Lucasfilm’s Latest Movie Announcement Shows All of the Faults in Our Star Wars

An obsession with rhyming and meta-references has ground the franchise to a halt.

“It’s like poetry. They rhyme.”

Star Wars has always been a franchise obsessed with being self-referential and with repetition. Even as early as the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi borrows A New Hope’s central plot device for its grand threat and returns to the familiar Tatooine for its opening act.

The repetition became increasingly apparent during the prequels, where the parallels ranged from the blatantly obvious, such as Anakin getting his arm cut off during the finale of the second film, just as his father did, to the less apparent, as detailed in the omnibus “Star Wars Ring Theory” fan article. 

But there was a certain amount of thematic sense to this “rhyming,” as the prequels were explicitly telling the story of how the characters and the story of the original trilogy came to be. George Lucas crafted his unified vision of the Skywalker saga, the story of the fall of a Republic, the rise of the Empire, and the victory of the Rebellion. 

When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2015, the repetition became far more egregious. The Force Awakens lifts practically its entire plot from A New Hope, down to the ticking clock trench run in the final sequence. This was so apparent that The Last Jedi, for all its flaws, explicitly made the rejection of the past one of its central themes (although it's worth noting that that film heavily drew on iconography from The Empire Strikes Back in its third act). Rise of Skywalker proved so sensitive to fan outrage at The Last Jedi that it resurrected the Emperor, brought back old characters for no apparent reason, and tried to tie together all nine films in one massively disappointing conclusion. It did well at the box office, but continued a trend of diminishing returns on Star Wars films, and the muted fan and critical reaction caused Disney to pump the brakes on cinematic Star Wars offerings. 

The announcement that the next Star Wars film to hit theaters will be a continuation of the Mandalorian Disney Plus doesn’t come as a total surprise. Disney’s offerings on the big screen ranged widely in box office success, with The Force Awakens breaking records and Solo becoming the first Star Wars film to outright flop. It would make sense for Disney to choose the safest route possible by building its next film around arguably the most recognizable piece of Disney-era Star Wars intellectual property. 

But it’s also the most disappointing choice Disney could have made. That’s what happens when Disney’s corporate risk-aversion collides with a franchise that loves its rhyming.

The first season of the Mandalorian was a breath of fresh air, a refreshingly small-stakes story built around Western tropes and an outrageously meme-able main character. But as Disney has built out its streaming offerings, the results have gotten worse (with one major exception). The Book of Boba Fett was a huge misfire, as head writer Jon Favreau bizarrely decided to derail the series midway through its story to become The Mandalorian Season 2.5. These streaming ventures felt more like they were attempts to build on the world of the Clone Wars than attempts to push the franchise in novel directions. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi gave audiences Ewan McGregor back in the role of Obi-Wan but not much else, as the show’s best moments were obvious retreads of previous films. The second and third season of the Mandalorian expanded the size and scope of the show, which brought with it a bevy narrative false starts and misfires. Ahsoka was an improvement, but remains non-essential viewing, effectively serving as a fifth season of Rebels.

The one exception to this mediocrity, an exception that should guide Disney’s decision-making, is Andor. Series creator and head writer Tony Gilroy specifically said that he is not a huge Star Wars fan, and Andor is undeniably the least inter-connected feeling of all of Disney’s Star Wars offerings. The show is instead a shockingly insightful and nuanced depiction of the rise of fascism and the banality of evil of those who enable it, contrasted with the sacrifices made by those who are building a burgeoning rebellion. 

Andor was a reminder that Star Wars is at its best when it’s combining genres and drawing from outside influences. The first season of the Mandalorian drew on Western gunslinging influences, Rogue One drew on war movie tropes. Even Solo, an unfairly maligned film, was at its best as a heist adventure. The Last Jedi, for all of its flaws, borrowed some of its most inspired visual moments from outside inspiration. 

But the biggest concern is that The Mandalorian and Grogu will continue to mine from within, the familiar, instead of drawing from the outside. There does appear to be some hope on the horizon, as one planned movie from James Mangold will be set millenia before the events of the Skywalker saga and will tell the story of the origins of the Jedi. But time will tell whether this movie will actually find its way to the silver screen, or join the graveyard of canceled Star Wars projects. 

Disney’s corporate longevity means that we will get Star Wars content for the rest of our days. That fact has already caused the franchise to lose one aspect of its allure, which was its relative scarcity. Six films over a roughly three and a half decade period meant fans could fill in the blanks with a rich Expanded Universe. The creative suits at Lucasfilm have likely already learned that Star Wars is not Marvel and does not benefit from a multi-film-per-year release strategy. 

But Lucasfilm can take advantage of the brand’s long term longevity by taking more swings like Andor. Give us some safer choices that appeal to large audiences, and also allow creatives with no previous experience in the franchise to tell stories in the galaxy far, far away. That galaxy is quite large, after all. Star Wars, like poets, can contain multitudes.