Over the last year or so, a popular spoof series loosely based on “Star Wars” protagonist villain Darth Vader’s less competent brother Chad, has caused a bit of a sensation on the Internet.
The indie cartoon series, “Chad Vader”, created by Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan of Madison, Wisconsin, has been viewed nearly 10 million times!! on YouTube alone since first appearing on the Internet.
The two men have made virtually no money from the millions of views of their series on YouTube, claiming to be significant contributors to the astronomical success of YouTube and its recent acquisition by Google for $1.4 billion dollars.
But now the force may be with the “Chad Vader” creators.
Last week YouTube announced it will share its advertising revenue with indie film makers like Yonda and Sloan.
The new revenue sharing could be a windfall for indie filmmakers, but YouTube is not disclosing the details of the plan and say it make not be launched for another year.
“We always wanted to make money doing these videos but we just thought that it was impossible,” Yonda said.
“I think anyone who’s an artist wants to be compensated for what they do,” Sloan said, “It would have been nice if YouTube would have announced revenue sharing 9 million hits ago for us.”
Nevertheless, Yonda said, their exposure is opening new doors, claiming the duo are “like this close to getting paid for doing a network series, a web series.”
As for future “Chad Vader” episodes, the sixth episode is set to be released on Feb. 16. There’s even a cameo from Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. Watch and listen to the guys comment on the upcoming episode and read letters from viewers about past episodes:
