Despite plans for a Star Wars sequel trilogy existing as early as 1976, Disney’s delayed follow-up to that original Skywalker saga has been a mixed bag. Consisting of 2015’s The Force Awakens (directed by J. J. Abrams), 2017’s The Last Jedi (directed by Rian Johnson), and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker (once again directed by Abrams), the trilogy sought to explore the aftermath of the fall of the Galactic Empire, as shown in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. Containing countless references to (and continuations from) previous Star Wars films, this follow-up trilogy looked well-placed to deliver the same mystical, sci-fi magic that captivated original audiences.
Unfortunately, the films failed to stick the landing. Despite The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi receiving excellent reviews from critics, receiving praise for how they celebrated Star Wars lore whilst interrogating the central themes of that universe, The Rise of Skywalker was largely panned for being a nonsensical, contradictory, overly-saccharine mess. Moreover, because these films were positioned to tell one ‘big story’ across all three movies, the badness of The Rise of Skywalker retroactively made the previous two films worse: knowing that this is where the characters would end up, fans quickly soured on all of the ‘sequel trilogy’ (think how Season 8 of Game of Thrones made the initial seasons less enjoyable).
Of course, this failed ending shocked fans – the three films had a combined budget of over $837 million, and some of the best creative forces in the world working on them. How could it all go so wrong? Unfortunately, some industry experts knew from the start that this sequel trilogy was always doomed to fail, and the reason why can be summed up in two words: mystery box.
On January 14, 2008, roughly four years before he would be announced as the creative lead behind the ‘sequel’ trilogy, J. J. Abram gave a TED Talk titled ‘The mystery box’. In the 18-min long lecture, Abrams broke down his approach to film-making, and he argued that cinema works because of ‘mystery boxes’: mysteries presented to the audience that get solved as the film goes along. In Abrams’ opinion, audiences will continue to watch a film because they want to know the secrets behind its mysteries – they want to know who the murderer is, they want to know who the main character’s real parents are, they want to know what the bad guy’s evil plan is. For Abrams, a film is only as good as the ‘mystery boxes’ it presents to the audience.
Interestingly, in the TED Talk, Abrams actually uses the original Star Wars film, 1976’s A New Hope, as an example of ‘mystery boxes’ done right. He highlights the ‘mystery boxes’ of the audience not initially knowing who Princess Leia is, what the ‘droids’ are, who ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ is etc. The way the film set-ups and resolves ‘mystery boxes’ is what makes that initial Star Wars such a brilliant movie, in Abrams’ eyes. In fact, this similar approach is evident throughout Abrams’ initial filmography: from the monster-movie Cloverfield (2008) to the supernatural sci-fi Lost (2004), Abrams keeps audiences hooked by supplying engaging mysteries.
Difficulties arise, then, because Abrams seemingly doesn’t always plan out his solutions in advance: his impetus is on creating mysteries, not solving them. Take Lost, for example. The opening episode of this TV series sets up a ton of ‘mystery boxes’: why did the plane crash? What’s happening on this mysterious island? What is the ‘smoke monster’? While, over the series’ six-season run, it would answer a lot of these questions, the answers would often be contradictory or incomplete – Abrams never fully opens up his ‘mystery boxes’. Nevertheless, audiences still tuned in, and Lost was still a success.
Once this approach to filmmaking is understood, the ‘sequel trilogy’ makes a lot more sense: Abrams created engaging mysteries to hook the audience, not knowing what their solutions were. Who are Rey’s parents? Who is Captain Phasma? Where is Luke Skywalker and why has he gone missing? Who are Snoke and the First Order? The Force Awakens offered a litany of mysteries, and critics praised the film, under the understanding that the next two installments would adequately resolve them. Of course, it has since come to light that Abrams didn’t have the answers to any of these questions; he left it to the following films and directors to solve (note: Abrams wasn’t initially slated to direct The Rise of Skywalker – he only took over after Colin Trevorrow left the project).
Indeed, while The Last Jedi did answer some of these questions (namely, the ones to do with Rey’s parentage and Luke’s disappearance), the higher-ups at Disney didn’t like some of the answers, so forced The Rise of Skywalker to retcon them. Therefore, instead of The Rise of Skywalker being a perfect conclusion and resolution to perfectly set-up mysteries, it was in the impossible position where it had to find answers to the set-up mysteries, change what Disney Execs. didn’t like about The Last Jedi, whilst also being an engaging action film – the movie buckled under the weight of all this pressure.
Thus, the ‘sequel trilogy’ was always doomed to fail, due to Abrams’ mystery boxes. The Force Awakens sets up a copious amount of mysteries, that Abrams simply didn’t know the answers to – follow-up films would tie themselves in knots trying to find adequate solutions, but never succeeding. At the end of the day, after this failed approach, maybe Disney should’ve kept it simple, like The Mandalorian.
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