🍿 How ‘The Phantom Menace’ Backlash Almost Broke Star Wars

I remember The Phantom Menace backlash. I was there. And yet, my history is starting to seem incorrect, or at the very least, biased by my own experience.

Of this I’m sure: The backlash did, in fact, take place. But by taking a larger view of the Force, I have started to wonder if the backlash against The Phantom Menace really mattered as much to Star Wars fans as they thought it did — regardless of which side of the debate you were on.

As someone who, at the age of 17, camped out for Phantom Menace tickets in the summer of 1999, I decided to look back at this strange disturbance in the Force, and, to get a sense from other Star Wars fans and experts how this time felt, how we remember it, and what it all mean, 25 years later.

Just in time the season of pool days and PTO, Bad Summer People author Emma Rosenblum is back with a new novel that critiques corporate culture almost as scathingly as you do. In Very Bad Company, we meet a team of wealthy executives as they travel on a work retreat to Miami. High stakes — and even higher drama — ensues in this brilliantly escapist read.