With the Disney+ highly anticipated season one (?) of the limited Obi-Wan Kenobi series coming to an end and putting aside the new new already set in motion (Andor, Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew, The Acolyte, etc) … a question that keeps coming up is where Lucasfilm should take the Star Wars next.
I have some thoughts. First, the Star Wars Disney+ shows are not forcing the viewer to consume ALL of the Extended Universe media to get the full experience. However, if you’ve read the comics, you find out the real impact of having that ‘dark’ Wookie at Boba Fett’s side. If you’ve seen Clone Wars and Rebels, you get the little cameos. If you’ve played the video games, you will recognize Fortress Inquisitorius. Part of the point of the Disney purchase was to create a cohesive universe moving forward, so it makes sense to me that, in the same period of time and locations, you get a Caleb Dume reference or that the Inquisitors have the same base for ten years.
Ultimately, unless you stop using the same set of characters (the Jedi, the Empire, Vader) within the same period in storyline history (after ROTS, after ROTJ) with similar interests (seeking the MacGuffin) you *will* have moments where the characters inevitably clash. Moreover, considering that these characters have been developed for decades and so have their fan bases, you have to expect that the same people who created them in the first place might want to either bring closure or reveal a moment in their personal history. We still don’t know how Ahsoka and Luke first met, for example. Throwing that in the Ahsoka series isn’t a Glup Shitto scenario, it’s something a lot of fans have been asking “how did that ever happen?” after decades of wondering “will that ever happen? Its closure and a recognition of fandom. And that’s okay.
There is the continuing narrative hangnail that nearly every single Star Wars character is eventually revealed to be connected, however tangentially, with one or more other Star Wars characters. The level of coincidence is stronger than any Jedi’s connection to the Force. Star Wars may take place in a galaxy far, far away, but so far that galaxy as depicted in the films and television has largely continued to be very, very small.
The future of Star Wars is not major characters like Luke, Leia, Han, Obi-Wan, or Rey, but a million Glup Shittos. This will be an instrumental part of the transition to a cinematic universe, where knowing esoteric bits of character and historical lore from the expanded canon becomes more important than consensual nostalgia.
It doesn’t have to be a new time! Show a frontier planet with some jumped up Imperial with a small fleet setting up as a warlord after the defeat at Endor. Show us a “Law and Order” Hosnian Prime. Give us a saboteur working in the guts of a Star Destroyer, or a droid slave rebellion sparked by L3, or a Wayseeker style Jedi on a quest or just literally anything.
I’d honestly watch literally anything that was zero stakes Star Wars. Rodian romance novelist with writer’s block, pod racing circuit, Coruscant real estate, Wookie hairstylist in the style of those tattoo artists shows, whatever. Rival crime families, do a Space Godfather/Goodfellas.
This issue as I see it is when they have tried to do something that feels new, like the Resistance show or the High Republic books, it falls flat. Even when they have tried new settings & characters, there’s still a tendency to rely on a narrow range of archetypes and formulaic story arcs. I guess it’s where the shortcomings of Disney’s attempt to manage every aspect of the new canon become most visible. I still have hope that we’ll get there eventually, if only because they’ll have to broaden the net if they want to keep the franchise alive long term