The Rise of Skywalker showed that love of Star Wars has its limits

The last decade of Star Wars it was… a lot: interesting, exciting, exhausting, frustrating. You choose a descriptor and it can probably be applied at any point after that The Force Awakens revived the franchise, the two spinoff films did what they could and The Last Jedi tried to make new swings. What a word describes The Rise of Skywalker in the purest, most charitable way? How about “compromised”?

The Rise of Skywalker released in theaters on December 20, 2019. and then all eyes were on him. It was a film in an unenviable position: in addition to the mission to package The Skywalker Saga with the Disney brand, it had to contend with management Carrie Fisher is leaving between films, plus discussions of how returning director JJ Abrams and co-writer Chris Theriault would do it buildings on the road set by Wakes up and Last. And by hitting during the Christmas season, it became the last “last” in a year that included the equally important Avengers: Endgame and on Game of Thrones final.

So yes, there was a lot of pressure Rise up deliver the goods and finish in a way that satisfies everyone. And after all the build up, he… didn’t really do that. In general. No doubt people like the movie or find it enjoyable, but there’s no denying that it feels like something went wrong during production and the end result is a movie that leaves a strange taste in your mouth. After leaving the theater and jumping online, there was an overwhelming collective feeling of “what the hell was that that?” that made it even more so inflammatory to speak than The Last Jedi. That part may have been inevitable, but the rest can be attributed entirely to the film for what it is, from its odd moments of fan service to drawn strokes and open knowledge that it was born afterwards original director Colin Trevorrow left the project. Whatever high points the film may have, they exist in a film that has apparently become so hot that the entire catalyst for its events must be insert Fortnite pre-release, but not the movie itself.

If The Last Jedi a shadow hung over Star Wars for seven years and counting The Rise of Skywalker is a monster that pulled the entire franchise in its mouth and still has to either digest it or just give up and spit it out. Although it made money, it didn’t take long to suspect that Disney might have been embarrassed by the reactions to it. (Case in point: the movie comic adaptation is finally comes out in February after being announced in 2020) Any goodwill initially earned with The Force Awakens basically erodes in real time once Rise up revealed that Palpatine somehow returned, or later when Chewbacca was “killed”. And if that doesn’t work, the “Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter” reveal could be the first kiss of death for the movie and the last for the Skywalker saga. The movie ultimately argues that Rey being Palpatine doesn’t matter since she chose her own name and family. But by taking the last name Skywalker, she’s simply swapping one family name for another in what can amusingly read as a story about a woman pulling off the most sophisticated identity theft in the universe.

Is Disney bad at this, owning Star Wars? This question has been around for years and has resurfaced as a result of To the Acolyte cancellation. The results are inconclusive: on the one hand, Andor is really good TV and other media like High Republic and various video games have been pretty consistently good. At the same time, Disney just can’t handle any solid work on the film and TV front: there hasn’t been new theatrical film since Rise up out, and any new message about one (or three) movies that are toooooooooo much what’s happening feels like an ongoing joke. Likewise, it’s a fool’s errand about how a show will develop, what cameos it will inevitably include, and what kind of future it will have. Audiences seem to be loving the broadcast at the moment Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, but the jury’s still out on whether it’ll go as far as the creators hope, or if its wings will be cut out from under it and it won’t live up to its promise, a problem that transcends this franchise.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel; namely Dave Filoni’s Mandalorian and Grogu movie in 2026 and a second season of Ahsoka, plus the second (and sadly final) season of Andor in April. Will audiences be willing to stick their necks out again and see where this all goes? It’s easy to say yes and point to Marvel, which many believe has had its strongest year since Avengers: Endgame. But the MCU has yet to have a movie that openly breaks the enterprise The Rise of Skywalker and is about to take some out new interesting tricks from your sleeve. If Star Wars will get back to the same level…well, it will take some work and more importantly consistency and conviction.

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