Because of the coronavirus, San Diego Comic-Con 2020 and 2021 were held virtually. This, year, everything was finally back in person, and it was definitely worth the multi-year wait. Tons of different franchises made all kinds of announcements, and trailers were dropping faster than the MCU's Loki trying to hold up Mjolnir.
Among the many Marvel titles announced at the event was Spider-Man: Freshman Year, which received a 2024 release date. However, the reveal that stood out the most was the Marvel Zombies announcement. The thing that everyone took note of, though, was its TV-MA rating. Naturally, the mature rating caused some fans to cheer and others to call foul, and there's probably not a correct answer to the debate. Regardless, one thing is for sure: the mature content debate is about to start in the Star Wars franchise.
The debate about Marvel using Disney+ to air mature content is valid on both sides. Some content is just better when it doesn't have to adhere to a ratings limit. On the other hand, a lot of parents don't want their children exposed to certain things, and rightly so. After all, mature content is rated TV-MA for a reason. However, Disney+ has added parental control features to try to accommodate those concerns. So, despite some fans' objections, mature content will be available on the streaming platform.
Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which simply sets out to tell good stories, Star Wars has a bit of an agenda -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Back when George Lucas was creating Star Wars, he did it with the purpose of influencing children to make good decisions and have good values, like a modern mythology. Lucas reiterated that purpose, when he spoke at the 2017 Star Wars Celebration. Via Polygon, he said, "Friendships, honestly, trust, doing the right thing, living on the right side and avoiding the dark side. Those are the things it was meant to do."
While the MCU might be inclined to release mature content to better accommodate its characters (like The Defenders), that wouldn't fit Star Wars' marching orders. Namely, if something is too mature for children to watch, there's no way that it could be a good influence on them. So, thus far, Star Wars has strayed away from anything too mature on screen.
George Lucas may not be directly in charge anymore, but his values are still in place. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy recently made that clear. While discussing rewrites on the Obi-Wan Kenobi scripts, Kennedy said, "We're looking, ultimately, to make a hopeful, uplifting story. And it's tricky when you're starting with a character in the state that Obi-Wan would be in coming off of Revenge of the Sith." In the rest of her statement, Kennedy made it clear that she wanted to ensure that the Kenobi series did homage to the Dark Times without painting a picture that was too bleak. Hope had to be the series' ending point.
While it would be cool (and probably financially profitable) for Star Wars to enter the universe of mature content, so far it has stayed true to its roots. It's for everyone, but it's meant for children -- and throwing that out of the airlock for the sake of profit just wouldn't be right. Especially on Disney+, there shouldn't be anything hiding behind parental controls. Everything should be for everyone to enjoy.