Nostalgia, The Future Of 'Star Wars', And Media Literacy

Star Wars

Nov 18

Hello class.

I apologize for my absence; I’ve been dealing with some personal stuff. That’s mostly settled for the moment, so I wanted to come back and check in on things. And, without surprise, the world’s still on fire.

Now, there’s word from the Star Wars universe that perhaps there’s trouble brewing at Lucasfilm. I try to avoid the comment sections these days for peace of mind, but I have to assume the Fandom Menace loves this, adding it to their anti-Mouse crusade. Do I have that right?

I am, of course, referring to the Hollywood Reporter article that came out about Rey and the future of the franchise. Now that Simon Kinberg supposedly signed on to write and produce a new trilogy, he wants Rey to be the focus of that. The article talks about how Rey is supposedly of big interest (and value) to the future of the franchise and will appear in several works that are in development. Borys Kit, the author, talks about the struggles of the franchise of late, in their apparent difficulty with creating “meaningful characters beyond those first created by Lucas” and how Kathleen Kennedy is taking the brunt of the fire. Referencing several parallel works in development and a comment that Star Wars is a nostalgia-based franchise that is running out of nostalgia, he paints a dire situation at Lucasfilm.

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I don’t think that’s necessarily the whole picture.

Despite ignoring the clear misogyny that lays at the foundation of the attacks on Kennedy and fueled much of the animosity toward recent shows, I also think the article ignores other key facts and developments that sort of turn the article into a bit of clickbait, trying to capitalize on the anti-Disney hate that fuels much of the vitriolic discourse online among the Fandom Menace to get reads.

To start, the only mention of Dave Filoni is that he is the Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm. It’s a surprising omission, considering he’s essentially the loremaster for the franchise now. The man worked with Lucas himself; he knows the ins and outs of the lore and the storylines, and he gets to iron out the wrinkles that the fans are so vehemently pressed to make sure are perfect. But there’s not one mention of this role in organizing all this supposed chaos surrounding Rey being in multiple projects. He writes about how the release order of these projects could muck up the ones that follow, but that doesn’t track with me. Kit talks about the Taika Waititi movie, which, to my knowledge, was reported to be on indefinite hold a month ago, and the Rogue Squadron movie, which is also on hold and waiting for a draft from Patty Jenkins. He mentions the Lando movie as well, which is still moving forward, and the Shawn Levy project as well. Regarding Rey, it’s mentioned that she is the focus of the standalone movie that was announced some time ago, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and that “comes into collision” with the new trilogy with Simon Kinberg.

But not a paragraph later, he says the standalone movie doesn’t even have a writer. Furthermore, just today (writing this as of 6 pm on Friday, November 15), that standalone movie was removed from the release schedule for December 2026. How can a just-announced trilogy about Rey collide with a movie that doesn’t even have a writer yet? Again, with Filoni’s role and these developments, as well as the timelines these movies are likely to take place, I don’t see the chaos.

And if we want to talk about nerds being persnickety about timelines, you're reading the words of one. I like my timelines to make sense. But I’m also not an executive at Lucasfilm, and I also really don’t care when it comes down to it. There are more important things to worry about. But I digress. Whether or not Rogue Squadron is set in the new era doesn’t matter. Patty Jenkins is planning on writing it as a fighter pilot movie. It’s in her blood (her dad was a fighter pilot). While Rey can fly, it would be an incredible stretch to make her an integral part of the story, so it’s probably safe to say Rey isn’t involved in that one. It’s also safe to say that she won’t be in the Lando movie, considering it’s starring Donald Glover, the young Lando, and Rey doesn’t even exist at that point.

The rest is just speculation because we don’t know anything about them. To create a narrative of dysfunction and overlapping movies is just disingenuous, and nothing in that article suggests that the right-hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. We have no idea what Filoni’s involvement in the development of these movies and their shuffling timeline is, but because we know what his role is, we can reasonably deduce that he’s handling it. There’s nothing in that list of in-development projects that necessarily says they’re going to overlap. It’s purely overreaction building on the divisions within the community.

I’ll tell you this, though. The one thing that the article does get right is that Star Wars is a nostalgia-based enterprise. Denying that is puzzling, given the discourse online and how passionate people are about the franchise. It smacks of an ignorance of psychology. Why do people get so upset about something that occurs in a show or movie? It doesn’t meet their expectations. But, and here’s a bit of psychology for you: those expectations are entirely created by them. An expectation is based on previous experience and information, and their nostalgia for what they experienced and remember (memory’s accuracy is a whole other discussion we can have) is forming that expectation. So, to claim it’s not a nostalgia-based enterprise is hilarious.

Scene from The Acolyte — Image Source: IGN

It’s even funnier to blame the cancellations of shows on “bad writing.” Most people who comment that wouldn’t know bad writing if it stared them in the face. Cancellations, like The Acolyte, are prime examples of the nostalgia problem the franchise has, alluded to in the article. Was it the best show they’ve made? Probably not. Was it terrible? Not at all. The show had impressive viewership numbers to start, but it was not as strong a showing as the other shows released. I don’t think the appeal was there. How many people outside the visual medium for the franchise are aware of the High Republic era? The hardcore fans are aware of it, and we have no further to look than the nitpicking that occurred about characters that appeared in the first episodes. But outside that, most people recognize and turn to a Star Wars movie because of the characters they recognize. It’s a problem the whole franchise has, including video games and books, but it doesn’t have to be. They can tell unique stories within the universe itself, but writers need time and trust to not only create memorable characters that can carry the franchise forward, but they also need their shows to have time to find their feet.

I do think these issues are largely the result of an industry still trying to figure out the new market post-writer’s-strike, streaming, and post-Covid. We’d grown used to series with seasons of such short runs, introducing new characters that we have to get to know and also resolving the story within a handful of episodes gives an impression of things being rushed. It’s like meeting someone new. You need to suss it out.

In the end, class, let’s remember, we’re taking incomplete information and trying to form a narrative here, and if we’ve learned anything, it’s that the loudest voices are negative, and nothing sells more than a narrative of chaos. We’re here to think critically. Let your brain drown out their voices.

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