Star Wars was in fact always mainstream. Everybody loved it, not just the nerds. It made epic sums of money. They had stormtroopers on freaking Donny and Marie.

Star Wars was in fact always mainstream. Everybody loved it, not just the nerds. It made epic sums of money. They had stormtroopers on freaking Donny and Marie. The nerds responded by making their own niche of it, via action figures and books. Everything got weird with the release of the prequels, which were not as popular with mainstream audiences. The nerds really bought into them, for reasons I admit I still don't fully understand. They had kept a flame for the franchise that mainstream audiences had largely dropped, but the nerds loved the new things to obsess about.