The New STAR WARS Films are Fan Fiction

Disney is calling The Rise of Skywalker the end of the original Star Wars saga, but it's only one possible ending.

With the the next Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker, nearly upon us, I finally watched the three trailers for it. What this lifelong SW fan saw in them might have tied my stomach in knots and made me fearful for the conclusion of the Skywalker saga, as the nine "episode" movies have come to be called. It might have, if I thought this movie even mattered to George Lucas's epic story.

But, despite the involvement of cast members from the original film trilogy that wowed moviegoers from 1977 to 1983, the new films that started with The Force Awakens in 2015 don't feel like "canon" to me. They feel like fan fiction, stories and amateur films created by fans that are not officially published or distributed and have no bearing on the movies.

These noncanonical stories often revolve around peripheral characters from the movies that were conceived by George Lucas. They may even focus on the stars of Lucas's six films, made up of the original and prequel trilogies, and adhere closely to the canon. In this second group is where I would place the movies produced by Disney and created by JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson--The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.

I Am Not Your Father Anymore

The new films feature actors from the first trilogy in supporting roles, lending them weight and official status. They got John Williams to provide new musical scores and even Lawrence Kasdan, writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, to collaborate on TFA's screenplay. So, it would seem to be a genuine continuation of the Skywalker story, except that one element is missing: creator George Lucas.

Many would say that's a good thing, because they dislike Lucas's prequel trilogy, the 1999-2005 films that centered on Anakin "Darth Vader" Skywalker. And some would insist that the guy who started it all isn't necessary to expand on such a huge fictional universe. But I argue that Star Wars is, despite the epic scale, an auteur project.

The side stories, like the excellent movie Rogue One, don't need Lucas's direct involvement, but the three trilogies of the Skywalker Saga do. This was his tale from the beginning, his baby. The adventures of Greedo or Mace Windu can run off on tangents to the far reaches of the galaxy and be perfectly acceptable. The Skywalker Saga, however, has a throughline that started with Lucas and should end with him.

Safe space

The sequel trilogy has new characters as the leads, which is appropriate. But there are many familiar elements, especially in TFA, which plays it pretty safe with callbacks to the earliest films: a desert planet like Tatooine, a rough saloon, a giant satellite that must be destroyed, etc.

Writer-Director Johnson tried to forge his own path with TLJ by ignoring or dispensing with many of Abrams's plot setups, and it was excoriated by many rabid fans. So Disney brought back Abrams for a "course correction" that involves a return to homage territory, including the return of original trilogy characters Lando Calrissian and Emperor Palpatine.

Say what you want about Lucas's three prequels, but he tried to do something new and different with them. And there is plenty of evidence in his early notes for the Disney films that he would've continued that trend.

But Abrams told Lucas from the get-go that he wanted to "do one for the fans," which translated to fan service, callbacks, and predictable plot progression. In a later interview, Lucas discussed Disney's intentions and said he wasn't interested in going that route. But, since he'd sold the whole franchise to the Mouse House, they weren't required to have him along.

Ignore it if you want to

The Rise of Skywalker looks epic, and the producers have promised it will end with a bang and a satisfying conclusion. But, whatever happens, devoted long-time fans can always comfort themselves with the idea that it's only a possible continuation of the Star Wars saga--like the "expanded universe" of novels, games, and comics--because it's not what the creator would have done with it.

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