An ideal disturbance within the Pressure hit final evening when Lucasfilm confirmed that it would not continue its newest live-action Star Wars collection, The Acolyte. The top of the collection isn’t simply in regards to the premature finish of 1 explicit present, nevertheless: the abrupt resolution paints an disagreeable image for Star Wars‘ future, at a time the place the franchise continues to really feel the grip of an uncertainty it’s been feeling arguably for the reason that launch of The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. So what does the Acolyte information imply for Star Wars‘ future?
The Twilight of the Excessive Republic
The Excessive Republic transmedia initiative has been one in every of Lucasfilm’s greatest tasks lately, and though the guide and comedian collection was at all times introduced from the get-go as having a selected, three-phase construction, it’s onerous to not really feel like The Acolyte—the period’s first huge leap into live-action continuity—dealing with an premature finish places a little bit of a dampener on the challenge because it continues its third, seemingly closing, phase of books.
Lucasfilm has put lots into The Excessive Republic past simply The Acolyte after all, together with different exhibits, just like the 3DCG children collection Young Jedi Adventures. However for as nearly so long as the initiative has been round, we equally knew that it was constructing towards this stay motion present, the visible institution of this whole interval of Star Wars and its concepts within the grander continuity. There’s nonetheless loads to come back from the period within the type of books and comics, however having all of it construct as much as a now-abandoned present appears like a blow to each the viewers the Excessive Republic collection has curated for itself with Star Wars fandom, and the creatives who led the cost in establishing that world.
That mentioned, it’s already clear that The Acolyte‘s story will discover a future within the written phrase, if not on a display screen. At San Diego Comedian-Con final month, Lucasfilm’s publishing panel was almost entirely dedicated to new comics and novels set to flesh out the time interval and characters of The Acolyte, and it wouldn’t be all that stunning to see future tales that wrap up a number of the present’s lingering concepts exist in that type in some unspecified time in the future.
Make Mine Mando…
Proper now, it appears like except your challenge is being immediately overseen in some method by Jon Favreau and Lucasfilm’s chief inventive officer Dave Filoni, it’s in all probability on the again burner for a bit. The so-called “Mandoverse”—tales advised within the post-Return of the Jedi interval of Star Wars all loosely spinning out of threads laid in The Mandalorian, from The E book of Boba Fett, to Ahsoka, to a number of upcoming films—is virtually the one factor that feels sure in Lucasfilm’s slate for the time being.
Though introduced on the identical time at Star Wars Celebration last year, there’s been little or no movement on the studio’s plans for both the post-Rise of Skywalker New Jedi Order film with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daisy Ridley, or James Mangold’s “Daybreak of the Jedi” challenge. And whereas we likewise haven’t heard something all that definitive in regards to the third film introduced there—Filoni’s initially meant theatrical debut for a New Republic vs. Imperial Remnant movie—we have heard a lot in regards to the director’s plans to set the stage for that movie’s eventual arrival, together with subsequent yr’s The Mandalorian and Grogu (the primary Star Wars movie since 2019) and a second season of Ahsoka (confirmed a few months after the climax of the primary season).
The opposite movies have remained on nebulously shifting launch dates since their bulletins—or, within the case of the Rey movie, sometimes already been the goal of bad-faith tradition warfare grifting—however Mandalorian and Grogu is the one theatrical challenge to provide us tangible proof of its continued existence proper now, within the type of footage showcased to audiences at D23 earlier this month.
… However Will Something Else Get Made?
The one definitive collection we all know of proper now are ones already produced, the Lego Star Wars special Rebuild the Galaxy, out subsequent month; Skeleton Crew, coming this December (itself loosely affiliated with the “Mandoverse,” being government produced by Favreau and Filoni and being set in a roughly comparable time-frame as The Mandalorian); and the second season of Andor, due a while in 2025. However after that? Each the TV and theatrical sides of Star Wars stay fairly nebulous with The Acolyte‘s discontinuation.
That in and of itself continues a operating sample Lucasfilm has discovered itself in for the reason that launch of The Rise of Skywalker 5 years in the past. A swath of Star Wars tasks have been announced in that period, solely to seek out themselves outright scrapped, quietly dropped, or left in a nebulous holding sample or rework that results in them never being made. This consists of the Lando present (now a film that, once more, has not been really mentioned since its remodeling), Rogue Squadron, and a sea of tasks from the likes of Shawn Levy, Taika Waititi, Kevin Feige, and extra. Lucasfilm has confirmed after which deserted maybe extra tasks within the final half-decade than it has truly ended up releasing. Hell, the studio has by no means formally said it’s not making a trilogy of films with Rian Johnson, introduced simply earlier than the discharge of The Final Jedi seemingly basically altered the cultural dialog round Star Wars perpetually (extra on that in a second)!
All this has created is a sample of uncertainty round nearly any Star Wars announcement, irrespective of if it’s made by commerce reporting, Disney shareholder conferences, or glitzy fandom conventions. Why ought to Star Wars followers get excited for bulletins that nearly inevitably will fade into the ether? Why spend money on a collection that may be instantly dumped after its first season? Particularly if it’s circuitously related to the fast impetus of the franchise’s present fixation on The Mandalorian?
For the Love of God, Shield These Skeleton Crew Youngsters
For all of the inconsistency the studio has had with its launch schedule, there’s one space particularly Lucasfilm has been largely constant on for the more serious: its lack of ability to speak out and defend its inventive expertise from dangerous religion assaults and harassment. Ever since The Final Jedi created a second within the “tradition warfare,” any Star Wars challenge that even vaguely makes aspersions to questioning the collection or fronts various expertise has confronted withering waves of bad-faith assaults in regards to the so-called “woke agenda.”
Whereas the studio has made at the very least some headway in combating these assaults—most notably when it publicly rallied round Obi-Wan Kenobi actress Moses Ingram—Lucasfilm by and enormous has had a historical past of leaving expertise unsupported within the wake of on-line harassment, with stars like Kelly Marie Tran and John Boyega brazenly discussing their struggles with Star Wars fandom and the abuse they obtained, or extra lately with Lucasfilm’s silence after the New Jedi Order film’s deliberate director, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, was the target of a misinformation campaign by right-wing influencers earlier this yr for an unrelated remark about her filmmaking she made in 2015.
Forward of The Acolyte‘s launch, Lucasfilm’s president Kathleen Kennedy made a big to-do about supporting the collection ought to it face comparable campaigns, contemplating its various lead forged and its standing because the uncommon Star Wars collection showrun by a girl. “Working inside these big franchises now, with social media and the extent of expectation—it’s terrifying,” Kennedy mentioned in a Could New York Times profile. “I believe Leslye [Headland, The Acolyte’s showrunner] has struggled a bit of bit with it. I believe a whole lot of the ladies who step into Star Wars battle with this a bit extra. Due to the fan base being so male dominated, they generally get attacked in methods that may be fairly private.” And but, Lucasfilm once more remained silent when the collection and its creatives, particularly Headland and lead star Amandla Stenberg, had been subjected to a number of waves of focused harassment over its purported “breaking” of Star Wars continuity for together with prequel trilogy Jedi Ki-Adi-Mundi in a brief appearance, or how the show’s approach to the Force didn’t align with sure preconceived notions. The truth that the present’s abrupt finish has sparked a wave of celebrations by sure on-line circles (together with Elon Musk, of all people) over how the collection was an instance of “go woke, go broke” speaks to how totally unprepared Lucasfilm stays in the case of addressing Star Wars‘ unstable presence within the ongoing tradition warfare.
It makes for an particularly fraught second then that the following live-action collection, Skeleton Crew, is a present that stars a group of young children. Already doing one thing a bit of non-traditional for the franchise—an journey collection with baby protagonists within the vein of movies like The Goonies—if Skeleton Crew does something even remotely perceived as completely different from the franchise, assaults on its stars can be as inevitable as they were 25 years ago when Phantom Menace baby actor Jake Lloyd was lambasted for his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. No matter how Skeleton Crew is obtained, Lucasfilm can’t depart its expertise unsupported because it has so typically up to now.
All the time in Movement, the Future Is
Making films and TV is tough, particularly within the moments of tumult studios discover themselves presently in—even a studio backed by the absolutely armed and operational firepower of Disney, as Lucasfilm is. Plans will shift and alter on a regular basis, collection gained’t carry out effectively and are available to an finish, issues can be introduced, scrapped, or pushed again consistently. Star Wars is actually no exception to this rule, simply because it hasn’t been within the years since The Rise of Skywalker. Little question as Lucasfilm returns to the conference circuit with subsequent yr’s Star Wars Celebration in Japan, we’ll get to listen to a bit of extra about a few of that future, each fast and additional on. And once more, there’s equally little doubt that a lot of that future will stay in flux.
However the abrupt resolution over The Acolyte places the franchise at a grim crossroads going ahead: a future the place Star Wars is even timidly experimental within the face of cultural grifting and discovering a spot for itself past the tales of the mainline films, or a future the place it locations all of its give attention to mining the one explicit vein that’s labored for the reason that finish of the Skywalker Saga that prioritizes the acquainted above a lot of the rest.
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