November 28th, 2014: the first teaser for the new Star Wars Trilogy just dropped. An exasperated John Boyega startles the screen and wanders the dessert. Andy Sirkus’s gruff timbre whispers ominous platitudes to us. Lights flicker in a First Order drop ship giving us glimpses of a new, sleek redesign of the Stormtrooper armor. Oscar Isaac leads a contingent of X-Wings racing just inches off the surface of the water, all while urgent and tension-filled strings build the suspense as if we’re building towards something. Something…but what? And then it happened - the Millennium Falcon herself soars through the sky in all her glory, evading TIE fighters and taking advantage of modern technology to show us a Star Wars aerial combat as we’ve never seen before, all while the triumphant score of John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra dominates the speakers and our ears. And there it is, the title card: Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A fitting sub title for the first installment of the first new trilogy in one of the most beloved franchises ever. Star Wars was back.
The Force Awakens was a certified box office hit, boasting $2.07 billion globally with a 93% Certified Fresh rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. As good as the Force Awakens was at the time, and still is now just shy of ten years later (ope, there goes a gray hair), it began the long downward slope the franchise has been slipping down ever since then. Star Wars was indeed back, but was it back for the better?
The next two installments were also financially successful, but with wavering and inconsistent approval ratings from both critics and audiences. The Last Jedi (2018) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) boasted $1.33 billion and $1.07 billion respectively and critic approval ratings of 91% and 51%, respectively. Conversely, the fan scoring garnered 84%, 41%, and 86% - though with half the responses from fans of the two earlier installments - Popcornmeters (formerly Audience Score). Where things get interesting is that the reception of the Sequels is on the surface somewhat similar to the reception of the Prequels upon their release: the movie debuts, certified box office hit, hindsight kicks in, then criticism and discourse. However in the case of the Prequels, criticism was far more consistent among fans and critics alike. Granted, the prequels lacked much of the behind-the-scenes self-imposed hardships and differing social climate the Sequels had.
Needless to say the Prequel Era as a whole has experienced quite the Renaissance. Clone Wars was given a proper finale. Not only did Ahmed Best return as Kelleran Beq, he was responsible for saving Baby Yoda. This was quite a poetic moment as someone who portrayed probably the most rejected character in Jar Jar Binks now rescuing probably one of the most beloved characters. Most notably, both Hayden Christiansen and Ewan McGregor both reprised their roles in Disney +’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Hayden also appearing in Ahsoka. The Prequel Trilogy is finally getting its flowers.
I grew up with the Prequel Trilogy. As a teenager, I definitely went through my phase of dunking on the overuse of CGI, the wooden dialogue, the stilted acting, the politics, everything everyone criticizes about the Prequels. As I got older I realized what the message of the Prequels was, what it was trying to tell us as the audience. Then the lightbulb went off. Yes there’s politics and political tones- but it is timeless in its messages it conveys of how a republic can descend into a dictatorship. This is where I have a great deal of hope. Don’t get me wrong, I have many an issue with The Sequels and the Disney Era in general, so much so I could probably write another piece on them. But my hope rests not only from my personal journey with the Prequels, not only from the renaissance the fandom is experiencing in embracing the Prequels, but also in the wise worlds of Starkiller himself, AKA Sam Witwer. Sam guested on Bo-Katan’s - I mean Katee Sackhoff’s - Blah Blah Blah podcast, now The Sackhoff Show, in January 2024. “You know what’s interesting about Star Wars is that you don’t know for 10 or 20 years. You can do something and think ‘oh we blew it,’ and find out in 10 or 20 years like ‘no, no, no, it's beloved.’” Sam furthers the point eloquently below:
When Will Star Wars Fans Be Happy? w/ Sam Witwer
Star Wars belongs to the generation that precedes it. The Prequels faced criticism from Original Trilogy fans. Similarly, the Sequels now face criticism from Prequel fans. This can also be seen in the online discourse that has enraptured the fandom ever since the dawn of the Disney Era, with supporters of the new Disney era being labeled “shills” and “not real fans,” and detractors being labeled every “-phobe” under the sun and, ironically, also “not real fans.” Interestingly, this is definitely a microcosm of our society now - hyper divisiveness, victimhood, trolling, pick your flavor. Personally, I don’t much care which side of the fandom you’re on. As long as you care for Star Wars and disagree and/or criticize in good faith, you’re a fan in my book.
Where my hope rests, and where I encourage any fan - light side or dark - is to ask the same question I ask myself regarding the Sequels, or any project for that matter: what am I missing? What is lying in wait that I’m not meant to see or understand yet? Because I personally am looking forward to the day where I watch the Saga with my (future) Padawan and realize, “oh…that’s what they were saying.”