It’s impossible to please everybody with a Star Wars movie. We’ve seen that with every film that’s been released since the original trilogy. The prequels have their fans, but most “old school” Star Wars fans weren’t satisfied with them. The sequel trilogy is hugely divisive. “The Force Awakens” was generally well-received, but fans criticised “The Last Jedi” for wandering too far from the classic Star Wars formula, and “The Rise of Skywalker” was criticised for being too formulaic. We can be a picky fanbase, and making new movies for us is every bit as thankless a task as it is financially rewarding.
Because of the financial rewards, though, Disney and/or any future copyright holders will continue to make new films for as long as people are willing to pay to see them. Based on current indications, that’s going to be a very long time. Star Wars merchandise continues to fly off shelves. Star Wars television shows – even animated ones – continue to attract millions of viewers. You can even make money with knockoff Star Wars online slots games, as is evidenced by the “Star Games” slot and its “not quite Darth Vader” character. It’s only the fact that Disney is so opposed to adult entertainment like online slots that there isn’t a range of official Star Wars slots available at sites like Rose Slots Canada. If there were, they would be big money-earners. The fact that it’s possible to make tens of millions from toys and online slots confirms that it’s still possible to make hundreds of millions – perhaps even billions – from films, so more films are inevitable. It’s just that the films we might get aren’t necessarily going to be the films you’d like to see.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy was a huge financial hit for Disney, but the latest rumour on the block is that the company is going to attempt to make lightning strike twice. Disney hasn’t said anything official on the matter yet – and nor do we expect them to do so at any point in the near future – but two well-known “leakers” with a good track record of getting things right about Star Wars have recently made sensational claims. Independently of each other, Mike Zeroh and “Doomcock” have both said that Disney is currently considering an “alternative” set of three sequels that will use time travel to erase the events of at least one of the three sequels and establish a new continuity. In other words, they claim that Disney is considering a Star Wars reboot.
We have a little more detail to go with the sensational headline. Apparently, Disney (or the writers of the film) will invent something called “The Veil of the Force” that will allow someone to go back in time and prevent Ben Solo from ever becoming Kylo Ren, which would effectively render the three sequels null and void. Another suggestion is that Disney might do this by way of a standalone Luke Skywalker movie set ten years after “The Return of the Jedi,” which would presumably involve using de-ageing CGI technology on Mark Hamill in a similar fashion to the way Robert De Niro was de-aged in “The Irishman”. A slightly more outlandish theory is that rather than making three new films, Disney might make ten hour-long episodes and deliver the reboot by way of a live-action television series. That seems unlikely because of the costs of making such a series. Movie theatre box office receipts would cover those costs, whereas a television series might not.
All of the theories we’ve mentioned above come from the leaker known as “Doomcock.” Mike Zeroh claims to have even more information. According to him, the story of Rey Skywalker will be continued in a Disney Plus series which will see her give birth (through the Force) to a character named “Cade,” who will grow up to continue the Skywalker name. This seems to contradict the claims about a reboot. If Rey’s story is to continue, the sequel trilogy has to stand as it is unless Disney plans to split the Star Wars story into multiple universes. That’s not impossible – the “multiverse” is the way that Disney has resolved a lot of continuity problems in its Marvel stories.
Zeroh and “Doomcock” aren’t the only people claiming to have insider knowledge about a reboot of the movies. Overlord DVD – another YouTuber who’s made correct predictions about the future of Star Wars in the past – claims to have spoken to Hollywood insider Kamran Pasha and garnered further information. He said that producer Dave Filoni has been commissioned to come up with a way of wiping clean the sequel trilogy and giving fans something new. Jon Favreau’s name has also been mentioned in connection with the project. Both men are already heavily involved in active Star Wars projects and should – theoretically – know what fans would want to see in any new films.
We’re not sure how to feel about this. Rebooting the sequels feels disrespectful to the people who put so much effort into making them, not least the performers and the characters they played. While there is a noisy minority who hated the last film, there are still millions of people who enjoyed all three of the new films and would feel slighted by any attempt to erase them from continuity. There’s also a high risk of failure. The mixed reception to the trilogy underlined the point that it’s difficult to make Star Wars fans happy, and so there’s no reason to believe that the reaction to the next set of films will be any better than the reaction to the last set of films. On top of that, it feels like returning to the well one too many times. Carrie Fisher is sadly no longer with us to play Leia again. Harrison Ford isn’t getting any younger and probably wouldn’t agree to appear. Mark Hamill can’t keep playing Luke Skywalker forever, and nor should the series need him to. Imperfect as they were, the sequels were a chance for us all to move on. We’d rather see a fourth film with an improved narrative than a re-tread of the past.