The future of Star Wars is the Skywalkers — from a certain point of view

Star Wars is continually producing new and profitable merchandising material. Video games, Novels, ComicsAnd Animations. But the film and TV side of Star Wars feels like it’s struggling. Disney repeatedly has been praised for its Star Wars films over the last five years. Plans announcedPlease see the following: The latest moviesThen, These were abruptly canceledOr just keep them Still, silently backburnered. Disney Plus’ recent Star Wars live-action shows keep Promising new directionsFor the franchise Pulling backAnd Combining messages. There’s no clear vision or coherent narrative direction for the screen versions of the franchise, even though they’re the most visible and mainstream part of Star Wars. Everyone seems to desire something else from this sprawling, grand story.

So Polygon is gathering some thoughts about the franchise’s future under the loose banner of What We Want From Star Wars. These opinion essays lay out what we love about the Star Wars universe, and where we hope it’ll go in the future … or a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.


The end of Star Wars: Skywalkers are on the Rise — the (appropriately) maligned final entry in the multi-decade, nine-film storyline that made up the backbone of the Star Wars series — Force-wielding protagonist Rey (Daisy Ridley) visits the desert planet Tatooine. Rey visits the abandoned farm where she finds original Star Wars characters Owen, Beru, and Luke Skywalker. She ceremoniously packages up the lightsabers of the galaxy’s greatest twins, Luke and Princess Leia Organa, and symbolically buries them. A passing motorist asks her for identification. Staring at the Force ghosts of Luke and Leia, with John Williams’ iconic music swelling behind her, she responds that she is Rey. Rey Skywalker.

At the theatre where I saw it Rise of the SkywalkerThe entire theatre grooaned when this was said. Perhaps people groaned at the movie in every theatre that showed it. Although many of my audience members didn’t intend to make a noise of disgust, it was an involuntary response. They heard the line. Oh my God!. Never mind the rest of the many glaring issues with J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio’s slipshod script. In one action, Rey damns Luke and Leia to be remembered on Tatooine — a planet that was a cage of boredom for him, and for her, nothing at all. And given Rey’s minimal meaningful contact with the Skywalkers, her attempt to take up their mantle felt gross and unearned. But it does have value — if you choose to read it in a completely different way than Abrams and Terrio intended it, as a statement of purpose for where Star Wars could go.

Rey (Daisy Ridley), fangirling it up on Owen and Beru’s farm on (sigh) Tatooine

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

This moment was intended to be a wink, a joke for the audience and a sweet bow to end the Star Wars trilogy. Terrio and Abrams demanded an emotional payout without even doing a single bit of the setting. It’s difficult to skim over the fact that for most people on Tatooine, Luke Skywalker is a nonentity at worst, and at best, a folk story, a mythical hero who embodies the fight against a cartoonish evil. Rey’s description of herself as a Skywalker was probably the same thing to passerbys as someone calling themselves Bunyan.

It’s hard to parse the intended emotional impact of this scene, as Abrams spent most of the film rolling back Rian Johnson’s most interesting ideas from The Last JediAs he assembles a story with little else, Rey is seen standing with rolling droid BB-8 against the twin suns at Tatooine. Skywalkers are on the Rise’s artificial symmetry Is part of a desperate attempt to make the audience feel something, and see this story as more deliberately designed than it actually was. With a bit more planning and effort, it’s possible that this moment truly could’ve measured up to half a century of storytelling, because Abrams’ impulse isn’t entirely wrong here. Rey is a Skywalker — just not in the way Abrams desires.

There’s a better context for calling Rey a Skywalker, and it doesn’t mean connecting her lineage to Luke and Leia’s. It’s time for the Kennedy family of a galaxy far, far away to step away from the limelight. “Skywalker” would be better used as a name to refer to the movement of warriors that should replace the Jedi, a confederacy of problem-solvers and heroes who’ve learned from their ineffectual predecessors how to steer clear of their binary classifications of good and evil, and how to avoid being beholden to rules. Midi-chlorians and Force sensitivity wouldn’t be requirements to join this theoretical Skywalker conclave — members would just need a good heart and a will to work toward positive change. Skywalkers shouldn’t be guided by any hierarchy or doctrine. They should pursue their mission to become the next generation in peacekeeping across the galaxy.

Fans might feel it cruel for Star Wars fans to insist that the Jedi Order die in order to continue to exist. You might think it sounds cruel. But, just consider: What have they done recently? The Jedi have been in decline since the advent of the prequel trilogy. The Jedi Council, which is essentially a group gatekeeping politicians with laser swords, has seen the end of their glory days in the High Republic. They may swing those swords at droids or Sith from time to time, but most of the Jedi’s problems only exist because their complacency made them blind to the dangers within their own ranks.

Even Anakin, the prophesied destroyer of the Sith, goes over to the Dark Side because the Jedi refuse to help quell his fears — Yoda basically tells him to meditate and accept Padmé’s death because it’s fated, and also no big deal in the cosmic scheme of things. Not the best way to help someone who’s terrified to lose their sole loved one, is it?

Hayden Christensen as Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, in super-dramatic “totally going over to the Dark Side” lighting

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

The idea that the Jedi Order must end for the Star Wars story to move forward isn’t particularly novel. Rian Johnson made a film about the idea that you can let the past go, and even kill it if necessary. It’s your choice. The Last Jedi was the first, and so far only, film to reckon with the Jedi’s failures and posit that something new must replace them.

Much like the Jedi who surrounded his father, Luke began to conflate the Order’s rules and writings with its philosophy. His fear and strict adherence to an ancient code almost led him to kill Ben Solo, setting off most of the drama and trauma of the franchise’s third trilogy. This moment of weakness is his biggest failure and a burden that leads him to Ahch-To. But as Yoda gently informs Luke, failure isn’t always a bad thing; it allows opportunity for growth.

The Skywalkers should be distinguished from Jedi by their ability to grow from defeat. Rey makes a great leader of a Skywalker council. Not because she was trained by Luke and Leia but because her understanding of the need to transform the Jedi into something better is what makes Rey the right choice. She’s seen the toll that the old ways took on Luke, how his desire to restart the Jedi Order imploded when he began to view good and evil as inescapable paths. His downfall is his obsession with the future, and the belief that changing things in the present wouldn’t be able to correct what he viewed as fate.

Rey witnesses Kylo Ren’s inner conflict, as his good heart fights valiantly against the villainous role he was cast into. Rey supports Finn in his fight against cowardice and helps to make them heroic. While Poe Dameron is learning to be a leader, they argue. Rey does not take any of her frustrations personally and works hard to be a better person. She also relies on the support she receives from the others around her. Rey’s attitude is in sharp contrast to Jedi’s strict moral code, which hinders their effectiveness. They see any deviation from purity as failure, and in the face of that failure, they run away — Luke, Obi-Wan, and Yoda all, at one point or another, run off to the signature Jedi exile.

Rey’s focus on empathy and helping those around her should be another vital difference between the Jedi and the Skywalkers. Her ability to see the goodness in Kyloren before he does is what makes her risk her life trying to save him from his mistakes. Star Wars is too focused on dark and light as antonyms. It’s not two sides to the same coin. A Jedi may view a draw to the Dark Side, rather than as an evil monolith, like feeling anger, fear or love as something dangerous and selfish, instead of as something that happens naturally in the chaos of everyday life. Some of the best characters in the franchise — Lando Calrissian, Han Solo, The Last Jedi’s DJ, Mandalorian’s Din Djarin — exist firmly in the gray area between these two extremes. Good and evil aren’t mutually exclusive, absolutist traits — they exist in everyone in varying measures.

Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe (Oscar Isaac), and Finn (John Boyega) group-hug in a moment of triumph, because emotion isn’t as bad as the Jedi say it is

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

The idea of a radically new group springing up from Rey’s training and her sensibilities — and Last Jedi’s hints that Force powers come to people all over the galaxy, in all walks of life — is the opportunity for Star Wars to grow up. This could become more than a simple fairytale. Skywalkers can be more than just a space where samurai are specializing in, but they also have the potential to engage with those communities. This will allow them to build deeper connections across the galaxy and provide the opportunity for deep conversations. They could explore new storytelling avenues and create an entirely new Star Wars franchise.

Skywalkers have the potential to travel throughout the galaxy and find solutions for the issues created by Sith and Jedi. The power within the universe will finally be in the hands of people not related to the Skywalkers, Solos, or Palpatines — it’ll be in the hands of Last Jedi’s broom kid, or Finn, or some hero we have yet to meet, who currently believes they’re fated for more than their meager lot in life. This is the Skywalkers to whom fans must talk for half a century, those who are so inspired by Luke’s story that they wish to surpass him. After all, he is the one they need to grow beyond.

It’s time for the Jedi to end and for the Skywalkers to be born. Let Rey’s odd declaration at the end of Skywalkers are on the Risebe transformed from an insignificant gesture to the seed that will grow the future. I promise Abrams won’t be mad about his silly ending being given a life and importance he never thought possible.


Previously:

Star Wars works better when there are no new movies.
Star Wars needs more alien heroes
Star Wars: Please don’t forget Tatooine
Star Wars has a lot more to offer than the endlessly re-used characters.
Gundam is the future for Star Wars
Star Wars needs more moral ambiguity
Star Wars is back at its best

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