Introduction
Star Wars was once a pop culture deity with fans falling to their knees in reverence. However, that’s changing. The franchise is being proven mortal. Some may argue it’s a result of Star Wars saturation, which is a misnomer. Marvel built their multiverse and Infinity Stones arc through almost twice as many movies as Star Wars has. They appreciated, which proves good storytelling will keep audiences interested. So then is it a case of quality? That would seem the most obvious answer, and it does play a large part. Yet, the biggest reason is much simpler than people realize.
The Original Trilogy
When Star Wars: A New Hope came out in 1977, it was groundbreaking in so many ways. It was epic, it was operatic, and it was innovative. No other science-fiction movie had managed that combination. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) came closest, but that was a serious, cerebral drama. That wouldn’t have appealed to everybody the way Star Wars: A New Hope did.
Star Wars: A New Hope also created anticipation for its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), which magnificently progresses the Star Wars mythology. We learn more about the Force, and that a master in its practice is this little green thing, Yoda. A genuine subversion of expectation. Han Solo and Leia Organa begin a romance. We fleetingly meet the Emperor, even if his visage is later retconned. We also learn the secret of Darth Vader’s identity.
The most amazing thing about The Empire Strikes Back is that there are so many dramatic downers. After the fun and innocence of Star Wars: A New Hope, we expect some new light-hearted heroic romp. That didn’t happen. In The Empire Strikes Back, the Empire hands the Rebels a series of devastating reality checks.
Best of all, the narrative decisions have a bearing on the story. That’s important. Often, narrative choices nowadays are chosen to shock. This results in fooling the audience into thinking something consequential has happened. Yet, if you examine the repercussions of those narrative choices, nothing exists outside the fleeting melodrama of the revelation. It’s the narrative equivalent of a jump scare.
Return of the Jedi (1983) is a mixed bag. Luke’s story is brilliant. The rest of the film is filler to give the other characters stuff to do in order to keep them involved. Still, at the very least, the story completes this epic journey. The Original Trilogy is about how one person – a seeming nobody – is able to stand up and help overthrow this evil galactic empire and redeem a figure of towering evil. Where do you go from there?
The Prequel Trilogy
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) tells the story of how Anakin Skywalker is a virgin birth. It also shows how he’s liberated from slavery and how Senator Palpatine begins his political maneuvering in order to take over the Republic. It’s an uneven film but has some great moments. We also learn more about the Jedi Order at the height of their abilities.
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) rejoins the story some years later with Anakin now a Jedi apprentice who’s tasked with protecting Padmé. Palpatine continues to manipulate the senate by engineering a galactic conflict that’ll demand he’s granted emergency powers. He also has a new apprentice: Jedi outcast Dooku.
This film has been wrongly marred throughout the years for numerous things. An example is the film’s cheesy romantic dialogue. Yet, we seem to be overlooking that Anakin is a teen and that teens that are in love say cheesy things. This isn’t to say Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones is a great film. However, there is no denying that some of the things picked on as exemplars of criticism are unfair.
In Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), we see the fall of the Republic and the birth of the Empire. Obi-Wan Kenobi defeats Anakin Skywalker and leaves him for dead. The Emperor saves him and reincarnates him as Darth Vader – Emperor Palpatine’s perfect apprentice. Anakin has the physical power and relentlessness of a machine and the organic strength in the Force. Here is the darkness that the Original Trilogy fought.
The Intervening Years
The Prequel Trilogy is generally reviled, although many have revisited their opinions after watching the Sequel Trilogy. Looking back reflectively, the Prequels should not be as maligned as they are. They play out like good ideas that weren’t refined enough. This is similar to how the original draft of Star Wars: A New Hope reads, which hardly resembles the finished cinematic product. That’s the power and beauty of revision.
The difference is that when George Lucas made Star Wars: A New Hope, he was largely a nobody. People would often challenge him. Subsequently, he would flesh out his story. By the time of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, he was this iconic auteur, and many around him probably felt they were unworthy of challenging him.
Still, the Prequels are another piece of this epic story, showing us the birth of the Empire, Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader, as well as Palpatine’s growing stranglehold on the galaxy. Whatever people may think of the storytelling as a whole in the Prequels, they have some beautiful and powerful moments.
George Lucas had plans for the sequels but decided he didn’t have the vigor and youth to oversee the ten years making another trilogy would take. As a result, he not only sold Star Wars to Disney but gave them his treatments for the Sequel Trilogy as he saw it. Reportedly, the treatments are so detailed that they could be transposed directly to screenplays. Disney, as was their prerogative as the new owners of the franchise, had other ideas.
The Sequel Trilogy
Disney soft-rebooted the universe, largely retelling the same story that Star Wars: A New Hope had. Even Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) most ardent fans can acknowledge that its derivative. A young idealistic loner is dragged into the galactic conflict. Meanwhile, the villains use a super weapon to consolidate their hold on the galaxy. Sounds very familiar.
Instead of Luke, we have Rey. Instead of an Emperor, we have a Supreme Leader. Taking the place of the Empire, we have the First Order. Instead of Vader, we have Kylo. Instead of a Death Star, we have the Starkiller base. Substituting the plans for the Death Star is a map to Luke Skywalker. Instead of the desert planet of Tatooine, we have the desert planet of Jakku. These are all direct parallels.
Disney, perhaps wary about how the Prequels had wounded the fanbase, decided to bank on nostalgia to woo them back, rather than trying anything too different. Undoubtedly, Star Wars: The Force Awakens feels like Star Wars: A New Hope, and that excited moviegoers. The genuine query was just what could be built on a facsimile.
Ryan Johnson tries to innovate throughout Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017). However, while the choices that Johnson makes might be considered bold, the story largely mirrors The Empire Strikes Back. It’s essentially a chase in space while the hero trains with a reluctant instructor and then leaves to face their nemesis.
One can also argue that narrative choice might shock and thus seem majestic to a stunned audience. Yet, they don’t fundamentally impact the story, e.g. compare Luke finding out his identity and Rey finding out hers. One completely refurbishes the landscape and changes the character forever. The other stuns the character for several moments, and that’s it. It has no impact on anybody or anything after that.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) is a mixed palette of Disney trying to remedy the damage done to the franchise and mollify the aggrieved fanbase. They also wanted to satisfy those who had enjoyed the Sequels, while also tying up the Sequel Trilogy. It’s an impossible ask to serve and please all these masters, leaving a trilogy that started with such hope and energy (for many) limping to an unsatisfying climax.
A Brief Character Study
Another issue throughout the Sequels is the construction and exploration of characters. Many of them are given to us as largely completed works. Poe is the hotshot pilot. Okay. Star Wars: The Last Jedi tells us he needs to learn the responsibilities of leadership. Although all his seemingly divisive behavior correlates to a leader trying to take care of his people.
Fin is the one genuinely interesting and new character in the Sequel Trilogy. He’s a Stormtrooper deserter, but nothing is done with that arc until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and then it’s handled flippantly. Star Wars: The Last Jedi wastes him as a comic foil, while also teaching him a lesson not one of us knew he had to learn.
Ben Solo/Kylo Ren has already turned when we’ve met him. He then proceeds to throw tantrums for two movies. You can only assume his Sith name would’ve become Darth Tantrum. His about-face in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker happens simply because the plot decides he needs to be redeemed, a la Darth Vader. However, there is no real justification for it.
Some might suggest the Original Trilogy is light on character development for the supporting characters. However, Han Solo goes from the money-only mercenary to the reluctant hero to the active Rebel. Leia goes from the fanatical Rebellion leader to somebody who opens their heart. They may not be huge arcs, but the characters do change.
This is something that the character of Rey seems to lack as a protagonist. Her arc is almost nonexistent. Certainly, there’s a circumstantial arc, i.e. she goes from nobody to Resistance fighter to a Jedi of sorts. However, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually, she remains the same person throughout the series of films.
Compare this to how we see Luke Skywalker grow and mature over the course of three movies. We see young Luke go from impulsive and reckless to measured and purposeful. Even the attire that he adorns changes throughout the series from white to gray to black to represent his character’s progression.
Most importantly, Luke struggles, fails, then (despite frequent doubts) perseveres. We relate to him because his journey is one we all face in everyday life – the attempt to get somewhere better despite all the obstacles we encounter. We all fail at times. That’s how we learn. That’s how we grow. By comparison, Rey succeeds at everything she does, showcasing inexplicable mastery at whatever skillset the story requires of her.
She is the equivalent of Superman, but the difference is that Superman is meant to be an ideal. He is intended to be an icon that we strive to emulate. Superman also cuts something of a tragic figure because he can never be one of us, so he remains this outlier. His bumbling persona as Clark Kent is not just a secret identity, but his attempt for normalcy. But that attempt remains a fiction. He is a super-powered alien on Earth.
The character of Rey clearly has none of this, so we never have context. She may be able to serve as an example of wish fulfillment. However, we are never truly able to empathize with who she is or relate to her journey. We cannot understand her because none of that work has been done with the character.
The Disney Landscape
The Sequels also downgrade the events that take place in the Original Trilogy: principally the struggle of the Rebels, Luke facing the Emperor, and Darth Vader’s sacrifice. It means nothing because Snoke emerges and the First Order arises. What is the point of the battles the Rebels fight in the Original Trilogy then?
Lucas’s original sequel treatments focused on Leia as the protagonist, rebuilding the Republic while Luke rebuilds the Jedi. They face Darth Maul and his apprentice, a female Sith, Darth Talon. It’s a genuine progression of the story with the (legacy) characters growing, rather than characters being given to us embittered. Their journey is a simple reset to the default we expect.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) is credited with closing Disney’s cinematic Star Wars run. Without going too deeply into the film’s plot, it is some little side-story that doesn’t have much bearing on the greater Star Wars universe. It’s basically a heist-gone-wrong story, and that’s been done better elsewhere.
Going back to the matter of character, you’d think any prequel of Han Solo would show us how he becomes such a great fighter, a brilliant pilot, an amazing gambler, and how he learns to speak Wookie, among other things. Unfortunately, young Han Solo is given to us as fully formed as Rey is. It’s a horribly missed opportunity.
Disney’s forays into television have been solid but, for the most part, largely unspectacular. The Mandalorian seems to exist as an attempt to stabilize the Star Wars universe, but interest only skyrocketed after they tied back into the narrative of the galactic conflict. Unlike the Sequels, which gave us the First Order fully formed, at least The Mandalorian shows the remnants of the Empire trying to find a way to rebuild.
The Book of Boba Fett is about this battle for some pocket of the Tattooine underworld. Like Solo: A Star Wars Story, its marquee comes from using a franchise character. Reactions to it have been mixed. Many fans wanted Boba Fett from The Empire Strikes Back, and that’s it, whereas the series seemed determined to explore the man under the helm. It is an interesting approach whether you agree with it or not.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) is popularly considered the best of Disney’s cinematic fare. That’s because it tells a story that has galactic repercussions. One can argue that this is a story that wasn’t exactly one that needed to be told. However, at least it did have a sense of grandeur about it.
The same can be said for Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series faces the unenviable task of bridging the Prequels and the Original Trilogy and trying to address canonical inconsistencies. Yet, they’ve managed to build on the Prequels, explored the Obi-Wan-Anakin relationship, and treated both characters with respect, if not reverence. That’s a nice change and arguably gives us Disney’s closest emulation of Star Wars.
Why the Damage Has Happened
Soft-rebooting the franchise with a derivative episode might’ve temporarily pleased much of the fanbase (many of whom would later revisit their opinions) and reconnected on the basis of nostalgia, but it also set up Disney’s reign to fail.
Star Wars was always meant to be about big ideas, big themes, big characters, and big events. The subsequent Prequels gave birth to the Empire, while the Original Trilogy sees that Empire topple. Throughout it all, there are heroes, princesses, magic, a seat of power, good versus evil, as well as a battle for supremacy.
The Sequels retell that story. That’s fine. The core of these stories is always going to be the battle between good and evil. Yet, they chose to be derivative and thrust upon us facsimiles, often without truly understanding why the originals became so iconic.
When the Sequels rehashed events from the Original Trilogy, they were unwittingly providing a commentary on this universe that the battle of good versus evil is not only cyclical but that the events of the Original Trilogy aren’t conclusive, meaning victory is redundant. There’ll be another villain, another evil governing body, another battle, and they’ll all likely involve the same pieces.
Now that can actually be a great story: the clash between good and evil becoming so intrinsic that it’s self-defeating because it perpetuates conflict. However, that can’t be the basis for a franchise that needs to keep producing new episodes and new installments.
If that did become the case, why should one care about anything if we’re just going to constantly do it all over again? Especially if that cycle just involves cheap knock-offs? It’s like those movie franchises whose sequels exercise the law of diminishing returns, rather than trying to build on the mythology by taking us somewhere new and teaching us more about their universe.
A Galaxy for the Taking
Some argue that Star Wars is a limited universe that restricts expansive storytelling and that this is all it can be. It has to be safe. It has to be familiar. That’s a cop-out. We keep hearing this as a defense for why certain franchises peddle a formula, but then enjoy movies such as Logan (2017), Joker (2019), and The Batman (2022). These are a handful of examples of stories drawn from established and popular properties that dared to be different, lateral, and which captured audiences because they were built on good storytelling.
Sylvester Stallone did a great job with his Rocky franchise in always giving us new incarnations of his characters. We periodically rejoin Rocky and his family as they face new challenges. Each movie might end with a fight, but the context changes: Rocky fights for survival, then glory, for self-worth, then revenge (this being the silliest motivation), then honor, then validation.
Tom Cruise is another who’s done a magnificent job with the Mission Impossible franchise. He’s fought for good scripts, good stories, interesting characters, and new directions. It’s a rare franchise that has appreciated with age, rather than diminished.
As far as Star Wars goes, the game manufacturers have often released one epic story after another. They achieve this by operating within the parameters of the Star Wars universe, then forging new paths. They do this, rather than relying on re-versioning what we know, soft-rebooting it, or just plain old ripping it off.
This is what’s missing from contemporary Star Wars: bold and meaningful storytelling choices that take us on an amazing journey in grand circumstances with new characters who grow, change and relate to us, who make us (the audience) believe that while we’re not fighting evil empires, we can get somewhere better in life if we persevere, learn, and evolve.
We live vicariously through good stories, whatever form they take. We can lambast the Prequels, but at least George Lucas took chances – and wanted to continue taking chances. That is one of the major criticisms of the Prequels: that they’re different. If we want to see the events of the Original Trilogy, we’ll re-watch the Original Trilogy, rather than some facsimile.
It’s pretty evident that the corporate machine that is Disney, took the grandeur of Star Wars and made it common. Star Wars was never meant to be common. If that’s not something Disney has realized by now, then we should fear for the franchise’s longevity in any form.
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