With the so far strong reception to The Mandalorian and tons of excitement building around Ewan McGregor’s return as Obi-Wan Kenobi, it looks as if Star Wars is in rude health on the small screen. However, the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is still going to be a a make-or-break project for the long-running sci-fi franchise. At least, from a cinematic perspective.
J.J. Abrams is looking to bring us a definitive conclusion to the story that began in A New Hope back in 1977, while also tying a bow on the entire Skywalker Saga. But after that, the future for Star Wars is very hazy. Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss recently exited their planned trilogy, while Rian Johnson’s set of movies may or may not still be in the works – depending on who you ask and on what day of the week. Even Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has said that right now, she’s unsure of what comes next.
Given the divisive reaction to the The Last Jedi though, and the outright failure of Solo, the critical and commercial success of The Rise of Skywalker is going to be of the utmost importance and thankfully, the early signs look promising. While critics have yet to begin screening the movie, test audiences have already seen it and from what we’ve heard, they enjoyed what they saw.
Speaking to sources close to WGTC – the same ones who revealed the big Rey/Palpatine twist in the film months ago, which has since been confirmed – we’ve been told that while The Rise of Skywalker isn’t the best movie in the saga, those who’ve seen it are putting it just behind The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope. So, it may not be the franchise’s most accomplished effort yet, but it still sounds like it’ll please folks a lot more than The Last Jedi did.
Then again, this reaction might not be representative of what general audiences and/or critics think, so it’s worth not putting too much stock into it. Still, it’s encouraging to hear and over the coming weeks, you can bet that many more reactions to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will begin to trickle onto the web, especially once the press begin to see it.