Key Takeaways
- Disney should view Star Wars as a genre, not a single story, in order to keep the franchise feeling fresh and appealing.
- Simon Kinberg’s successful work on Rebels suggests he is capable of telling new and innovative Star Wars stories.
- The Star Wars universe has endless potential beyond the Skywalker saga, offering opportunities for exploration in new time periods and realms.
On November 12, news broke that Simon Kinberg would helm the next trilogy in the Star Wars universe. It is, at the time of writing, unknown whether Kinberg will be continuing the Skywalker storyline or starting fresh with a new cast of characters. But if Disney wants to establish Star Wars as a truly timeless franchise, it should consider the Skywalker Saga a closed chapter.
To be clear, this doesn’t just refer to characters in the Skywalker lineage. It’s a larger issue that stems from the same ground being retread over and over again: the Empire/First Order, Rebels/Resistance, the Death Star(s), Palpatine, Clone Wars, etc. For example: since Disney’s purchase of the galaxy far, far away, there have been 18 Star Wars movies and series, 14 of which take place between The Phantom Menace and The Rise of Skywalker. With limitless story potential, it’s about time things moved on from this one period in the galaxy’s history.
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How Simon Kinberg Could Shake Up Star Wars
Simon Kinberg has a storied entertainment career, having written hits such as Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sherlock Holmes, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. But when considering the possibilities for a new trilogy, his most exciting credit is Star Wars: Rebels. The series was the first project to be released after Disney acquired Lucasfilm and terminated many of its existing projects, looking to take the franchise in a new direction. Rebels is somewhat of a spiritual successor to The Clone Wars (which Disney canceled in its fifth season), with Dave Filoni at the core of both.
Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck (the third co-creator) had their work cut out for them, as the world’s introduction to the Disney era of Star Wars. The sequel trilogy of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker sparked debates about excessive nostalgia, the lack of a cohesive vision, pandering to audiences, and countless more Reddit thread-inducing topics. On the other hand, Rebels quietly laid out an excellent blueprint for a possible Star Wars future.
Rebels introduced and focused on ideas that felt undeniably like Star Wars, while still heading in a new direction. A great example is the show’s establishment of animals as Force-sensitive creatures. Other Star Wars media had touched on the idea before, but Rebels fleshed it out, showing Ezra connecting with creatures like fyrnocks, purrgils, and Loth-cats. While Jedi had been shown taming creatures with the Force before, Ezra was one of the first to demonstrate a genuine connection with animals, such as with the noti in Ahsoka. And after introducing the Loth-wolves, Rebels demonstrated that creatures could be Force-sensitive in their own unique ways.
Along with new characters like The Bendu, the show also introduced many elements that have come to be staples of modern Star Wars. For example, the two-part pilot marked the first time audiences saw Inquisitors, and the very first mention of Beskar was in Rebels. Even the concept of time travel, which at first seemed foreign to the world of Star Wars, was gracefully introduced in “A World Between Worlds.” Now, it’s the reason Ahsoka Tano still lives.
All of this is to say that Rebels did not shy away from blazing new trails in the canon. It’s true that this doesn’t always pan out — consider, for example how The Book of Boba Fett’smoped gang landed with audiences. But Rebels has an incredible track record, and Simon Kinberg played a huge role in its success. It’s a great sign for the franchise to have someone at the helm of a new trilogy who is willing to step outside expectations and still deliver content that appears to core fans. If Disney allows Kinberg to tell stories in the distant past, the far future, or simply anywhere other than Tatooine, Star Wars could recapture that feeling of a whole universe ready to be explored.
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Star Wars Is More Than One Bloodline, One Empire, & One Rebellion
Star Wars should be viewed as a genre, not a story. It may have begun as a single story, but its enduring popularity has turned it into something so much greater. And after all this time, fans have a vocabulary and expectations for what Star Wars should feel like in the same way they do for a horror, rom-com, or action movie.
For example, that moped gang from The Book of Boba Fett? Fans decided: not Star Wars. Mace Windu’s dual lightsaber? Decidedly Star Wars. These definitions of what does and doesn’t belong in the galaxy far, far away are ones that Disney should be flexible with rather than try to shape. Just look at the prequels. There is a significant divide between fans of older and younger generations on whether elements of Episodes I-III constitute good Star Wars. And the next generation may argue in favor of aspects of the franchise that are derided today, in the same way genres of any medium evolve over the years.
Shows like Rebels or Andor may have been commissioned by Disney to take place in a familiar time period, but these shows’ creators have made the smart choice to treat Star Wars as a visual language and a set of guidelines rather than a recipe to recreate. Palpatine doesn’t need to somehow return; viewers don’t need to see what Obi-Wan is up to anymore. Anakin’s story has already been told, and the last traces of the Empire and the First Order have been forever squashed.
Even if Disney were to balk at the idea of all-new stories, fans would be eager to see the Knights of the Old Republic onscreen. There’s the reign of Tenebrae, and the many ideas presented in Star Wars: Visions. Disney could delve into any of the 68 novels deemed non-canonical Star Wars Legends. After all, if Thrawn can cross into canon status (in Rebels, no less), other characters and events can too. There’s a massive universe of creative storytellers that have been inspired by Star Wars, and by far more than what is presented in Episodes I-IX. Fingers crossed that Simon Kinberg is able to explore it.
Star Wars
Star Wars is a multimedia franchise originally created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd with the 1977 motion picture. The science fiction franchise follows the adventures of characters (both humanoid and alien) in outer space including those who can wield a mystical power known as the Force. Since the release of the original trilogy of movies, the franchise has expanded to include multiple films and branched out to other media like comics, video games, tv shows, theme park attractions, and more. The IP and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney in 2012.