels. That shimmer has been widely blamed for the narrative shortcomings of The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith. As George Lucas obsessed over the cutting-edge art of digital filmmaking (using the first high-definition digital camera and the first computer-generated character to interact with live actors), the argument goes, he forgot to honor age-old storytelling principles.

So far, the PR campaign is working. On a podcast a few weeks ago, the director of the two films to come, Rian Johnson, confirmed that models, puppets, and creature costumes are indeed making their return. His statements made several headlines, even though they weren’t news: Producer Kathleen Kennedy has been underscoring the distinction between the effects in this new film and the prequels since pre-pre-production. (Wrote one IGN reporter in response to her comments, “A new Star Wars film focusing on character and story, featuring models and real-life locations working in tandem with CG effects, all capped with a score by John Williams ... interested now?”)

But there’s a weird dynamic at play here. All of Abrams’s and Johnson’s affection for the original films drive home how much the new ones will be, at base, unnecessary cash grabs—the equivalent of old action figures sold on eBay, schemes for money and not for art. The prequels seem almost pure by contrast. George Lucas was the guiding creative vision behind the franchise from the beginning, and his vision told him to invest in lush CGI, hire Hayden Christensen, and tell the story of Anakin Skywalker’s descent from wee midichlorian-surfeited boy to angsty, lanky-haired Jedi. Lucas found the story touching, even if his viewers didn’t.

Lucasfilm

But in this case it’s a good thing that the franchise is deviating from Lucas passion project to an audience-pandering corporate model. Yes, the Disney buyout dumped Star Wars into its brimming bank of lucrative narrative-universe properties. And of course, all this nostalgia is just setting up an initial framework that woos the fan viewership with an Avengers-like launchpad so they’ll buy into a barrage of spinoffs (coming soon: Boba Fett and Chewbacca). But what for Disney is profitable recycling is for Hollywood at large a challenge to the entirely-too-low standards of the blockbuster in the digital age.