Rian Johnson Deserved The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy From The Start
With years of hindsight now, many Star Wars fans are in agreement that the sequel trilogy has claimed the new title as the worst major story to come out of the franchise. The trilogy was infamously mishandled by bouncing between J.J. Abrams directing The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson doing The Last Jedi, and Abrams returning for The Rise of Skywalker. But the thing is, the trilogy probably would have been great if they had just let Rian Johnson do the entire Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Johnson Brought Something New To Star Wars
A lot of people might bristle at that idea. People often point to The Last Jedi as when the wheels started falling off, but that movie was simply trying to fix problems created in The Force Awakens.
The biggest criticism against the first movie was that it was just a less interesting retread of A New Hope. Rian Johnson was the only one bringing fresh ideas to Star Wars with the sequel trilogy.
Subverting Expectations
The Last Jedi completely subverted everyone’s expectations. It was revealed that Rey did not have some special mysterious heritage like Luke did with Darth Vader.
Snoke was unceremoniously killed off, making it clear there would not be a repeat of the Emperor Palpatine storyline. And Rey was seriously considering joining the dark side to follow her feelings for Kylo Ren.
Everything Rian Johnson did set up Star Wars for exciting new possibilities with the conclusion of the trilogy.
Abrams Messed It All Up
And then J.J. Abrams returned and petulantly undid everything Rian Johnson wanted to give Star Wars with the trilogy. Kylo Ren repaired his destroyed mask, making him once more a Darth Vader wannabe.
Rey was given a ridiculous family lineage connecting her to Palpatine. And Palpatine himself was randomly brought back to replace Snoke.
Abrams made it clear this trilogy was going to be a complete retread of the original movies, no matter what anyone else thought.
The Worst Star Wars Movie
The ironic thing is, by Abrams trying so hard to play it safe and cater to that nostalgia for the past, he made the worst major Star Wars movie in The Rise of Skywalker. It just goes to show that his vision was never anything exciting for the franchise and he should not have even been the trilogy’s director in the first place.
Even if the movies had failed with Rian Johnson helming them all, it at least would have done something new with Star Wars and given us a trilogy that stands on its own.
A Missed Opportunity
Now years later, the same problem the franchise continues to have is that it will not stop clinging to nostalgia rather than doing something totally new.
Even The Acolyte is now doing this in regards to the prequel trilogy. Rian Johnson was the only one who was willing to take Star Wars into uncharted territory and do something truly risky and exciting with the sequel trilogy.
Given that Rian Johnson has since proven he can create well thought out stories like Knives Out, he clearly has vision. Whereas J.J. Abrams is infamous for intriguing ideas that often go nowhere, as frequently seen in Lost.
Rian Johnson could have given Star Wars a trilogy that could have rivaled the original if he had had control from the start. But his new ideas scared people, so Abrams was given back control to keep the status quo of what people knew, and it disappointed everyone.
