EDITORIAL: Why I Feel Rian Johnson's New STAR WARS Trilogy Could Be A Huge Mistake

EDITORIAL: Why I Feel Rian Johnson's New STAR WARS Trilogy Could Be A Huge Mistake

The premise of Rian Johnson's new Star Wars trilogy sounds great on paper, but we could so easily be heading towards over saturation of the beloved franchise. I have a bad feeling about this...

Editorial Opinion
By BobbyHouston - Nov 14, 2017 09:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Star Wars

It was announced last week that Rian Johnson and Lucasfilm would be working together on a new Star Wars trilogy. It was also confirmed that a live action tv series would be developed, something that Lucasfilm have tried to make happen for quite some time. I don't think anyone really seen this coming. While I can appreciate the limitless potential for storytelling this new trilogy can offer, I find myself growing concerned about the future of the franchise. 

The good news to take away from this is that Disney and Lucasfilm are obviously very pleased with The Last Jedi, so much so that they're willing to give Rian Johnson a blank slate to tell a story of his own over three films. Johnson is a very talented filmmaker and I'm so excited for The Last Jedi, but when this news broke last week I immediately thought of The Hobbit trilogy and The Fantastic Beasts series. 

The Hobbit was originally supposed to be a two part adventure, until Peter Jackson decided he wanted to add a third film to the series. Fans of the Tolkien epic responded negatively to this and found it pretty unnecessary, which ended up being the case. The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series has been expanded to five films! On both counts these films exist for one reason and one reason alone. Milk Money.  

In 2020 we will have six Star Wars films which have followed an annual pattern of release. Star Wars is not an annual franchise. Star Wars is not the MCU. Star Wars is important. Star Wars has cultural heft and meaning. The last thing the series needs is a 'cinematic universe' style of approach because as we've seen it doesn't always work out. Perhaps after episode 9 it would be best to let the franchise breathe and rest for a bit. 

I'm excited for Avengers: Infinity War and I enjoy the MCU but I am not nearly as fond of it as I was say five years ago. Superhero fatigue is worse than ever with many arguing that this is due to oversaturation. It would break my heart to see it get to the point where people shrug at the prospect of a new star wars film. 

On the other hand I can see why people are excited for this. This new trilogy could go in almost any direction as it is unhindered by the franchise's canon and extensive lore. As a fan that's incredibly exciting, my money is on The Old Republic, or the gritty underworld of the star wars franchise. 

Leaving the Skywalkers behind after 40 years and three trilogies is also a massive risk, and typically taking risks in filmmaking should be rewarded. We've also seen that Disney and Lucasfilm can deliver cool and interesting new characters. 

I still have a lot of trepidation about the future of Star Wars. I don't believe we need another trilogy immediately after episode 9, especially with the anthology films. I hope I'm wrong, I hope Rian Johnson knocks it out of the park with this new trilogy and that years from now people continue to lose their minds and go crazy for Star Wars because that's really special. 

What do you think? Are you excited for Rian Johnson's new trilogy? Or are you nervous about the future of the franchise and that we're heading for over saturation? Let me know down below. 
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Asturgis
Asturgis - 11/14/2017, 2:22 PM
I just want to say that in my opinion, over saturation of the franchise is not really an issue. It could be for or because of movies like Rogue One or Solo, that add a bit to the franchise's weight, but not for the main franchise. James Bond used to give us a movie every 2 years almost like clockwork for 50 years. Have we been over saturated with James Bond? I don't think so.

CBM saturation, though, is definitely an issue for non fans, because from all houses, on top of the TV media (let's say 10 shows a year), we get around 10 movies a year as well, and for many people, that's a lot and they're getting fed up with it. Superheroes everywhere. But Star Wars? Not counting one-shots (there's only been one of for now, and another one coming), we're getting one movie every 2 years, and 1 cartoon that's ending this year.

I don't see how that's the same issue as CBMs, or how it could be a "huge mistake" because in the same time lapse, we're getting 15 to 20 CBMs and a metric ton of TV shows. Also, we haven't had any Star Wars movies for 12 years.

IMO, 1 main Star Wars movie every 2 years is a non issue. In fact, it will be eaten like honey cupcakes made of smaller honey cupcakes.
TheRealTomServo
TheRealTomServo - 11/14/2017, 3:02 PM
I agree 100% here.
Argetlam22
Argetlam22 - 11/14/2017, 3:33 PM
I really wanted to see an adaptation of Luke and Mara Jade. Like there's this really fascinating progression where Han Solo's son Jacen is in training to be a Jedi but falls to the dark side because of his guilt over the tragic death of Luke's son Ben, which provides poetic contrast to his sister Jaina as she continues training to be a Jedi Knight (adding further dimension to the Force by exploring the Sith training and philosophy in depth) and that would complement the exploration of Mara Jade's journey from being the Emperor's Hand to something antihero-ish like a Gray Jedi or something, and the parallels of these characters from the old generation and the new generation evolving together would just be so damn cool. But noooooo...Hollywood just had to ignore the extended novel universe entirely, despite its vast wealth of imaginative and spectacular possibilities. Way to play it safe and boring.
Kurban
Kurban - 11/16/2017, 2:10 PM
@Argetlam22 - That's not even how it goes in the EU. Ben Skywalker doesn't die and Jacen doesn't get corrupted by his death. The post-RotJ EU novels were flawed anyway since they were too afraid to break from the original trio and really flesh out their characters. There was potential there but Jacen's character got screwed when he went bad, Jaina was a borefest and let's not forget their third kid ANAKIN Skywalker, who Chewbacca saved by sacrificing himself to a moon falling on him in the most ridiculous way possible.

And that's not even getting into the other weird EU shit like the Death Troopers novel and the Old Republic zombie novel where there's floating Sith zombie heads. No. The EU was dogshit and should stay dead.
BLACKTHORN
BLACKTHORN - 11/14/2017, 3:46 PM
The Star Wars movies are in the worst possible place they can be: Disney. The same way Star Wars games are in the worst place they can possibly be: Electronic Arts. Forget about the notion Star Wars is ever going to be about meaningful stories with memorable characters in a great spiritual journey, The people behind this new business are greedy pieces of crap like Kathleen Kennedy who only care about using stupid people's nostalgia to sell horribly unoriginal, vacuous products. So keep complaining while you go and seeThe Last Jedi 20 times and buy loot crates from the new battlefront game to then complain some more in an article or youtube video.

Hypocrite f*cking pigs, you want to know what's good for Star Wars? just imagine the franchise died in 1983 and ignore everything else that came afterwards. You won't even allow it to have a decent death.
TheNameIsBetty
TheNameIsBetty - 11/14/2017, 6:24 PM
As respectfully as possible, I understand where you're coming from, but I think this take on it is preposterous. Disney creates a new trilogy, again focusing on the Skywalkers, and everybody cheers. All good so far, right? Right, I agree. Then they make 'Rogue One', which is borderline needless since all it does, objectively, is tell you the story of something for which we already know happened. Nobody said that was useless or "oversaturating", but most people agreed it was a good movie. I thought it was mediocre. Still good, right? Right. We knew they were going to make spinoffs already. That includes the Han Solo movie. To their credit, this is covering a story we REALLY don't know, so I think it could be a worthy movie. Oversaturation yet? Possibly. Not yet though.

Oh, but now that Rian Johnson gets a new trilogy that, as of now, could be about literally anything we could possibly imagine, taking place after the current Skywalker saga is coming to an end, oh, NOW it's oversaturation. Yeah...sorry, that's ridiculous. If anybody thought Disney was going to cap off the Star Wars movies with a cute little trilogy starring Rey and Company and then be done with it, they're deluding themselves. Disney is the master of keeping things alive for as long as possible, they've been doing it since the very inception of their company. Their oldest characters have been alive for so long, they're starring in Japanese role-playing games for crying out loud. Haha.

What would you have them do instead? What would anybody suggest they do instead of more movies? Would you prefer them to just stop making Star Wars movies altogether? I don't think they're ever going to do that. It's just too easy to make money. And the smart money so far says that superheroes aren't oversaturated, what it says is that people are noticing the "formula" and want something new, not necessarily something without superheroes.


I could go on and on and on, and bring up things like casting and representation, and rant for several more paragraphs. I won't. I've already written it and deleted it. I just want to add that I have a suspicion the new Star Wars has some very flaky fans who are more passionate about political motivations than Star Wars.
Kurban
Kurban - 11/16/2017, 2:15 PM
@Christuffer - " Their oldest characters have been alive for so long, they're starring in Japanese role-playing games for crying out loud. Haha."

I understood that reference.
Aeyan
Aeyan - 11/15/2017, 6:36 AM
I concur 100%. When exposition goes too far it devalues the content.
WYLEEJAY
WYLEEJAY - 11/15/2017, 9:50 AM
Nope. Give me more. I don't believe in oversaturation. For Star Wars at least. It's on a plane of it's own. You don't have a bunch of studios out there making a bunch of similar movies. Super heroes on the other hand, too many hands in the cookie jar now. Eventually the GA will tire of it. But not any time soon if you look at the box office.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 11/15/2017, 1:07 PM
I kinda want more, but Disney is straight up milking this franchise. In the long term it will get boring (although I also said that with the MCU, and still like it)
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