Lucasfilm Sued By the International Olympic Committee
In a stunning twist of events, Lucasfilm and Disney, who notoriously go after small websites and content creators for use of their intellectual property, are themselves being sued for use of intellectual property by… the Olympics?!
The International Olympic Committee has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Lucasfilm and Disney. The lawsuit claims that the character Ric Olié has a name too similar phonetically to “Olympics”, which is trademarked by the IOC. They are claiming damages to their brand brought on by the use of Olié’s name.
Faking Star Wars has obtained a copy of the court filing. In it, the IOC claim that due to the initial poor reaction to the prequel trilogy, the Olympics have been harmed. The filing states that global viewership has been detrimentally affected due to people associating Olié with the Olympics causing it to be memed like the prequels.
The IOC are demanding that Ric Olié be removed from The Phantom Menace. This would mean the escape from Naboo, and the return to the planet later in the movie, will need to be reedited. Luckily, Lucasfilm is constantly “enhancing” the Star Wars films, so changes were already being planned before the IOC stuck their noses in.
A “special edition” of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace with Ric Olié replaced by a CGI pilot droid with a name that sounds nothing like the word “Olympics” is due to release on Disney+ and all other digital distributors in December 2021, around the same time The Book Of Boba Fett releases.
So what do you make of this news? Will you miss the human pilot from Naboo whose name is never actually said in the movie? Who will teach Anakin the difference between forward and rear stabilizers now? Let us know in the comments and hit us up on Twitter.
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