Q&As About 'Star Wars': Why does it seem that Disney is ignoring the prequel trilogy of Star Wars?

Why does it seem that Disney is ignoring the prequel trilogy of Star Wars?

Who says that the Walt Disney Company, or, more correctly, Disney-owned Lucasfilm, is ignoring the Star Wars Prequels?

Obviously, in the internal chronology of the films, from an in-universe point of view, the fall of the Republic, the rise of the Empire, and the Great Jedi Purge are almost half-a-century away in the past. Many billions of people in thousands of systems that were born after the Battle of Endor and its immediate aftermath have no memory of Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, Count Dooku, or even Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and many of the adults who were young kids and/or teens during the Dark Times know of the last days of the Republic through biased filters depending which side (Rebel Alliance, Empire, or neutral) they were on during the Galactic Civil War.

If anything, the people living in the galaxy in the Sequel Era focus more on the events of the Galactic Civil War, except of course for historians and/or admirers of the Jedi or the Sith Orders. They are, after all, experiencing the consequences brought about by a decade-long civil war and the collapse of Palpatine’s New Order, which left a power vacuum that the First Order is only too willing to fill seeing that the Republic, though well-meaning and full of idealism, has failed to prevent the rise of Supreme Leader Snoke, the destruction of the new Jedi Order, and the return of oppression and authoritarianism after the defeat of the Empire.

Even so, the events of the Prequel Era (32–19 years Before the Battle of Yavin) are not ignored by Lucasfilm. In the Sequel Trilogy itself, several characters, including Maz Kanata and Luke Skywalker refer to the Sith, the Jedi, and even name-drop Darth Sidious, a character name introduced in The Phantom Menace as Palpatine’s Sith name.

Furthermore, Lucasfilm not only sets its first post-Disney purchase TV show (Star Wars Rebels) in the interlude between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope to bridge the gap twixt the first two Trilogies, it also dips into the Prequel Era’s content (including Star Wars: The Clone Wars) to resolve some of that loose ends created by Lucasfilm Animation’s fine series. Indeed, Lucasfilm Animation head Dave Filoni convinced Disney to let the studio give The Clone Wars a seventh season to properly close the show.

And lest we forget, Lucasfilm has, since 2014, stated that all of the novels and comics published after April of that year have co-equal status in canon as the films and TV series bearing the Star Wars brand. Star Wars: Queen’s Shadow in one such novel; does the cover art imply that “Disney” ignores the Prequels?

I didn’t think so.