An update was recently shared regarding Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars film which is supposedly currently in development. According to sources who revealed information to The Hollywood Reporter, the film — which might be turned into a potential trilogy — is set in the sequel era, after Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. The much-discussed trilogy being brought back up in the minds of Star Wars fans has done one of two things for them, it has either opened a recently closed wound or caused them to jump for joy.
So as any Star Wars fan is wont to do, a slew of reaction images and memes have hit social media, with fans either expressing their absolute disgust, their overwhelming happiness, or using the opportunity to fire off another negative review toward the last Star Wars trilogy. Let’s take a look at the 12 best memes that Star Wars fans could come up with.
This Twitter user has posted an image of Rey (Daisy Ridley) holding up a W, in what they see as a much-needed win in the Star Wars franchise. The Star Wars Holocron fan Twitter account put up an iconic meme from The Wire, of Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) saying “I want you to put the word out there that we back up,” which you can see below, with the caption “Sequel trilogy fans right now.”
Of course, you cannot talk about the Sequel Trilogy without bringing up a juicy Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) reaction meme, as one Twitter user did with the caption “Ready to eat,” while using the GIF of Kylo screaming “More!” As you can see there are more than a few people excited about the potential of another story set in that time period.
Another positive Twitter user posted a GIF of Emperor Palpatine’s return from The Rise of Skywalker with the caption “Long have I waited.”
But those were just the positive reactions. Where there exists the Jedi, the Sith are never too far behind. The first reaction image we have is the polar opposite of the last GIF with one fan remembering the Sequel Trilogy and opting not to have more of it by posting the images of Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) when somehow Emperor Palpatine had returned. While there were great characters in the Sequel Trilogy, most of them were butchered in the eyes of fans by The Rise of Skywalker.
Another fan has riffed on the Emperor Palpatine twist from The Rise of Skywalker again, posting an image of Oscar Isaac from the Disney Plus MCU series Moon Knight when he breaks down crying, with the caption “*when Palpatine returns AGAIN again*.” This will undoubtedly be the reaction of Star Wars fans everywhere if Damon Lindelof were to somehow bring back Emperor Palpatine after his second death in The Rise of Skywalker.
Another Twitter user posted yet another reaction image of Kylo Ren (there are just so many to choose from), tweeting “time to dust off ye olde reaction images,” with the image caption reading “i am looking away.”
The next couple of images were posted by people who undoubtedly remember how the Sequel Trilogy handled Luke Skywalker’s character and his treatment of his nephew Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren. One fan tweeted “Hmm. Me reading abt new #StarWars content that follows the events of the sequel trilogy,” with an image of Mark Hamill looking as if he were thinking about everybody he killed in the Death Star his character blew up.
Another posted a comedic parallel between Lego figures that represent Luke’s change in the Sequel Trilogy, which was obviously different from his feelings in the Original Trilogy. They tweeted “This meme sums up how I feel about the sequel trilogy #StarWars.” The meme they posted has Darth Vader touting “I’ve slaughtered thousands,” while Luke says “I still feel the good in you.” The next two images feature a young Kylo Ren saying “Master I had a bad dream last-” but before he can finish an older Luke ignites his lightsaber.
This is referencing how Kylo Ren turned to the dark side after (rightfully) thinking that Luke Skywalker had turned his lightsaber on him after feeling the dark side within him.
Other Star Wars fans seem to simply ignore the Sequel Trilogy, pretending either that it does not exist or took place in some alternate reality from which the Original Trilogy was set. One Twitter user posted an image of Luke and George Lucas at the Cantina with Luke saying “You shouldn’t have sold it” and Lucas responding with “Yep.” This is referring to George Lucas selling the Star Wars franchise to Disney in 2012 for billions of dollars. Since then Disney has produced a mixed bag of Star Wars projects including the Sequel Trilogy, but its offerings on the Disney Plus side have been looked on more favorably with The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and more recently Andor.
Another fan posted a GIF of comedian Tracy Morgan shaking his head “Nope,” with the caption “me then: I want more star wars movies, not just tv shows me now realizing this means we’re going to have to acknowledge the rise of skywalker is canon.” Indeed it might be too much for some people to acknowledge The Rise of Skywalker, but hopefully, because the Damon Lindelof film will reportedly not follow the Skywalker story, we will not have that film referenced too much. That is unless Rey suddenly appears with her yellow lightsaber.
And lastly, we have this funny couple with a Reddit post using the famous Prequel Trilogy meme format with Padme and Anakin, as one of them refers to the Sequel Trilogy and writes, “Good thing they’re not canon haha right?” The meme format is taken from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones when the pair fell in love on Naboo, and of course sharing their views on the current political system of the Republic.
Overall, Star Wars fans do seem to be having a mixed reaction to the news of Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars film and it possibly being set after The Rise of Skywalker, featuring characters from that film, and maybe even sprawling out into a trilogy. Either way the Lost and Watchmen mastermind helming Star Wars might prove to have interesting results, but hopefully whatever the project turns out to be will be less maligned than the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy.