I can still clearly recall how excited I was before Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered, but just under a decade later, I’m not sure whether Star Wars will ever quite feel like that again. The reception of the Star Wars sequel trilogy is quite well-known at this point. Sadly, many in the fanbase still consider the sequels to be some of Star Wars’ worst movies, and several of the movies’ actors, Daisy Ridley in particular, continue to be skewered in certain corners of the internet.
Unfortunately, this negativity has bled into many of Star Wars’ movies and TV shows since, which has been clear with updates such as The Acolyte’s cancelation. In fact, in recent years, dissatisfaction has turned into outright vitriol from some viewers, which is something that the franchise doesn’t seem to be moving beyond any time soon. This recent history makes me wonder: will Star Wars ever feel as hopeful as it did just before the sequel trilogy?
The Force Awakens Felt Like A Brand-New Start For Star Wars
Prior to the release of The Force Awakens, the sequel trilogy truly felt like a brand-new era of Star Wars. The prequel trilogy was undoubtedly thrilling, as there had been a considerable gap between the original Star Wars trilogy and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. However, the prequels were in some ways limited because they had to lead into the original trilogy. Yes, there was plenty of room for innovation (which I believe the prequels executed brilliantly), but in a sense, the ending had already been revealed.
The sequel trilogy, in contrast, seemed to have endless possibilities. In fact, after Disney purchased Star Wars, many of the stories that had been written about the period after Return of the Jedi were removed from the canon and instead became part of Legends. For better or worse—and many did believe it to be worse, unfortunately—this meant that the sequels had effectively unlimited story potential. Because of that, walking into The Force Awakens on opening night genuinely had me feeling as though anything could happen.
The Movie Didn’t Fully Meet The Hype – & That Hurt The Franchise
The Force Awakens was not the beginning of a new era that many were hoping to see. The biggest complaints about the movie included a lack of originality and the poor treatment of the original trilogy’s heroes. Specifically, many felt that The Force Awakens too closely mirrored the arc of A New Hope, with a young Force-sensitive character from a desert planet with no notion of their untapped power feeling a bit too close to Luke Skywalker and the First Order’s strategies and ranks being too much like the Empire. (Starkiller Base essentially being a big Death Star didn’t help.)
The Force Awakens
was not the beginning of a new era that many were hoping to see.
Moreover, while Star Wars is well-known for its ‘rhymes’ between stories, characters, and concepts in the franchise, even George Lucas agreed that these similarities were a bit too derivative of A New Hope. In terms of the original trilogy heroes, Luke’s almost complete absence from the movie and Han Solo’s death at the hands of his son, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, both proved to be extremely unpopular. Sadly, the next two installments of the sequel trilogy didn’t exactly improve matters.
The sequel trilogy changed hands for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, going from J.J. Abrams to Rian Johnson. Because of this, the themes of the trilogy shifted considerably. While The Force Awakens had felt quite similar to A New Hope, The Last Jedi introduced a number of brand-new characters, concepts, and plotlines, many of which proved unpopular.
In truth, I enjoyed several updates that were largely considered controversial, such as the Force bond between Kylo Ren and Rey (not explicitly named the Force Dyad until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). However, even I have to admit that some choices in the movie made very little sense. Two of the biggest were suddenly killing Supreme Leader Snoke when he seemed to be the ‘big bad’ and dedicating too much time to Finn and Rose Tico’s side quest.
The Last Jedi also doubled down on certain unfavorable plot points, such as Luke’s isolation from the galaxy. While many had hoped that Luke was standing next to his Legends wife Mara Jade’s gravestone at the end of The Force Awakens, perhaps suggesting that his grief over her death had led to his exile, The Last Jedi revealed that it was instead Ben Solo’s fall to the dark side that caused Luke’s complete lack of faith in the galaxy and the Jedi. Luke’s death at the end of the movie seemed to only anger audiences further.
The Rise of Skywalker
felt like a jarringly disorganized conclusion with little connection to
The Last Jedi
.
Many of these concerns ended up being the least of the sequel trilogy’s problems, though, as The Rise of Skywalker felt like a jarringly disorganized conclusion with little connection to The Last Jedi. This is perhaps in part due to the trilogy changing hands once again, going back to the direction of J.J. Abrams. Truthfully, however, the issues were far more extensive than just a change in direction.
Rather, The Rise of Skywalker took a number of sharp left turns, most infamously conveyed in the line “Somehow, Palpatine returned,” which was meant to explain Emperor Palpatine’s bewildering resurrection and late-stage emergence as the true villain of the sequels. Until The Rise of Skywalker, I had maintained some semblance of excitement and hope, even if The Last Jedi had made decisions I wasn’t thrilled about. With The Rise of Skywalker ending, though—which also saw the death of Leia Organa and Ben Solo—that hope had entirely fizzled.
It Will Be Hard For New Star Wars To Feel This Exciting Again
I was certainly not alone in my increasing disappointment as the sequel trilogy movies were released, and, sadly, fan expectations have remained fairly low since The Rise of Skywalker. In fact, there are a number of upcoming Star Wars TV shows and new Star Wars movies in the works, but the general sentiment about each project seems to be hope tempered with a bit of skepticism. That isn’t to say that Star Wars hasn’t had successes in recent years.
To the contrary, I have enjoyed many of the Star Wars TV shows that have been released since the sequel trilogy ended, including those that have proven controversial, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Acolyte. However, in a way, the damage has already been done. Expectations were so high prior to the sequels and then dropped so low by The Rise of Skywalker that the fanbase in general doesn’t seem to reach the same level of enthusiasm it did prior to The Force Awakens.
This is partially about timing. There was a 10-year gap in Star Wars movies between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens. By comparison, it’s been just under 5 years since The Rise of Skywalker, and The Mandalorian & Grogu is already confirmed for 2026. Moving forward, it seems very unlikely that a 10-year gap will occur in the franchise again, meaning that same level of anticipation won’t build up. Given that, I remain sadly unsure whether Star Wars will ever reach the same level of excitement it did before Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
