While not necessarily bad, the newest Star Wars trilogy certainly divided many fans. The ongoing saga was supposed to ring in a new era of surefire blockbusters and print money for the House of Mouse. Instead, it left many fans feeling confused and in some cases unenthusiastic about the future of the franchise. The newest trilogy might be the most technically accomplished in terms of special effects, but also had missteps that prevented it from feeling like a cohesive whole.
There are many reasons why this occurred. What could be inadequately summarized as a case of too many cooks in the kitchen wouldn’t quite capture exactly why this new trilogy failed to generate the buzz and unabashed obsession from fans that previous trilogies did. This is not gong to be remembered as the greatest trilogy the galaxy far, far, away has ever produced, but it could be remembered as the one that helped identify key problems. By learning from the missteps of the newest Star Wars trilogy, Disney could make this era be seen as a turning point and a needed evolution to move forward to reclaim the glory of the originals.
Starting with the most obvious issue of the new trilogy, Disney needs to write out the entire story first and stick to it. There are so many interesting characters and plot points introduced in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Most notably is the introduction of Finn. He’s an escaped Storm Trooper that is shown to have some affinity with the force and also is able to wield a lightsaber. This is an origin unlike any other that has come before it, and it should have been a focal point of the new trilogy. Just think, his character could have grown with his force abilities, then been the focal point of the galaxy moving away from Jedi. Instead, he’s relegated to playing a cheerleader for Rey for much of the franchise.
The same goes for Finn’s comrade for the majority of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Rose, who is also introduced. They make it a huge point to have her go on an adventure with Finn and she even saves his life at the end of the film by making some daring moves. Fans apparently did not love the character, and she was basically abandoned in the final film of the trilogy. While the general outline of these new movies may have been set up before the movies were actually made, it’s clear that Disney was too invested in pleasing fans and attempted to course-correct as the trilogy progressed. This is also related to a larger problem that Disney attempted to give different creators and directors the reigns to each movie.
The issue with having multiple directors is that each clearly saw Star Wars as something different than the other. Many will share their disappointment in the prequel trilogy, but at least it was unified with the original trilogy as one cohesive vision under George Lucas. Most things that were changed about the original trilogy when George Lucas decided to go back and introduce additional, more modern digital effects have more often than not detracted from fans’ enjoyment. This is not dissimilar to the “Han shot first” controversy. Disney sticking to a lane also extends to their choice in directors.
Episode VII, VIII, and IX were all meant to have different directors in the form of JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson, and Colin Trevorrow. While The Force Awakens was met with mostly positive critical reception, The Last Jedi incited a fair amount of fan backlash. After parting ways with Colin Trevorrow, Disney attempted to reclaim some of the positive reception garnered by The Force Awakens by having JJ Abrams return to helm The Rise of Skywalker. The film clearly tries to take back many of the decisions made in The Last Jedi, making the film feel disjointed even with Abrams’ involvement.
This switch in tone and style from all three episodes of the new trilogy accentuates this disjointed feeling overall as well. While Episode VII feels like an homage to the original trilogy, Episode VIII feels more like a Marvel movie with its humor. It just does not match and feels out of place when looking at the trilogy as a whole. In order to remedy this next time around Disney needs to select one director and stick with them after planning out the direction of the trilogy from the start.
Now to address the elephant in the room. The new Star Wars trilogy fails to really make any identity of its own due to its inability to craft a story without leaning heavily on the inclusion of past characters. Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker are all present within the trilogy at some point. While this made fans excited and tapped into the nostalgia of the fanbase, it also made the new trilogy constantly draw in comparisons to the original trilogy. The Last Jedi received backlash for taking risks most specifically with the character of Luke becoming less hopeful than his role in the original trilogy. Star Wars fans want new adventures, ideas, and stories- just not at the expense of the classics they hold dear. If Disney can move forward and actually leave the past behind them they’ll have their best shot at creating a new trilogy that fans can truly love. May the Force be with them.
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