Lesson Plan: Media Franchises and Fandom—Using the New Star Wars List as a Case Study

Hook: Turn student skepticism about franchises into a focused media-analysis unit

Teachers and learners struggle with fragmented resources, fast-moving franchise news, and polarizing fan debate. In early 2026 Lucasfilm’s leadership shift—Kathleen Kennedy’s departure and Dave Filoni’s rise to co-president—plus a newly leaked list of Filoni-era projects reignited heated discussion. Use that real-world moment as a timely, standards-aligned case study to teach franchise strategy, creative leadership, and audience reaction.

Why this case study matters in 2026

By late 2025 and into 2026 the entertainment industry accelerated three trends that make this lesson essential for media curricula:

• Data-first greenlighting: Studios increasingly pair creative instincts with social listening and rapid tests before committing big budgets.
• Creator-led franchises: Leadership changes—like Dave Filoni’s promotion—reshape narrative continuity and production priorities.
• Fan-powered signal: Fandom reaction now forms part of ecosystem metrics (social sentiment, engagement spikes, creator collaborations).

These trends make the Filoni-era Star Wars projects an ideal contemporary case study: they combine legacy IP, transmedia storytelling, and intense fan scrutiny.

Learning objectives & standards (High school / Intro-level college)

• Students will analyze how leadership changes influence franchise strategy and content decisions.
• Students will evaluate fan reaction using quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Students will design a media pitch that balances creative vision, audience data, and distribution strategy.
• Students will practice ethical social-listening and source evaluation (media literacy).

Unit overview: 3–5 class periods (flexible)

1. Session 1 — Context & framing: timelines and major events (90 minutes).
2. Session 2 — Leadership & strategy: executive choices and franchise architecture (60–90 minutes).
3. Session 3 — Fan reaction lab: social listening, sentiment coding, and debate (90 minutes).
4. Session 4 — Creative lab: studio pitch + marketing plan (120 minutes; can be split).
5. Session 5 — Assessment: presentations, reflective essays, and rubric-based grading (60–90 minutes).

Background briefing for teachers

Context matters. Summarize these points before you begin:

• Leadership change: In January 2026 Kathleen Kennedy left Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni moved into top creative responsibilities alongside Lynwen Brennan. That shift signals a potential reorientation of Star Wars’ creative priorities.
• Project slate: Early reports in 2026 listed multiple Filoni-era projects—some immediate and some exploratory. Critics flagged concerns about over-reliance on legacy characters and a lack of surprising new voices, while supporters highlighted Filoni’s continuity strengths and transmedia mastery.
• Fan ecosystem: Star Wars fandom spans traditional forums, Reddit and Discord, short-form platforms like TikTok, and creator economies producing fan art, fan fiction, and AI-assisted content—making sentiment both influential and noisy. Teachers can connect discussions about short-form platforms to broader trends in short-form monetization and moderation and how that influences fan signaling.

Key concepts to teach

• Franchise strategy: IP lifecycle, platform selection (theatrical vs streaming), merchandising, and release sequencing.
• Creative leadership: How showrunners and presidents shape continuity, tone, and talent choices.
• Fan reaction: Measuring sentiment, interpreting vocal minorities vs. majority trends, and understanding participatory culture — and how creators can sometimes monetize that participation (turning short videos into income).
• Transmedia continuity: Canon management across film, TV, animation, games, and publishing.

Classroom activities: step-by-step

Activity 1 — Timeline & stake-mapping (engage, 45–60 minutes)

1. Prep: Provide students with a one-page timeline of Lucasfilm leadership and major Star Wars releases (post-2012 to 2026).
2. Task: In groups, students map stakeholders (studio execs, creators, cast, fans, merch partners, exhibitors, streamers) and assign each a priority (profit, legacy, innovation, audience growth).
3. Deliverable: A 5-minute group report that argues which stakeholder has the most influence in the Filoni-era slate and why.

Activity 2 — Franchise SWOT and strategy memo (analyze, 60 minutes)

1. Task: Each group selects three Filoni-era projects (real or hypothetical from news reports) and completes a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).
2. Deliverable: Write a one-page studio memo recommending greenlight order and distribution plan (theatrical, streaming, hybrid), citing at least two data points (search trends, comparable box office, social engagement).

Activity 3 — Fan reaction lab (apply, 90 minutes)

Objective: Teach students responsible social listening and how to triangulate opinion.

1. Tools (teacher picks): Google Trends, YouTube comments, Reddit threads, Discord public channels, and manual sampling of TikTok replies. For schools with data access, use Talkwalker or Brandwatch demos. For ethical and technical discussions about collecting public signals, consider the practical notes in cost-aware scraping and indexing literature (scraping and indexing playbooks).
2. Ethics note: Instruct students not to scrape or use private messages. Use public posts and anonymize quotes. Obtain guardian permissions for minors if publishing results.
3. Method: Students gather a sample (e.g., 100 public posts across platforms), then code for sentiment (positive/negative/neutral) and theme (canon concerns, casting, nostalgia, production quality, distribution). Use a simple codebook provided by the teacher.
4. Deliverable: A visual summary (bar chart/presentation slide) and a 300–500 word interpretation that explains whether the sampled sentiment predicts a box-office or engagement outcome.

Activity 4 — Role-play: Studio press conference (synthesize, 60 minutes)

1. Roles: Dave Filoni, outgoing/incoming executive, lead producer, hostile critic, fan rep, trade journalist, streaming exec.
2. Task: Simulate a press conference announcing the new slate. Students prepare statements and Q&A, emphasizing strategy, creative rationale, and addressing fan concerns.
3. Deliverable: 10–15 minute performance; evaluate on clarity, evidence use, and ability to reconcile creative goals with business realities.

Activity 5 — Studio pitch & metrics plan (create & evaluate, 2 class periods)

1. Task: In small teams, students develop a one-paragraph logline, target demographic, primary platform, marketing hooks, and three KPIs (e.g., opening weekend box office, Disney+ retention lift, merchandise sales lift).
2. Deliverable: Final 8–10 minute pitch and one-page metrics dashboard. Peers and instructor provide feedback using the rubric below. Teachers can support collaborative work with modern collaboration tools and a review of collaboration suites for shared decks, docs, and feedback loops.

Assessment & rubrics

Use a holistic rubric for presentations and a criteria-based scoring for written work. Sample rubric categories:

• Evidence & research (30%): Use of credible sources, triangulation of data, correct interpretation of trends.
• Analysis & argumentation (30%): Clear thesis about strategy or audience reaction and logical support.
• Creativity & applicability (20%): Original studio pitch, feasible metrics, and innovative transmedia ideas.
• Communication (20%): Clarity, engagement, and proper media-literacy citations.

Sample exam / essay prompts

• Short answer: Explain how a leadership change at a major IP house can alter greenlight priorities. Use the transition to Filoni-era leadership as an example.
• Data analysis: Given a dataset of search trend spikes and social sentiment scores for three projects, interpret which project is likeliest to succeed on streaming vs. theatrical release.
• Essay: Argue for or against the proposition that “fan-serving projects” (those that prioritize legacy characters and references) are sustainable long-term franchise strategies.

Teacher resources & tech tools (2026-aware)

Recommended free or low-cost tools and ethical guidelines updated for 2026:

• Context & trends: Google Trends, Box Office Mojo, Nielsen/Comscore summaries.
• Social listening: Talkwalker Free Alerts, CrowdTangle for public Facebook/Instagram pages, Reddit and YouTube public APIs (use responsibly). For in-class demos and ethical AI discussion, refer to practical guides on continual-learning tooling for small AI teams and how models are updated responsibly.
• Sentiment & qualitative coding: Manual codebook + Google Sheets, or Hugging Face hosted sentiment models for teacher demonstrations (do not deploy on private data without consent). Consider showing how avatar agents and context-rich models are being built to pull cross-platform context (class discussion only).
• Transmedia mapping: Miro or Jamboard for story-world mapping and canon charts; pair these tools with edge visual demos such as edge visual authoring and spatial audio playbooks for immersive mapping.
• Presentation & collaborative work: Google Workspace, Canva for pitch decks, or school LMS.

Classroom adaptations & differentiation

• Middle school: Shorten activities, focus on basic concepts like audience and marketing. Replace social listening with sample comments provided by the teacher.
• Advanced students / College: Add quantitative assignment requiring regression analysis on engagement vs. box office, or a policy brief on IP stewardship. Students with coding skills can prototype small analytics tools or micro-apps using tutorials like building micro-apps with React and LLMs.
• Remote learning: Use asynchronous forums for fan-sampling tasks and synchronous sessions for role-play via video breakout rooms.

Case study analysis: Strengths and criticisms of the Filoni-era slate

Use this balanced analysis as a model for students’ critiques:

• Strengths: Filoni’s track record in animated and live-action serialized storytelling (The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, Ahsoka) demonstrates deep canon knowledge and an ability to expand lore in ways fans often reward. His approach favors long-form character work and transmedia ties—valuable for maintaining continuity across platforms.
• Risks noted by critics: Early 2026 commentary flagged a slate heavy on legacy characters and “comfort” projects, raising concerns about creative echo chambers and franchise fatigue. Critics also warned that low-innovation offerings may fail to attract new audiences beyond the existing base.
• Industry context: Studios in 2025–26 tightened budgets and relied on proven IP to reduce risk. That environment makes Filoni’s focus on beloved characters understandable—and potentially conservative. Teachers can expand this into a conversation about creator business models and micro-subscriptions and creator co-ops as alternative funding routes.

Teaching students to weigh evidence, not emotions

Fandom is loud; facts are quieter. Teach students to prioritize:

• Triangulation: Cross-check social-sample findings with search trends and historical box-office/streaming benchmarks.
• Sampling awareness: Recognize platform bias (TikTok skews younger, Reddit skews more discussion-oriented) and adjust interpretations accordingly.
• Qualitative nuance: Distinguish between constructive critique and trolling. Use coding guidelines to filter signal from noise and discuss ethical limits to data collection and scraping (see technical and ethical scraping guidance).

2026 trends to highlight in discussions & essays

• AI in production: Generative tools are being used for previsualization, script-assist, and fan-generated content—raising questions about authorship and canon management. For classroom demos and readings about responsible model updates, consider continual-learning tooling.
• Experience-first IP: Studios increasingly plan immersive experiences (AR/VR, theme-park tie-ins) as part of franchise launches — connect this to immersive pre-trip and spatial audio discussions like wearables and MR for travel and experience brands.
• Creator accountability: New structures give creative leads more narrative control, but also concentrate risk if their vision misaligns with broader audience expectations. Students should examine how avatar and context-aware systems change fan engagement (avatar agent case studies).
• Measurement maturity: By 2026 studios expect integrated KPIs—engagement, retention, merchandise lift—not just opening weekend figures. Discuss how micro-event monetization and creator tools affect these KPIs (micro-event monetization).

Practical takeaways for teachers and students

• Use current events: The Filoni-era news cycle is a teachable moment—update materials as the slate and fan response evolve.
• Teach mixed methods: Combine qualitative fan analysis with quantitative trend data to draw balanced conclusions.
• Emphasize ethics: Model responsible social listening and critical source evaluation. Tie these to on-device moderation and accessibility conversations, including live moderation strategies (on-device AI for live moderation).
• Bring creativity and accountability together: Ask students to pitch media that honors franchise history while clearly defining how success will be measured.

Final classroom project — Deliverables & grading

Final project elements (team):

• One-paragraph logline and creative rationale (200–300 words).
• Target audience profile and platform choice, justified with data.
• Marketing and transmedia plan (one page).
• Three KPIs and a dashboard mockup.
• Short reflective essay (individual, 500 words) connecting the project to leadership and fan-reaction insights from class.

Conclusion: What students should walk away with

By the end of this unit, students will be able to explain why a creative leadership change—like the 2026 shift at Lucasfilm—matters for franchise strategy, how fan reaction is measured and interpreted, and how to build a data-informed creative pitch. They’ll also practice media-literacy skills that make them discerning consumers and producers in an era where franchises and fan cultures shape mainstream culture.

Call to action

Adapt this lesson for your syllabus and test it with one class block this semester. Share your student pitches or classroom findings with our educator community at theanswers.live to get peer feedback and downloadable templates. Want the full editable lesson pack (slides, codebook, rubrics)? Request it from our resources page and we’ll send the teacher kit for free.

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