When something is mentioned on The Joe Rogan Experience — whether it be a new-fangled idea, news story or just about anything else — that thing gains a whole new level of cultural significance.
This shouldn’t come as too much of a shock — after all, JRE is the number-one podcast in the world.
One of the latest news narratives catapulted into the mainstream by JRE is fan backlash to Disney Star Wars.
When the Walt Disney Company first purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, Star Wars fans were hopeful for the franchise’s future prospects. Over the subsequent decade, however — and with the release of poorly-received projects like “The Last Jedi” and “The Book of Boba Fett” — that hope faded fast.
The company’s 12-year run with the franchise has produced far more failures than successes, often to the bewilderment and criticism of diehard franchise fans.
One such fan, MMA fighter Matt Serra, ranted about one of the company’s most recent failures, the Disney Plus series “Ahsoka,” during an April 4 appearance on the JRE podcast.
WARNING: The following quotes contain language some readers may find offensive.
“I’m sick of this woke s**t,” Serra said, “let me tell you loud and clear, I’m sick of what they did to f***ing Star Wars.”
After making it clear he loves strong female characters, Serra ripped the Disney-fied Star Wars brand for its portrayal of “strong” women — especially when it came to the 2023 streaming show “Ahsoka.”
Has Disney ruined Star Wars?
For those unaware, “Ahsoka” — which aired on Disney Plus — was a Star Wars series featuring the titular character, Ahsoka Tano, a female Jedi warrior who previously appeared in two well-received animated shows — “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars: Rebels.”
The character’s story previously ended with the series finale of “Rebels” in 2018. However, executive producer and Ahsoka Tano co-creator Dave Filoni wanted to bring her back — along with other characters from “Rebels” — with her very own series.
Thus the 2023 show was born as a continuation of Ahsoka’s story.
One of Serra’s biggest issues with the new series was its treatment of the character Ezra Bridger, the young male protagonist from “Rebels.”
Serra pointed out that all the female characters one-uped Ezra.
For example, the new show strips Ezra of his lightsaber from “Rebels” and gives it instead to a female character.
Then Joe Rogan chimed in to make one final point.
“Here’s the thing: It’s not really Star Wars,” Rogan said.
“Star Wars is Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader and that’s it. It’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s C3P0, everything else is just stealing my money.”
Many predicted that such a show might be a hard sell for general audiences. After all, it was a somewhat niche viewership that tuned into the four seasons of the animated “Rebels” show (which aired on Disney XD) and the original five seasons of “The Clone Wars” (which aired on Cartoon Network).
Nevertheless, Disney Plus went ahead with the project and the results were, as predicted, lacking.
While the series debut week pulled in 1.2 million U.S. Households, the finale’s numbers dipped to an incredibly low 863,000, according to Looper.
Still, Disney announced that season two is on the way.
