The Disney era of Star Wars has been accused of playing it a little too safe, with Lucasfilm more than happy to keep returning to the nostalgia well for inspiration, at the expense of pushing the mythology forward.
The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker split opinion, with the latter retconned into oblivion to try and stem the tide of backlash, but since then we’ve been spending virtually all of our time in a galaxy far, far away nestled comfortably in worlds, settings, and timelines we’ve seen countless times before, with a number of familiar faces thrown into the mix for good measure.
One man who will not stand for such things is Taika Waititi, who admitted that he wouldn’t be interested in helming a Star Wars blockbuster at all if he was tasked with simply rehashing and reheating things that have already happened. The news went down a storm with fans already, but the debate has now migrated over to Reddit, and it’s clear that even the staunchest of supporters believe a fresh perspective should be applied to the franchise.
Of course, the Disney Plus roster has been massively dependent on callbacks, Easter Eggs, and references so far, but outliers including The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew should allow the respective creative teams to explore new corners of the universe, as opposed to de-aging Luke Skywalker in perpetuity and roping in veterans for fan-baiting cameos.
There’s only so long Star Wars can survive without looking into the future, so let’s hope that Waititi’s film kicks off a brand new era of storytelling.