Word out on the internet is that, despite the flop of the first Star Wars movie in years, they haven’t given up.
The Mandalorian & Grogu may not be the best example of a Star Wars movie, given that it was a planned season for a series that destroyed it’s own success for the marketing gods and politics both real world and behind the scenes office ego crap. Now we’re hearing that DisneyFilm wants to do another “Skywalker trilogy”, with the director for the Spider-Man films, John Watts, taking the lead. Simon Kinberg is signed up as the screenwriter. While Watts understood Peter Parker as a character (not so much his world, but Sony has to take a lot of blame for that in the deal they made with Marvel Studios), Kinberg did the opposite with the X-Men according to people who care about the X-Men. (Not me, or I’d have more to say on the Wolverine game–and rather negative given the playthroughs and discussions I’ve watched–plus I hate Wolverine.) So the question is who will be the cancelling force. You might just end up with a mid movie. Again.
While Bleeding Fool‘s Katrina Smith pointed out why a new Skywalker Trilogy won’t work in the current climate, where fans have pretty much been ready to give up on any new Star Wars in favor of the first two trilogies as well as the comics, games, and novels that came out during the “wilderness years” between and after trilogies, I think she missed one important detail. Based on the real and reel worlds’ events you can’t make another Skywalker Trilogy. The way things are setup now, you can make Star Wars, but how do you do a Skywalker trilogy or anything in the greater Skywalker Saga…when there aren’t any Skywalkers anymore?
What would I call a Skywalker Saga story? It involves the Skywalker bloodline. The original trilogy was about Luke Skywalker becoming the Jedi his father didn’t, and ultimately redeeming his father in the final battle. We also saw Leia grow from a snarky princess into a great general who could still be compassionate, and take on a husband who had his own redemption arc. The prequels showed up how Luke and Leia came about, the fall of Anakin Skywalker, and the death of Padme (Skywalker) Amidala just after giving birth to the twins. Leia and Han Solo have a son, Ben, named after the man who brought them all together. In the official cannon those are the Skywalker family. Rey took their name, but she wasn’t even legally adopted. However we the audience think of it, it’s supposed to be a sign of overcoming what she was and fulfilling a legacy. She is not in any fashion a Skywalker.
In the “legends” media that was completely decanonized to make way for what Kathleen Kennedy and her team wanted (the canon was already suspect and contradictory because nobody set an aligned canon for the wilderness multimedia) you had more Skywalkers to work with. Han and Leia had twins of their own, one of whom fell to the Dark Side and setting up a sibling rivalry from what I’ve heard. Sadly, I haven’t had a chance to read stories that far ahead. I did read the Thrawn Trilogy, which was part of the Skywalker story, and the Rogue Squadron novels that weren’t, but were still tied to the period.
The “Chosen One” here might have been redeemed after going from Force Jesus to Force Antichrist, but his daddy was still Palpatine’s Force powers. That was a dumb retcon.
I’ve also read and reviewed Shadows Of The Empire in both novel and comic forms, plus the comic sequel focused on Giri that the original cast only had a cameo in. There were also two TV Ewok movies, one of which I actually like, and cartoons with both the Ewoks and Droids that aired on CBS Saturday mornings. Outside of the first Shadows novel, which was set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, they’re Star Wars, but not Skywalker Saga stories. They only feature characters who knew the Skywalkers, or else they make a cameo.
Now, if Ben Solo had survived, and I don’t mean that stupid idea Adam Driver had where he somehow survived and went on a walkabout of redemption, you could do a Skywalker Saga, trilogy or not, with him. Or if Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy had just adapted the novels, which would have taken some work to fit them into movie canon proper, you could have Jaina and Jacen Solo’s story plus Luke finding love with Mara Jade, the Emperor’s former right hand and possibly some kids there. That would at least have ties to the original cast and the Skywalker Saga. However, characters from the story, like Lando Calrissian stories or Droid solo adventures in cartoons and comics, are not. They’re Star Wars and tied to the Skywalker Saga, but separate from the Saga itself. Mongo Baobab never met Princess Leia. The Mandalorian and Boba Fett stories are also not Skywalker Saga, though both have met Luke Skywalker at one point or another in their official stories.
It may have been done badly, but the prequels tried to pass the torch to Rey, Finn, Poe, and BB-8 from Luke, Han, Leia, R2-D2, and C-3Po, while the prequels set up the latter’s story after the fact. Dave Filoni, who currently decides Star Wars canon, favors his own “children” with Ashoka Tano and the Rebels cast. (Sucks to be part of the Resistance cartoon or Skeleton Crew cast.) However, none of them are Skywalkers. Therefore, their stories do not count as “Skywalker Saga” adventures. They exist in the greater Star Wars universe just as much as the Ewoks, tales from the Old Republic, or any of the recent games that feature Jedi or smugglers but not anyone in the main cast outside of Jabba’s rather silly Outlaws appearance. Yes, it’s necessary for the smuggler game to have the guy who hires them in the game. This, however….
Need I write more? Mostly posted that because I just like hearing MauLer lose his mind. 😀
We can’t even use the original cast. Luke Skywalker? Dead. Han Solo, who married into the family? Dead. Leia? Alive but her actress isn’t. You can have Lando show up, or the Droids, or Chewbacca since you just need another really tall guy in the costume. We didn’t get to see Peter Mayhew or Anthony Daniels, while Kenny Baker can be replaced by a remote controlled robot. People make all kinds of R2 units now. However, none of them are Skywalkers, so they aren’t continuing the legacy of their family. Ben Solo technically counted, and he’s also dead, while Rey just took the name because she didn’t want to use a last name that only works depending on your view of clones and is like being named Hitler to their galaxy.
So you can make all the Star Wars you want, but unless you get new actors in a story set in the past, the Skywalker bloodline is gone. There are no Skywalkers to continue the Skywalker saga. Disney’s LucasFilm killed them all off, which what Kennedy and Filoni wanted, only arguing over which “daughter” was taking over while others eroded everything from Boba Fett (like he had any real legacy) to the Force itself and further eroding the honor of the Jedi Order. You can have characters who knew the Skywalkers, were inspired by the Skywalkers, or who heard of them, but you can’t do a story past the events of Rise Of Skywalker (irony?) because there are no more Skywalkers. The bloodline is gone, the name is usurped, and nothing Skywalker can be done in the future unless we do some more cloning. Nobody wants more clones in Star Wars unless they’re Jango’s clone troopers.
Thus, calling any new movie set after the sequel trilogy is NOT a “Skywalker trilogy” or part of the greater Skywalker saga. It might be Star Wars (and we can debate if it’s any good), but it’s not Skywalker. Unless Smee’s ancestors did anything more than leave her to be enslaved on Tatooine, you can’t even tell more past stories without recasting Luke. Star Wars may go on, and we might wish it hadn’t given what’s come out recently, but the Skywalker saga is over.
