Hi guys,

Mike had a great idea to do a series of articles about his favorite things in pop culture and writing about where he as a fan, would like to see the property go. This one is about The Star Wars Anthology Films and it’s great! I loved reading it! We’ll be getting more articles in this series coming soon from Mike, in the meantime, Enjoy!

– Paul

The Star Wars Anthology Films

There is no doubt, that for many of us, we’re living in the Golden age of Star Wars fandom. We’re about to see the release of The Last Jedi, the third Star Wars film in as many years, and so far, we’ve been getting pretty good results. While, I know that there are some complaints that The Force Awakens was too repetitive of the original trilogy, that’s really the big complaint, and not too much else as far as quality. Rogue One, tells a backstory, that may have felt unnecessary before its release, but showed us how they could fill in elements of the story in original new ways.
The last couple months however, have come with some shake ups. First, Lord and Miller were fired from the Han Solo Anthology film (and replaced with Ron Howard. Wtf?) Then, last week, Colin Trevorrow was fired from Episode IX.
What I want to talk about today, is what I want to see from the future of the franchise. First of all, as of right now, it seems as if Episode IX will be the end of the Skywalker saga (that may not be the case but it is at least the public perception) but the Star Wars Anthology films will carry on the legacy after that point.
The Anthology films, so far have a good track record, as they are 1 for 1, and they did a lot as far as new terrain, new ships, new fighting styles, and told a good story, but still some feel it’s an unnecessary story. The Han Solo film, may end up doing the same in the sense that it will be much better than it expectations, but it has less going for it right now. Sure Han Solo is one of the favorite characters from the series, but part of that is because of his mystery which this will be filling in (it didn’t work wonders for Anakin Skywalker), and then there is the fact that the studio hired two comedy directors, who have been consistently good, but didn’t really show any particular aptitude for what this film should be, and then they’re being replaced by Ron Howard (did I mention Wtf?) who isn’t a bad director, but is arguably overrated, and honestly a weird choice given all the young risky filmmakers they’ve picked thus far. After Han Solo, there are rumors that we’ll see a Boba Fett movie, or an Obi-Wan spin-off, and while all of those could potentially be awesome—and make no mistake, I’ll be seeing all of them— they’re not what I want to happen.
One great thing about Rogue One, was that the cast of characters was almost completely new. We weren’t filling in unnecessary detail on characters we knew and loved, we were getting new characters. That’s what we should be getting. There are a million different directions these films could go in, and there is no limit on where in time you place them. We could get a ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ film or perhaps a series, we could get any element that is mentioned but not fleshed out completely and do more with it, i.e. Tattooine’s Hutt gangsters, podracing, and slave trade, or any number of other things could be explored. It shouldn’t all be so interconnected.
Arguably the only fully functional extended cinematic universe right now is the MCU, and one of the amazing things that the MCU does correctly, is despite teasers and Easter Eggs, they have some stand-alone films, but also as importantly, is they don’t stick to a genre. Ant-Man is a heist film, Winter Soldier is a spy film, Guardians of the Galaxy is a Star Wars film. This is something I want the Star Wars Anthology films to start doing; I want them to start to explore different tones and genres. It’s not to say they don’t have to remain Star Wars films in their feeling, but don’t be afraid to make a Star Wars film that’s more of a thriller, or more of a comedy. Rogue One very vaguely does that, solely in the fact that it’s somewhat similar to a Dirty Dozen Star Wars film, and hopefully Lucasfilm and Disney decide to go broader into the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

What do you want to see in the Anthology films? Tell me in the comments below.