If there’s one thing the sequel trilogy added to theStar Warsfan community, it’s a sense of controversy. Fans have been arguing about these movies sinceThe Force Awakensreleased in 2015, and the intense discussion has continued even though the trilogy has finished. Some fans who didn’t enjoy the movies and criticized a lot of elements of the trilogy have called for it to be deemed non-canon. While this may seem like an extreme response, especially when there is a large portion of the fandom that doesn’t have as much of a problem with the sequels,it likely won’t even matter in the future if the sequels are canon or not.
Depending on where the future stories in theStar Warsworld go, the issues that arose in the sequel trilogy may be inconsequential. IfStar Warswants to keep their universe feeling fresh and new, they need to tell stories that don’t just focus around the main characters fans have already seen. In fact, if future entries tell stories entirely unrelated to the Skywalkers, that whole saga may never need to be mentioned.
RELATED:Star Wars: The Franchise Needs A Fully Independent Story
The plot of futureStar Warsentries is still unknown, butwith major directors like Rian Johnson and Taika Waititi set to helm their own movies, it’s likely thatStar Warscould be branching out from the Skywalkers. These two filmmakers in particular are indicators of that, as they’re known for forging their own paths and not just falling into the same story patterns as their predecessors. Taika Waititi essentially revived the Thor franchise withThor: Ragnarokand managed to make an MCU film that felt unique, and so it’s not a far leap to assume that he could do the same thing forStar Wars. Rian Johnson is also known as someone who likes to subvert expectations,which could be another good move for futureStar Warsentries(though it may also further alienate fans who hatedThe Last Jedi, as these are probably the same fans that want the sequel trilogy nullified in the first place).
If futureStar Warsmovies focus on entirely new characters in places in the galaxy the audience has never been to before, there will really be no reason to mention the sequel trilogy at all. This would serve two purposes: it would pacify the fans who are angry about the direction the sequels took, but it would also be a nice refresh for the series in general.It would be really interesting to see aStar Warsstory that has nothing to do with the Skywalkersor anyone connected to them in any way.
If the events of the sequels were to be mentioned, as they probably had a far-reaching effect on a lot of the galaxy, they could be mentioned in passing, orin a way where a normal citizen reacts to the eventsand criticizes something that fans also didn’t like (although that particular approach might feel a little bit too much like lampshading and would have to be handled delicately in order to not feel heavy-handed or disrespectful). In the future, it would be far more interesting to hear about what else has been going on in the galaxy while the Skywalkers and their friends have been fighting various incarnations of the Empire for generations.Star Warsshould really take advantage of this opportunity to tell more unique stories, because at this point fans have had a trilogy of trilogies that centers around the same family, and there have to be a thousand other stories in this galaxy to explore.
In this way, whatever some fans feel the failures of the sequel trilogy are can just be ignored in the future. It’s a win for both sides of the argument, as those who hated the sequels can accept that those events won’t impact futureStar Warsstories and will never be mentioned again (at least, not in-depth),while fans who enjoyed the sequel trilogy can rest easyknowing that the events of those films are still canonical and aren’t just being outright ignored byStar Wars.
It’s unlikely thatStar Warswould even give any credence to the calling for the sequels to be made non-canon, though they have fallen victim togiving a vocal minority of fans too much powerin the past. It would just be too much of a hassle to declare an entire film trilogy non-canon, and would also be incredibly disrespectful to everyone who worked hard on those films to declare that their work no longer matters in the grand scheme of this fictional universe. That being said, there are definitely ways in whichStar Warscan skirt around the issue of the sequels in the future, mainly by just not bringing them up. IfStar Warstakes a new direction with its story (which many fans have been calling for anyways), there might not be any further references to the sequels - or any other films in the Skywalker Saga for that matter - at all.
