'Midnight Mass' Creator Believes The 'Star Wars' Universe Needs A Horror Film, And We Agree
The saga has grown so much since A New Hope first hit theaters in 1977. It has spawned many films, animated series, live-action series, books, short stories, comics, and videogames. Many more projects are coming down the pipeline in the near future. For the most part, we could say that Star Wars works stay firmly in the adventure genre. It has experimented with darker scenarios, like when our heroes turned to the dark side of the Force. It has depicted stories of political turmoil, like Ahsoka Tano’s trial, the fall of the Galactic Senate, and Princess Leia’s fall from grace during the New Republic Era. The upcoming Andor series hopes to portray stories of espionage set in the Star Wars universe. It has even dabbled in the winter holiday season with the Star Wars Holiday Special. Despite specials like LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales, and Joe Schreiber’s Legends novel, Death Troopers, the franchise is lacking in the horror genre. A certain filmmaker wants to change all that.
Creative minds draw inspiration from interesting places. In Michael Flannagan’s case, an earthquake woke him up with a ground-shaking idea to create a horror story set in the Star Wars universe. Flannagan has made a name for himself in the horror genre with immensely popular series like The Haunting anthology series, and Midnight Mass. His works are known for focusing on characterization and realistic themes. The lack of jump-scares in his works also make for more impactful horrors that stay with the audience for a long time (and probably contribute to their nightmares).
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Flannagan would be perfect to helm a Star Wars horror project. The Star Wars universe already has many unique, horrifying creatures, such as the Decraniated, and the B’omarr monks. However, using them merely for jump-scares would cheapen the massive menagerie the world has to offer. The franchise’s strengths lie in strong characters, which is a strong foundation set down by George Lucas himself. Star Wars already has strong villains who are made for the horror genre, just waiting for someone with the right vision to dial up the scare factor.
While the franchise mostly downplays the horror factor to focus on his actions and his eventual redemption, the tragedy of Darth Vader is something out of horror films. His injuries from the encounter on Mustafar leaves him limbless, forcing him to live in constant pain inside the jet-black, life-supporting armor. In thumbing his nose at his situation, he chooses to build his fortress on the site of his defeat, on the lava planet of Mustafar itself. Cavan Scott’s comic book series Vader’s Castle explores the idea of what lies in Darth Vader’s abode. It is definitely not brightly colored decor. After all, Vader is conducting his own research into bringing Padme back, and he tries nine times to build his fortress, with this goal in mind.
Emperor Palpatine, and his obsessions with immortality, is another theme that could be expanded into a horror work. We have only seen a glimpse of his research into cloning. One could only imagine what his failed attempts look like. Did he start with living victims prior to moving to clones? What happens during the process of life-force transfer? It could not be a pleasant experience. One could only imagine the horror of his research lab, especially since he is not too keen on using sedation, as evident in Darth Vader being fully conscious during his healing process after Mustafar.
Other characters from Legends could also be expanded into a full horror flick. The Abeloth and Darth Nihilus are beings of insatiable hunger that consume all living things, destroying everything in their paths. The Yuuzhan Vong introduces living creations that are literally “out of this world,” and have the intelligence to place them in strategic positions to cause the most destruction in the Star Wars universe.
The Star Wars franchise today is vast and has expanded into other media like comic series, live-action series, and videogames. With the resources available, it is time to reach out into previously unexplored genres. The saga already has many characters that are perfect for the horror genre. We just need the right person to bring the project to fruition.
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Source(s): CBR