The Rey Star Wars Movie Can Save The Franchise, Here’s How

While most Star Wars fans enjoyed The Force Awakens, that movie should have been our first hint that the Sequel Trilogy would be a disaster. After all, it was an obvious soft reboot of A New Hope, right down to our heroes having to blow up another Death Star-like weapon. When fans reacted negatively to the unexpected twists and turns of The Last Jedi, Disney disastrously made The Rise of Skywalker a much worse reboot of Return of the Jedi, right down to the inexplicable and unexplained return of Emperor Palpatine.

That brings us to why the Rey movie can potentially save the Star Wars franchise. In telling the tale of the solo remaining Jedi bringing the Jedi Order back to life, Disney has the chance to tell a truly original movie unrelated to all the baggage of the Original Trilogy or its prequels. While some fans are unhappy that we’re getting more Rey, the majority of the fandom has spent years crying out for Disney to do something different and take a chance on this beloved franchise. This is Disney’s opportunity to do just that while taking Star Wars in a bold (and much-needed) new direction.

The Sequel Trilogy had many connections to the earlier movies, but the strongest connections came from the return of Original Trilogy characters like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa. Those characters were systematically killed off in increasingly stupid ways, and some cynical fans have wondered if the next Star Wars film can succeed without familiar faces. However, we’re glad that Disney took Kylo Ren’s advice of killing the past because, quite frankly, the lack of legacy characters may be one of the best things about the Rey movie.

It all goes back to the need to tell an original story, and we’ve found out the hard way that it’s difficult to do that with legacy Star Wars characters. As soon as someone like Luke Skywalker is onscreen, he’s all fans want to focus on; conversely, the lack of such familiar faces means audiences must engage with new characters like Rey. Since her solo movie will be devoid of cringe cameos from characters nearly half a century old, the movie can introduce us to new heroes and villains that can drag this franchise (kicking and screaming) out of the nostalgic muck and firmly into the modern-day.

What if Star Wars didn’t need The Force to do something magical? As longtime fans know, the prequel films were rightfully reviled, but then something unexpected happened: talented creators like Dave Filoni used shows like The Clone Wars to create killer stories involving prequel characters. Between great television episodes, comics, and novels in this setting, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy was rehabilitated, and fans now have more affection for those mediocre movies than ever before.

Consider this: if the Rey movie ends up being great, it could help to rehabilitate the Sequel Trilogy, especially if the rumors about other characters like Finn and Poe Dameron returning are true. In the hands of a great director (Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has won two Oscars), the Rey movie could let these talented actors finally do something interesting with their flat characters.

By adding depth and dimension to those characters, a successful Rey film could singlehandedly rehab the image of the sequels (and boy, does that image need rehab) while ushering in a new renaissance of stories featuring sequel characters.

Let’s face it: Disney already did their best to kill this franchise. If they don’t want Star Wars to end up a blue Force ghost that lives on only in our memories, it’s time to tell great new stories with newer characters. Otherwise, it’s time to just throw the franchise corpse into the trash compactor and hope sheer nostalgia will keep the walls from closing in.