Anyone who’s still a Star Wars fan after the last 25 years of garbage product deserves this.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is attached to direct an upcoming “Star Wars” film, making her the first woman to helm a film in the iconic franchise—but right-wing critics are blasting the movie as “woke” after Obaid-Chinoy said it’s “about time” a woman directed a “Star Wars” installment.

“Disney Cut Us a Check For This,” -Forbes.com

The thing they’re mad about isn’t the “I am Woman, Hear Me Wookie-Roar at the PA’s”, but a 2015 statement in which she said she likes to “make men uncomfortable” with her art. Which, on the one hand, is the sort of pablum you’re supposed to say at a Women of the World Summit, and may not have anything to do with her plans for what is presumably Star Wars Episode X: The Last Hope Revenges (or whatever). But on the other hand, this is not the age where past statements get hand-waved away and forgiven, so sing, children of the night!

On the third hand, this is the first information most of us have that this new SW movie exists. That’s not an accident. We’ve seen this before. Hate-clicks are clicks; controversy is free advertising. So really, if you get Pavloved into getting mad at the prospect of the next SW movie being bad, you haven’t been paying attention:

• The Special Edition was George Lucas diluting the Original Trilogy with pointless moralizing and CGI cartoons. They made money.
• The Prequels were George Lucas’ inability to construct dialogue and character interactions let off its leash. They made money.
• The Sequels were Disney treating the Universe like a piggy bank, with no narrative plan, because who cares? They made money.
• Rogue One was a fan-service hand-job wrapped in tedium. It made money.
• Solo was a decent character study and completely unnecessary. It was a flop.

It’s the last one that matters. They’d been operating for a quarter-century (and more) under the presumption that Star Wars was a license to print money. Solo proved otherwise. So for the last five years, Disney’s been content to dump Star Wars content onto streaming, mini-series of varying quality. But such can only be supplementary; the Disney+ customer is going to pay his subscription service regardless of whether Andor is on it. Disney+ sells itself on having All The Disney Content, one mini-series more or less isn’t going to bring in any more revenue. You need movies.

And since there’s been no shortage of controversy with the Force being Female, you just, you know, lean into that. Pick someone primarily known for filming documentaries about tortured and murdered Pakistani girls and a couple episodes of Ms. Marvel and give them an epic space opera. If it works, great; if it doesn’t, it’s all the fault of those incels who can’t deal with Stronk Wahmen in their Store Wores. In the meantime, savor those sweet sweet clicks.

These are the wages of fandom. When you dorks stop caring about this glorified Flash Gordon nonsense, its unmovable status as a cash-cow for marketing executives who hate you ceases to be a problem.