We know that the Chinese market is very important to the film industry as they have made or broke films that sometimes have not done very well domestically. Unfortunately one of the franchises that has not done too well in China is Disney’s Star Wars. This is due to the lack of release for the original trilogy in the 70’s, which has made it very challenging for the brand to build a fan base there.

To date the Star Wars films that have been released have had mixed success. For example, The Force Awakens brought in $124 million, but then the Star Wars spin off Rouge One only made $70 million. Things got worse with The Last Jedi, which flopped with $43 million. Due to these lack luster numbers Disney is looking to try and and build a bigger fan base by partnering up with Tencent-owned China Literature according to Deadline.

They are largest online publisher, and they are teaming up with Disney to produce the first original Chinese Star Wars story for their online reading platform. They will also distribute 40 Star Wars novels translated into Chinese for the first time. This partnership was first announced in Shanghai on October 16th. The original story will be written by a young Chinese author that goes by his pen name ‘His Majesty’. This reading platform currently has 217 million monthly users.

“We hope that more Chinese readers will be exposed to the Star Wars story and let Star Wars renew its vitality in China. At the same time, through creative experimentation and exploration, we will jointly bring Chinese-style Star Wars stories to Chinese readers,” said Wu Wenhui, CEO of China Literature, in a statement translated from its original Mandarin.

We know that there are certain things that end up getting censored or changed in China. With the people of Hong Kong rebelling against the governments laws, it will be interesting to see if things get changed as they could potentially see Star Wars novels as a threat. But with as much money as there is out there, we know that companies and studios will often continue to compromise to get their product out east. Especially Star Wars, which has not done as well as Disney expected with lower than expected numbers at their parks and mixed feelings about the last few films.

ALSO SEE: DISNEY CEO ADDRESSES LOWER THAN EXPECTED ATTENDANCE AT STAR WARS: GALAXY’S EDGE AT DISNEYLAND

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Source: Deadline