It’s been five years since Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker was released. In that time, Lucasfilm has rolled out The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, and the second and third seasons of The Mandalorian. The studio’s TV offerings have — with a few exceptions — been middling at best, but its film efforts have been nonexistent. The Rise of Skywalker, which was met with overwhelmingly negative reactions from both fans and critics alike, remains the most recent Star Wars film.
Following the release of The Rise of Skywalker, it made sense for Lucasfilm to take some time to reset and rethink its feature film plans. A break didn’t seem like a bad idea, frankly. Five years and multiple mediocre TV shows later, though, it’s impossible to ignore the absence of any new, truly cinematic Star Wars adventures. The franchise, which once inspired wonder and sparked the imaginations of millions of viewers, has begun to feel disappointingly one-note. The visual splendor of the Star Wars universe is in danger of being forgotten.
It’s time for cinema’s biggest and greatest franchise to return to its original medium.
The Acolyte showcased limitations of the small-screen medium
This past week, The Acolyte wrapped up its first season in decidedly lackluster fashion. The series, set around 100 years before the events of 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, was always destined to become a divisive lightning rod for conversation among fans and cultural critics. While much has been written and said about the same old, lazy “critiques” that have been lobbed at the series in the weeks since its premiere, one thing that has gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle is that The Acolyte is just … OK. It isn’t the worst live-action Star Wars show that Lucasfilm has released (that title still belongs to The Book of Boba Fett), but it certainly isn’t the best, either.
After getting off to a solid enough start, The Acolyte‘s first season fizzled in its final installments. This was due to a number of issues, including a few baffling decisions involving the order in which its story was actually told. More than anything, however, The Acolyte frequently felt like it should have been a 2-hour movie instead of a 6-hour, eight-episode TV series with weeklong episodic breaks that killed whatever momentum was started in each of its installments. The show would have greatly benefited from the propulsive pace of a feature-length film, as well as a bigger budget for its various lightsaber duels and set pieces. These critiques are, for the record, not unique to The Acolyte.
Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Mandalorian have all suffered from similar pacing issues and budgets that made them look at best visually muddy and at worst cheap. That latter label is one that should never be slapped on an entry in a franchise that was originally known for its indelible imagery. It’s been years since we’ve gotten an immaculate, truly unforgettable image in a live-action Star Wars title, though. The franchise’s TV shows have begun to look increasingly flat and lifeless. Due, in part, to Lucasfilm’s one-size-fits-all use of The Volume, numerous scenes in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan have lacked real depth, and that goes without mentioning how those shows and The Acolyte have also repeatedly failed to light their actors and sets in interesting or appealing ways.
Star Wars shows lack shock and awe of big-screen counterparts
Gone are the days of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader dueling as silhouettes in the hazy blue, black, and orange confines of Cloud City’s carbonite chambers and air shafts, or Luke looking across the vast desert landscape of Tatooine yearning for a better, richer life. These images, forever burned in the minds of Star Wars fans everywhere, are so well-considered and constructed that they help their respective films achieve a rare, mythic quality. The same goes for certain moments scattered throughout George Lucas’ prequel films, like the graphic image of Anakin Skywalker’s shadow growing in length as he marches into Coruscant’s Jedi temple with thoughts of coldhearted murder on his mind in Revenge of the Sith.
Even Lucasfilm’s sequel trilogy, for all of its many flaws, contains more moments of sheer, wonder-inducing cinematic majesty than all of the TV shows that have followed it combined. Think, for instance, of the shot of a fallen stormtrooper leaving a bloody handprint on Finn’s helmet in The Force Awakens, or the white salt plains of Crait being transformed by war and violence into a red-and-black-singed nightmare in The Last Jedi. The Rise of Skywalker may be the worst Star Wars film to date, but even it has Rey and Kylo’s duel atop the sunken remains of the second Death Star, a piece of action choreography that is not only thrillingly edited by Maryann Brandon and Stefan Grube, but also astonishing in its size and scope. This is all to say nothing of 2016’s Rogue One and 2018’s Solo, both of which also contain instances of inspired visual artistry that none of Lucasfilm’s live-action shows have matched.
Make Star Wars great again
If there’s one thing the Star Wars franchise should never seem, it’s small. Even at their worst, the series’ films have all, to their credit, felt appropriately big. The same can’t be said for the franchise’s recent TV shows, which have collectively brought Star Wars closer to mundanity than it’s ever been before. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place in the Star Wars universe for shows like The Mandalorian and Andor, both of which have expanded it in mostly fruitful ways. They shouldn’t be the only additions to the franchise we’re getting, though, and they definitely shouldn’t be given consistent priority over Lucasfilm’s film projects.
The studio suffered a few heavy blows in the late 2010s when movies like Solo and The Rise of Skywalker underperformed critically and financially. Ever since then, Lucasfilm has treated every one of its in-development, big-screen Star Wars projects as a major, potentially disastrous risk. Whether that’s a justifiable attitude or not is up for debate, but by trying to avoid as many risks as possible, Lucasfilm has come close to robbing its most treasured property of the magic that once defined it. There’s no greater threat facing Star Wars right now than that.
