With today being the 45th anniversary of the original Star Wars along with preparation for that brand new Obi-Wan Kenobi series set to air on Disney Plus this Friday, there has been lots of discussions and speculations on what exactly the future of Star Wars is going to look like. With the tv side of things, it mostly seems pretty locked in. With the success of The Mandalorian, this will lead to plenty of culmination storytelling with these Disney Plus exclusive series which started this year with The Book of Boba Fett and will continue next year with the likes of Acolyte, Ahsoka, and Andor. Movie wise, on the other hand, it’s a big question mark. There have been confirmations about certain projects with certain directors in development but nothing official about what the next phase of Star Wars on the big screen is going to look at.
A spin-off trilogy with Rian Johnson had been announced before The Last Jedi came out but that has reportedly been put on hold as he is now more focused on his successful Knives Out franchise with his exclusive deal with Netflix. A Rogue Squadron movie with Patty Jenkins had been announced previously during a Disney Plus presentation in December 2020 but that has also been put on hold as Jenkins is putting more focus on Wonder Woman 3. There has also been reports of a Star Wars movie being produced by Kevin Feige and even one being directed by Taika Waititi and written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, which the latter is believed to be the next big theatrical installment, but we know little to nothing about any of those projects so it’s not likely we’ll be seeing those anytime soon. The future remains uncertain for Star Wars on the big screen. While we might get a bit more information with the annual Star Wars celebration coming soon, it’s unclear what exactly the direction is on the big screen.
In my eyes, if Star Wars will continue to expand as a franchise, then it must find ways to make the franchise interesting outside of the Skywalker bloodline. Sure, there can always be a reference or two to that lineage but there’s only so much of the property you can milk about focusing on the same family tree of characters for such a long time before you run out of it dry. However, with the spin-off movie and D+ series that we’ve gotten so far, this showcases the potential that this series can have once they decide to do exactly that.
When people talk about the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one thing that doesn’t get discussed as much is how much the majority of their content plays with certain film/tv genres and sub-genres to benefit the characters it focuses on and the stories they are telling. The Iron Man movies puts focus on science fiction and AI, Captain America movies are thrillers involving spies, politics and psychology, Thor movies revolve around Greek mythology, Ant-Man movies are heist thrillers, Guardians of the Galaxy movies are space operas, etc.. This is also the kind of mindset I see being added to these side stories and spinoffs we’ve gotten thus far and that could be a key focus for the foreseeable future.
For this piece, I’ve decided to take a look at least five of these Star Wars stories and streaming series that have played with other genres within the Star Wars universe. You can debate their quality all day but no doubt, they inspire to show different aspects to Star Wars and that is exactly the property way to keep this franchise fresh and unique for a long time.
Rogue One- War
It’s fascinating how before 2016, there had been numerous amount of Star Wars movies being made since the late 1970s and it can be strongly argued that Rogue One represents the first time that a Star Wars movie can described as being an actual war movie. As a result, Rogue One has a much darker, bleaker tone compare to the other movies in the franchise due to it’s larger focus on the war aspect of this universe than ever before. It’s put more focus on the soldiers on the front line than any other Star Wars movie we’ve seen where we learned just what exactly does it mean to play a small part of an overall larger galactic war. Not mainly through the perspective of the noble heroes who will have legacies which would be inherited, but those who gave up their lives for the greater goods and ones that don’t get much recognition for their bravery.
We never learn that much about the main characters that we follow which include Jyn Erso, Galen Erso, Cassian Andor, Saw Gerrera, Bodhi Rook, Chirrut Imwe, Orson Krennic, and K-2S0 (Be honest, you have to look up all their names to remember which actor played who!) but we know exactly what their goal is throughout the entire movie, to play their part in a galaxy divided by war and little else. In this case, their part is to get the plans to a dreaded battle system that has the capacity to destroy an entire planet. The kind of plans that can showcase a weakness and give the Rebel Alliance a chance to strike a crippling blow to an all powerful empire. They may not make it out alive, but as they all know in a time of war, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Gareth Edwards perfectly captures that bleak aspect to war with his brilliant camera work and scope along with showing the heartbreak that their are plenty of heroes out there that will never get the recognition that they deserve to get. It’s no Saving Private Ryan for sure, but that definitely does make for a very mature and grounded Star Wars tale.
Solo- Heist
The second and (at least at the moment) final Star Wars anthology movie shows a younger Han Solo in his early adventures. The key pitch here is that he must form a band of smugglers to recover a valuable coaximum to the mining planet of Keseel. Not only do we see how Han Solo would eventually become the smuggler we all know and love but the sub-genre this movie goes for is with an old traditional heist flick.
Throughout the movie, we Han with his lover/partner Qi’Ra, his new pals Chewbacca and Lando, and also his mentor figure in Tobias dispatch plans of their own to find these mines that they need to collect without it falling to the enemies. We also get some traditional editing your normally find in heist flicks, strategies or (lack there of) paying off, and sees chases and pursuits like no other as they work their hardest to recover the McGuffin that they need to get paid. There’s not much else to Solo aside from some truly on-the-nose answers to the origin story-checklist of questions that the Ron Howard and the Kasdans felt that the viewers needed, but it is different enough from other Star Wars movies with it’s intention on playing around with the genre of heist movies.
Even though Solo was a big flop at the box office, it did set the stage for what will most likely be the prime focus of Star Wars with the brand new streaming series.
The Mandalorian/The Book of Boba Fett- Western
The first two shows to kick off the streaming service era of Star Wars are ones that have mostly been based off of spaghetti westerns. From the outfits to the bars to the lightning to the gun slinging showdowns, there has nothing that come close to give the feeling of the old westerns quite like these two series.
Before George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney, there have been talks of a live-action Star Wars taking place in the “underground” world of Star Wars, mostly around the hidden undergrounds in say, Coruscant. There were even reports that Lucas had scripts for at least 100 episodes already written. However, the series never saw the light due to budget restraints from Lucasfilm. While I can’t quite say if The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett was exactly what Lucas had in mind, I can’t help but get the feeling that this was the kind of vibe that he was going for. A series that takes a closer look at the scum and villiany corner of the galaxy that pays homages to old westerns and crime tales. Whether it’s about Mando or Boba Fett himself, no doubt that these two series were successful in giving us a glimpse of what exactly Star Wars can be like outside of the Skywalker saga, albeit there may or may not have main characters from any of those big films or series.
These shows also have a very refreshing “back to basics” feel to it as it shows the audience a different side to the franchise without feeling the need for the stakes to be grand and epic even when it flirts with it at times. There’s no meta commentary or deconstruction elements at played here, it’s just nice shows you can sit back on your comfy couch after a long day’s hard work and enjoy without feeling the need to hint too much about it. It’s also quite refreshing for a tv show to actually feel like a tv show once again with it’s episodic adventures and having to wait a week until the net episode. While Solo did hint at it at times, it’s really The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett that fully embraces the Western traditions that it’s clearly aiming for. And that’s what makes it all the better for it or in the case of Mando, this is the way!
However, I don’t think there has been quite a spin-off or side story that seems to understand gleefully the type of future that Star Wars must have if it wants to continue to grow than the next one that I’m about to talk about.
Visions- Anime
Of all the main Star Wars properties under the Disney umbrella thus far, this one seems to be the one that has gather the least amount of attention on. Which is a shame, because Visions is a series that gladly revisits the ideas, concepts, and inspirations that inspired George Lucas with the first Star Wars trilogy.
More or less than anything else in the franchise since the original movies, Visions reminds the audience that Star Wars was originally inspired by the power of Japanese cinema, particular samurai. Lucas has always gone on record saying that one of his biggest influences with Star Wars goes back to not just Joseph Campbell but also to famous Japanese cinematographer Akira Kurosawa and his 1958 film, The Hidden Fortress. I won’t go to any big specifics on that game changing film but if you look up any sort of information about that film, you will see that there are plenty of homages and comparisons that can be made between the two properties. From the lore of the Jedi to the droid figures to the Flash Gordon-like setting and atmosphere, Star Wars would definitely not be the way it is today without The Hidden Fortress. And that’s exactly why Visions works as it does!
The remarkable thing about Visions and what makes it arguably the most faithful Star Wars work since 2012 thus far is that it understands gratefully why Japanese culture has played such a big role in the evolution of Star Wars and uses that to craft some interesting, beautiful looking tales with likable characters, superb animation, and intense, gripping action sequences. While definitely not the first Star Wars animations to come out after the likes of The Clone Wars (both 2D and 3D), Rebels, Resistance, Bad Batch, that one cartoon droid series and even that animated bit in The Holiday Special that introduced Boba Fett to the world (Yes, really!), there definitely hasn’t been a series that have used the animation to it’s full advantage the way Visions does.
It’s a shame this series hasn’t been recognized the way it has because this more than anything else shows how Star Wars can still be fresh, inventive, and interesting even without the Skywalkers. Except for one episode which has Boba Fett, these mini movies/short films should be a template of the future of this franchise. If Japanese cinema was able to inspire the original Star Wars to have the impact it has had, then it certainly can do that again with these new Star Wars.
In Conclusion:
We might know in a matter of days or weeks of what the future of Star Wars can be. However, I would not be shocked in the slightest that the influence that these two movies and three shows I’ve just talked about play a big role to influence the direction that Lucasfilm will chose to go in. They have recently come out saying that they are wanting to move on from the Skywalker Saga and see how Star Wars can progress outside of that infamous family tree but I would strongly advise them to approach the future in the ways I’ve just mentioned. By taking a page from the Marvel Cinematic Universe along with the annual traditions of Star Wars that have influence both historic franchises while playing in the sandbox of different genres/sub-genres, that will definitely help Star Wars to continue on even 45 years later after A New Hope came out.
Regardless of how the new Obi-Wan show or anything else turns out, there’s no doubt that the way they go about the things outside of the Skywalker clan will determine the future of Star Wars.
Adam's Blog 