Walking into a showing of The Force Awakens, my son and I were talking about why the highest grossing film of all time — Avatar — seems to have failed to inspired the type of passionate fan base that we see from other franchises, such as Star Wars and Harry Potter.
"No one wants to dress up like that colonel," my son said. And with that, he nailed what I think is one of the most important elements that transforms a movie or book or television series into franchise — the potential for cosplay.
Obviously, merchandise is also important for growing a property into a franchise. But buying a figurine or other souvenir doesn't connect you with a franchise the way that dressing up as one its characters does. You can buy a cabinet filled with scale models and figurines, but all that does is to make you the owner of a bunch of franchise paraphernalia. Even if you take those souvenirs out and play with them, that deepens your engagement, but you still remain somewhat apart — an outside agent, looking at or playing with stuff, but never really becoming a part of it.
In cosplay, you become part of the franchise. You put your identity aside and instead assume the role of someone (or something) within a story you love. When you invest emotionally in a franchise to the level when you engage in cosplay, you cross from that franchise being something you like to the point where the franchise is part of who you are.
That's a point where entertainment companies would love to see their fans get. After all, fans who show that kind of loyalty are ones who will spend aggressively on movie tickets, merchandise, costumes, theme park tickets, home decor, and everything else that businesses create to market to those fans.
Clearly, Star Wars has gotten to that level. Just look at the number of people who showed up to the opening weekend of The Force Awakens in Jedi robes and Han Solo jackets, or sporting Princess Leia "buns" in their hair. If movie theaters across the world hadn't banned masks and make-up, you almost certainly would have seen legions of Stormtroopers, Darth Vaders, Kylo Rens, Chewbaccas, and other exotic creatures from the Star Wars universe, too.
Cosplay helps reinforce the loyalty of fans of many other franchises, including Star Trek, the Marvel and DC Comics universes, and perhaps most notably, Harry Potter. You can't walk into Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter without seeing at least one family in house robes. Potter offers perhaps the most engaging opportunities for cosplay, as you can wear your allegiance to the Wizarding World in every imaginable degree — from subtle notes, such as adding a scarf that just happens to be in house colors, to full-on commitment, such as donning complete Death Eater gear.
Avatar scores well behind other franchises on the cosplay test. The human beings in the story wore unremarkable clothes, and it's tough for anyone other than the most extremely committed fan to pull off dressing as a nine-foot Na'vi. While Pandora is visually beautiful, the narrative of the movie makes clear that the planet is toxic to humans. That's not creating the type of inviting environment that inspires fans to want to imagine themselves visiting. (That said, I am looking forward to seeing how Disney's Imagineers overcome these obstacles, when the new Avatar land opens at Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2017.)
So what does this mean for Star Wars Land? Obviously, there's no problem from the fans' perspectives here. People love dressing up as Star Wars characters, and fans are welcoming the opportunity to add new characters such as Kylo Ren, Rey, and Finn to the repertoire, as well. (A huge shout-out, by the way, to whoever pulls off the first General Hux/Bill Weasley cross-franchise cosplay mashup.)
The problem — potentially — lies with Disney. The company's recent expansion of its long-standing ban on adults wearing costumes in its theme parks could undercut Star Wars Land's appeal for many visitors. Yes, the fans will come — costumes or not — but the ability to cosplay within Star Wars Land undoubtedly would expand its appeal to the most loyal Star Wars fans.
Of course, Disney fans are resourceful. Just look at the success of "Disneybounding" in recent years, as fans have found ways around the company's costume ban by assembling outfits that suggest, rather than replicate, the look of beloved Disney characters. Fans will push whatever limits Disney sets on the wearing of costumes in the park.
But while Disney fans likely will accept a "no cosplay" rule in Avatar Land without a thought — who really wants to dress up like those guys, anyway? — the stakes rise with the opening of Star Wars Land. No one wants a theme park to jeopardize its visitors' safety. But when the pursuit of safety starts to drain the fun from a park, managers need to get creative to find a better way to achieve both safety and fun.
So among the plans for Disney's Star Wars Land should be a respectful approach to cosplay in the parks — clearly defined rules that encourage fans to express their love for and loyalty to Star Wars while allowing Disney reassure everyone that it is providing a safe environment, as well. If Disney wants to build a land better than Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it will need to take full potential of the Star Wars franchise, and that includes finding a way to accommodate a comfortable level of cosplay for all who visit Star Wars Land.
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The bigger reason for Star Wars' success is the richness of the expanded universe behind the movies - from TV shows, to novels (both the canon and "legends" line), to action figures, legos, and other toys, to video games, board games, card games, and role playing games - Star Wars has successfully invaded every entertainment element of our public psyche. Cosplay is a small part of that invasion, not THE difference maker - at least, not for me.
All kidding aside, cosplay goes back to my sticky argument- Star Wars is rich with characters and alien races that the public around the world are familiar with. You could show a random person on the street a picture of a wookie, jawa, or even Han Solo and 8 times out of 10 they would be able to tell you what they are. I'm betting the chances of recognition of the creatures, sights, and characters of Avatar would be fairly low. The same would go with the Lord of the Rings characters. Unless Disney forces James Cameron to include catchy sing along songs and lovable cartoonish characters with a new Avatar film, I really don't know how you are going to incite excitement for this film series and the new themed land with the general public. Sure, people will visit Animal Kingdom in larger numbers, but I wouldn't think you would see the increases like Universal had for both Harry Potter areas.
From my view, I really didn't see too many people dress up in Harry Potter Robes and walking around at IOA. Maybe I am lucky (or unlucky).
I think the difference between what Disney considers a costume and what Harry Potter (or Jedi) robes are a bit different. Disney doesn't want adults to wear costumes to dilute the experience. They do not want a knockoff Elsa walking around the parks and confuse the kids. You can be a Hogwarts Student and still be "you". You can be a Jedi and still be "you".
I also find it a little odd that everybody is freaking out about a costume rule that, frankly, Disney has always appear to have. Perhaps they might enforce it a little harder or let it be known to all.
I also think that Avatar is not fully developed yet to make its own universe. However, the aspect of the movie that everybody loves are the animals and the environment (which will be found in DAK's Pandora)
It also works with Potter since anyone can be a wizard, maybe they just don't know it yet.
But how many stormtroopers on Thunder Mountain or Small World might break the illusion of a themed area?
Star Wars may be timeless, but it happened in a galaxy far, far, away. I think kids even pick up on that and I think they might start to question why they are wearing a Darth Vader costume on the Winnie The Pooh ride.
I saw it in its original release and in the highly touted 3D. It was a fun movie at the moment, but as time passed I came to the conclusion that Avatar really wasn't that great. I had no desire to see it again, much less add it to my movie collection.
The fact is Avatar's characters weren't that great. The story not that memorable.
This has nothing to do with cosplay, Avatar is simply a brand that is just not that great.
In the end this is partly a security issue, or an efficiency issue for security screening, right? They discouraged costumes at the red carpet event for The Force Awakens, and many theaters didn't allow masks or fake guns at the movie opening nights. Clearly that wasn't about people posing as Disney employees. In fairness how would someone go about screening a person in full Storm trooper outfit properly and efficiently? There may be the additional concern that adults in costume in the parks may freak some little kids out. Darth Maul isn't exactly friendly looking. If you have a 3 year old scared of him or Storm Troopers etc, you can just avoid the Jedi training show or Star Wars area all together. If some guy dressed like Darth Maul gets in line for Peter Pan's Flight though and a little kid snaking around in line just starts screaming because they are terrified of the guy, you've got an issue here- who needs to leave the line? That's potentially a lot of drama that I'm sure guest services would like to avoid.
Universal can sell robes, wands, scarves, Quidditch uniforms, and school uniforms. Basically, they can sell expensive cosplay outfits, and encourage fans to wear them inside the park. (excuse me, while I run to the bathroom stall to change)
I'm not saying Disney could sell replica Stormtrooper costumes or anything, but they could sell shirts and replica costumes from the folks who live on the planets from the movies, and if they put any amount of effort into it, they could charge quite a king's ransom.
I hope Disney re-thinks this, although I think holding onto the ban of face-obscuring masks and headwear isn't a terrible idea.
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