Is it time for Star Wars superfans to bid a fond farewell to 1977 and all that? Increasingly there are signs that the sun(s) might be setting on George Lucas’s original trilogy, a full four decades after we first watched a teenage Jedi wannabe take on the might of the evil Empire.
Once the forthcoming Episode IX is done and dusted, we are promised a new trilogy of films, to be directed by Rian Johnson, set in a corner of the galaxy far, far away from Luke Skywalker and his feted clan. At the same time, Lucasfilm’s plans for a series of spin-offs centred on characters from the 1977-83 era are disintegrating faster than Alderaan in the blazing lasers of the first Death Star.
Not so long ago it seemed as if the Disney-owned studio was dead set on continuing to milk the original trilogy. But there have been few rumblings about those mooted Yoda and Obi-Wan origin movies since Solo: A Star Wars Story bombed. Ewan McGregor has pitched himself a number of times for a return to the role of Obi-Wan yet still there is no call from the people at the top. And this week comes the news that the Boba Fett movie once promised by Lucasfilm is finally as dead as Vader himself.
Perhaps the bigwigs at Disney have worked out that the audiences who refused to turn out for a Han Solo origins story were probably not going to be too bothered about bounty hunter Fett, a character who was always more cult figure than central player. Or maybe the studio has decided it is finally time to hit us with some fresh storytelling – though the recent decision to bring back Mark Hamill for Episode IX would suggest otherwise.
Despite the prequels’ best efforts to cast Fett and his dad Jango as central figures in the movies’ mythology, making a Boba Fett film always seemed like a stretch. If Star Wars is to keep going well into the 21st century, it needs to create new legends.
At times it seems as though Lucasfilm’s mission over the past five years has been to encourage us to forget all about the dreaded prequels, Jar Jar Binks et al. That involved bringing back Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, to remind us just why we loved Star Wars in the first place. But with Fisher gone, and Luke and Han dead, the policy has surely run its course.
Boba Fett fans furiously disagreeing with this post can at least content themselves that Disney has The Mandalorian in the works for the small screen, a Jon Favreau-created series that will follow a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy. The title is a reference to Fett’s armour, as well as the planet Mandalore whence his people hailed.
The truth is that nobody really knows whether the enduring success of Star Wars is down to the unique chemistry of the original trilogy, or whether audiences will happily turn out to see movies and TV shows that bear no relation to those films. But there is no reason why removing Luke, Leia and Han from the equation should again cause the saga to devolve into an orgy of plastic CGI, dodgy racial stereotypes and bad acting. We have seen enough splendid moments since The Force Awakens hit cinemas to know that there is hope beyond the original trilogy, even if episodes such as Rogue One, The Last Jedi and Solo never dared to entirely cut themselves off from the past.
Perhaps it is time to find out if Star Wars can finally emerge gleaming from the Dagobah swamp of history. And if the saga does find itself sucked back down into the steaming gloop, doomed for ever to languish in the shadow of past glories, at least Disney might then rerelease a bona fide, CGI-free version of the original trilogy in full HD.
