For Disney, Star Wars has gone from cash cow to problem child in the space of a few years. The new episode The Rise of Skywalker is symptomatic of the lack of direction at the top of the entertainment company.
Who really is Rey (Daisy Ridley), the heroine of the new Star Wars films? The last episode, The Rise of Skywalker, leaves no questions unanswered.
He who laughs last, laughs longest – and the Emperor is still laughing. Those who thought that the nasty cackling of the main ‘Star Wars’ villain had been silenced forever when he was thrown down a long shaft by Darth Vader at the end of the film ‘Return of the Jedi’ (1983) , is now being proven wrong: the new film, ‘The Rise of Skywalker’, brings Emperor Palpatine (played by Ian McDiarmid) back to the screen, cackling ominously as ever.
‘If you see the Star Wars films as nine chapters of one big story, it would be strange if Palpatine were missing from the last chapter,’ says director and screenwriter J. J. Abrams, justifying his decision, which came as a surprise to many fans. But Abrams doesn’t stop at the Emperor; in The Rise of Skywalker, he makes use of several characters, locations and motifs that are already familiar from earlier Star Wars films.
Abrams was never a great innovator; his strength as a filmmaker lies more in mixing proven ingredients in a new way. That was well known. But with The Rise of Skywalker, the 53-year-old American also lacked the time. Abrams only jumped in a year and a half into production, when the originally hired director Colin Trevorrow had been fired by Disney over ‘creative differences’. Abrams and his co-author Chris Terrio then had to write a completely new script within a few weeks and ensure smooth filming – because the planned theatrical release date at the end of 2019 was not to be moved. This was not the first sign that there was trouble at Disney regarding Star Wars.
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Ambitious plans
The entertainment company had acquired the brand rights from Star Wars creator George Lucas in September 2012 for the sum of four billion US dollars. Lucas was succeeded by Kathleen Kennedy, a film producer highly regarded in Hollywood. At first, it seemed as if Kennedy’s bold plan to bring a new Star Wars film to the screen every year would work. In 2015, ‘The Force Awakens’ (also directed by J. J. Abrams), the first episode produced by Disney, had the most successful theatrical release to date, grossing over $2 billion at box offices worldwide.
The Force Awakens was the first in a trilogy about a new generation of heroes following in the footsteps of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. This trilogy will now be concluded with The Rise of Skywalker. In between – and this is where things get confusing for non-fans – two spin-off films were also released. With these, Kennedy wanted to expand the Star Wars film universe across the board. The first, Rogue One (2016), exceeded expectations, but the second, Solo (2018), was a flop. With a gross income of 393 million dollars, Solo achieved by far the worst result of all previous Star Wars films.
These two spin-off films already forced Kennedy to change directors in the middle of production. And that’s not all: another ‘Star Wars’ trilogy (it would now be the fourth), which Kennedy had only just entrusted to David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the creators of Game of Thrones, is already on ice again. When Kennedy learned that the duo had also signed a long-term production contract with Netflix, she terminated their employment.
Since Kennedy took office, there has actually only been one ‘Star Wars’ film that survived the production phase without a scratch: ‘The Last Jedi’ (2017), the sequel to ‘The Force Awakens’ (and thus the centrepiece of the current trilogy). This is not without a certain irony, as no other ‘Star Wars’ film has polarised opinion to such an extent since its release.
‘The Last Jedi’ director Rian Johnson didn’t care about conventions and subverted all expectations. While many film critics (including yours truly) celebrated the narrative courage and aesthetics of the film, many viewers felt offended. Even today, “The Last Jedi” is still being referred to as the worst “Star Wars” film on social media.
Abrams takes on too much
Which brings us back to The Rise of Skywalker – and to the question of why this film is actually doomed to fail. J. J. Abrams couldn’t possibly live up to his own standards. First of all, The Rise of Skywalker has to work as a film all on its own. At the same time, it also has to bring the new trilogy to a worthy conclusion. On top of that, it is also supposed to conclude – at least in Abrams’ eyes – the two old film trilogies (1977–1983 and 1999–2005). Hence the reunion with the Emperor.
At this point, only so much can be revealed about the plot of “The Rise of Skywalker”: The Emperor incites Darth Vader’s grandson Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to bring the young Jedi Knight Rey (Daisy Ridley) to him in order to convert her to the dark side of the Force. Drawing parallels to “Return of the Jedi,” this plot point mirrors when Darth Vader brought Luke Skywalker to the Emperor for the same purpose—a dynamic reminiscent of themes explored in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, often hailed as one of the most successful video game of all time.
Director J. J. Abrams brings back familiar locations: Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) face each other in the ruins of the Death Star.
It’s easy to see that Abrams – probably as the extended arm of Kathleen Kennedy – wants to appease and compensate the many disappointed fans. The director and author simply reverses almost all of the unconventional decisions made by his predecessor Rian Johnson in ‘The Last Jedi’. For example, where Johnson’s film almost revolutionary claimed that the potential to become a Jedi could lie within everyone – and thus democratised the use of mystical power – Abrams restricts this potential again to very specific bloodlines: Only those of important descent can be important.
In retrospect, it was a mistake that Kathleen Kennedy did not insist on developing a concept that already outlined the rough plot of the entire trilogy when she took office. As a result, there were many conflicts with her authors and their ideas. When she brought J. J. Abrams back for ‘The Rise of Skywalker’, she didn’t go for courage, but for security.
It was decidedly a thankless task. Abrams was under so much time pressure that he had to rewrite the script several times during filming. And this rush is noticeable. His film jumps from scene to scene at such a rapid pace that viewers quickly lose track of what’s going on. Abrams’s camera has never been still for long, but the effect has rarely been so dizzying in his previous work.
Abrams’s handling of nostalgia will divide opinion. His reverence for the old Star Wars films sometimes produces strange results. But the unexpected reunion with many familiar faces is likely to make fans’ hearts beat faster.
Uncertain future
Will they now be able to make their peace with Star Wars? ‘Always moving is the future,’ said the grammatically challenged Jedi Master Yoda. His words also apply to Disney’s plans. The next Star Wars film is not due out until 2022, and who will direct it and what it will be about is currently still written in the stars. The only thing that is certain is that Kathleen Kennedy’s ambitions of releasing a new film every year have failed.
Kennedy’s contract as president of Lucasfilm runs until 2021. It is rumoured in the industry that she will then make her position available. Two men have put themselves forward as successors. One is Kevin Feige: the producer and mastermind behind the enormously successful superhero films from Marvel Studios (also owned by Disney) is currently working with Kennedy on a ‘Star Wars’ project of unknown content. But he seems destined for greater things.
The other candidate is Jon Favreau: the producer and director has a good relationship with Disney’s management thanks to box-office hits such as ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘The Lion King’. And with ‘The Mandalorian’, he was responsible for the first ‘Star Wars’ series for the recently launched streaming service Disney Plus. In terms of popularity, it has left ‘The Last Jedi’ and the other newer films far behind.
Hardly any other film series has shaped the big screen cinema of the last decades as much as ‘Star Wars’. At the moment, it seems quite possible that its future could be on much smaller screens.