If you’ve seen Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and if the box office numbers are any indication, there’s a large chance you did, you’ll know that the Star Wars franchise, now under the guidance of The Walt Disney Company, has no shortage of great creativity. Rogue One is unlike anything Star Wars fans have ever seen, yet it is one of the most truthful and perfect Star Wars films ever. Rogue One pushes the franchise further than ever before in genre and in storytelling and practically marries the franchise together, wrapping the events of Rogue One perfectly with the Star Wars saga. The most impressive thing about this all of course, is that Rogue One does all of this without the reliance of any of the previous Star Wars films, or specifically the characters within them.
The latest film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story follows a cast of entirely new characters, and while some of the supporting cast are pre-existing characters from the franchise, such as Darth Vader, Rogue One is entirely a stand-alone adventure about stand-alone characters that ultimately there are no plans to expand on. The Star Wars saga, from The Phantom Menace to The Force Awakens and everything in-between, chronicles the story of The Skywalkers. It’s, in essence, the story of a great warrior who tragically meets his downfall to the dark side, cultivating in his redemption before his death. Whether it’s been Anakin, Luke or Leia, the Star Wars saga has always survived on surrounding its story around the Skywalker family, stretching even into The Force Awakens. However, as Disney plans for the future of Star Wars, the studio is beginning to craft stories that are slowly drifting away from its reliance on the Skywalker saga in order to build a universe that can strive on its own without the characters before it. Since all great franchises survive only on their ability to evolve and craft new creative stories, Disney is making no exception with this cultural phenomenon, and Disney has already began planting the seeds for the franchise’s very future.
Since Disney bought the franchise from George Lucas in 2012, the company’s focus on Star Wars has been largely on stories that mainly stand as their own projects. Although these stories are deeply connected with the Star Wars franchise, they stand on their own prospective stories featuring new characters. This is understandable when taking into account that Disney would want to tell their own stories and not be too heavily reliant on the old cast in order to return again and again. Therefore, with one foot in the past and one in the future, Disney is using Star Wars to kickstart a whole new legacy of characters. By re-introducing audiences to the beloved characters of the original trilogy and following the new characters of The Force Awakens, Disney is essentially passing on the torch from the original trilogy right into the future of Star Wars. This is also done with Rogue One which is another example of Disney using the world of Star Wars to find new ways to tell new stories.
Rogue One offers a similar experience for fans by creating a story that feels so foreign and new in familiar territory. Disney created the first entirely stand-alone Star Wars movie that doesn’t rely on any of the pre-existing characters in order to sell its story. Although their impact is clearly present, the film acts as its own story within the Star Wars universe. This follows the act of Disney’s other project, Star Wars Rebels, which stars a brand-new series of characters. With projects like Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One and the ongoing new trilogy, Disney is building an entirely new saga within the Star Wars universe that while built around the saga, but doesn’t need those characters or elements to sell their story. Rogue One is filled with ambition and creativity and while creating acting as its own stand-alone feature, yet at the same time adds so much to the already existing vast universe that audiences have been familiar with since 1977.
It’s difficult to tell exactly what the future of Star Wars will look like beyond 2020. How many of the original trilogy’s cast members will still be willing to star in the films once the new trilogy has wrapped? Will the next trilogy be about Rey training a younger Padawan? Will we finally get that stand-alone Jar Jar Binks movie? The future is difficult to see, but taking a look at the way that Disney is beginning to shift over the focus of their stories to entirely new characters, locations and stories within the universe should give us an idea that Disney is looking for new and unique ways to push their stories and ensure the longevity of Star Wars for a generation to come. While we may not necessarily be reliant on their new characters like Jyn Erso or Ezra Bridger, we’re certain it won’t necessarily be about Luke Skywalker as Disney looks to pass the torch to tell new and continuing stories in a galaxy far far away.