And yet, we’d suggest there is a real opportunity with Star Wars: Starfighter, the likes of which we have not seen in the 10 years since J.J. Abrams rebooted the Star Wars franchise on the big screen with The Force Awakens. Which is reason enough to keep an open mind.
When Abrams was given proverbial free reign of the galaxy far, far away back in 2013, he at least had on paper what seemed like a clean slate. While the previous decade’s Prequel Trilogy was successful, those films were by no means loved and celebrated by fandom or casual moviegoers (sounds familiar?). So while there was both trepidation about someone other than George Lucas spearheading a Star Wars movie, there was at least cautious optimism among fans to get something different. But by “different,” we of course mean what turned out to be an excessively nostalgic throwback to the original 1977 Star Wars movies (others might call it an outright remake by another name).
But given the expectations of fandom to see old favorites like Harrison Ford’s Han Solo again—plus Disney’s own actual expectations for harvesting their new acquisition—it might be somewhat unfair to suggest Abrams really was free to tell whatever story he wanted. Comic-Con attendees, wistful grandparents, and most importantly Mouse House shareholders demanded an Episode VII, and Abrams and an army of co-writers and filmmakers gave them exactly that. And at least a decade ago, everyone seemed pretty happy with the results at first.
However, every Disney-produced Star Wars movie that came after The Force Awakens found itself trapped in a similar box which Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had set for themselves: how do we again recycle the past while changing just enough of it to justify creating a “new film?”
The following four Star Wars flicks had varying levels of success with solving this conundrum. For our money, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story might have been the most credible with director Gareth Edwards, and perhaps more importantly screenwriter and reshoot mastermind Tony Gilroy, turning Rogue into a veritable World War II melodrama about self-sacrifice and the cost of resisting an occupying or autocratic force. Still, Rogue One was greenlit and marketed as being in direct conversation with the original trilogy from the 1970s and ‘80s, right down to digital cameos made by the deceased Peter Cushing and a young Carrie Fisher (who was alive when Rogue One went into production). It also was all about the Death Star from the ’77 picture.
Meanwhile every “Skywalker Saga” film in the mainline Star Wars franchise after The Force Awakens, was forced to react to the choices made by the previous filmmaker. On Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson was handed a movie that needed to continue the story of Ben Solo, Han and Leia’s son who killed his father before Luke Skywalker ever reentered the story, and with Luke cast away to a mysterious and self-imposed exile. Whether you liked Johnson’s choices about why Luke would banish himself from his friends and family, or how Johnson continued other threads dangled by Abrams, at the end of the day he had to work with the limitations that had been immediately placed on him by the previous Star Wars movie(s).
