If anything, this thread has me excited to see Star Wars from a new angle. JJ very much models himself in the Spielberg/Lucas vein, and I think we need a new flavor of director to take the franchise in a fresher direction. Rogue One was the closest to what I'm thinking, but even that film is a little hampered by being tied so tightly to ANH.
Let's get away from the Empire and the Rebellion and their successors and do something different. This newest trilogy just didn't have anything to say, and it feels like it. Let's get weird.
Rogue One was a bit different. As was The Mandalorian. And Solo, even, for that matter (which I
really liked, which surprised me).
I do think they need to focus more on the underworld of Star Wars, or the lives of regular soldiers, or simply other eras in the universe's history.
And honestly, I'd love to see a post-Jedi, post-Empire/Ersatz Empire/First-Last-and-Only-on-Tuesdays-Order universe. I'd like to see Gray Jedi, or see Rey really grappling with what direction to take the Jedi, if we're gonna focus on them. I'd like to see Star Wars move beyond the confines of endlessly reiterating the past and defending it by saying "blah blah blah it rhymes." My objection is that apparently it "rhymes" with "orange," by which I mean....you just keep saying "orange." Or "blorange" or "shmorange." Like, we can't even rhyme-scheme our way to "forage" apparently. Even that's too different, I guess.
I really liked TLJ because of the stuff it did differently, but apparently that was just too different for folks, which I guess makes it an "orange"/"forage" rhyme or something.
And I'll be honest, even if they do end up just endlessly "rhyming," I'd at least appreciate if the narratives themselves were better constructed and relied less on the audience's meta-textual experience of past material and more on internal consistency and events which are important within the narrative because they matter to the characters, not because they matter to the audience.
If they manage to actually venture into new territory I will be shocked. I mean I do agree that's what needs to happen if Star Wars is going to survive as a franchise, no question there, but if it will really happen is another matter entirely.
The Mandalorian seemed to be headed in the right direction in that regard from all accounts of the first season. No known characters and not directly tied to the Empire / Rebellion conflict. Though if the rumors are to be believed, then they are headed directly back into the same Clone Wars reboot with Jedi/ Sith that Dave Filoni seems to be obsessed with. I mean he did it with Rebels and now it's likely going to be the same thing with Mando. I think he's given way more credit than he really deserves, no matter how close he is with Lucas. Hopefully they stay away from known characters and conflicts and keep delving into new material.
Otherwise it only proves how creatively bankrupt this series is (Rich Evans), or reflects the limited view every director has of it. I hope I'm wrong. I really do. That's a huge part of why I can't be bothered to get invested in the show because they are likely just going to bring Ashoka back and live action versions of Clone Wars and or Rebels characters which I have zero interest in whatsoever.
I really like Filioni's stuff. I rank it alongside Zahn's original trilogy of books in the sense of being a "the same, but a little different" continuation/expansion of the existing universe. I'm fine with that. I see that more as Star Wars spreading wider with its stories rather than spreading deeper, if that makes sense. Like, the things that are changing are whom we're telling our stories about, the stakes involved, and how those stories play out, rather than deeper stuff like fundamentally changing perceptions of the Force and the Jedi and the Sith.
I felt like TLJ was juuuuuuuust tiptoeing around this stuff, with Luke's rant about the Jedi and how, at the height of their power, they let themselves be destroyed. YES! Take that thought and keep going! It's fine to depict the Jedi as these heroic warrior-monks and stuff, but maaaaaybe we can also interrogate their failures, both in terms of the how and the why, and come to realize that there's more to the Force than just Light/Dark/Jedi/Sith? Again, Filioni briefly touches on this with a 3-episode arc in The Clone Wars, and touches on it some with the "living vs. cosmic" Force. But I'd also like to reintroduce some more mystery with the Force. Like, maybe the Jedi and Sith don't have it all figured out. Maybe there's a ton they don't understand and much more to the Force than anyone has actually realized in all this time. And if that's the case, what would that mean for the Force-users of the galaxy, and the conflicts that swirl around them?
I think
that stuff could be really interesting.......but we'll see what happens with the franchise going forward.
Finally, I would dearly love to see the ST
actors (and thus their characters) come back in films with better scripts/stories that serve them better and really let them showcase their abilities. They're all quite talented and charismatic, and are unfortunately saddled with JJ's nonsense, or are otherwise underused.
