There's a new Star Wars movie out... I'm not sure if you've heard. A lot of people seem to love it, but a lot of people don't, and there's a decent amount of angry yelling from one side at the other, and vice versa, over this fact. This seems to have become standard operating procedure for all things Star Wars, and it's become exhausting.
While The Force Awakens and Rogue One appear to have survived largely unscathed in their release, starting with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars movies have become an absolute battleground. Some loved Rian Johnson's fresh take on the source material, while others decried some of the character arcs and plot points found in the film. Now there's a similar battle taking place around The Rise of Skywalker. Some think it's great; others, not so much.
For the record, I'm one of those who found The Rise of Skywalker to be a less than satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker Saga. It has some elements worthy of note and is far from a complete failure, but I certainly didn't love it the way I hoped to. Having said that, I still love Star Wars as a whole, and the fact that I didn't love one movie has not dampened my spirit for it. I'm still excited for the future of the franchise I grew up with, and I think everybody should be. Here are some reasons why:
Star Wars Is Bigger Than One Bad Movie
Everybody's opinion on what's good and bad in Star Wars is going to be slightly different, but I feel like it's not a controversial statement that before we ever saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we had already seen bad Star Wars movies. If you're one of the people who really disliked one or more of the prequels, then maybe you'd seen an entire trilogy you didn't like, and yet we all turned out to see The Force Awakens.
I'm sure there are people who disliked every movie of this current trilogy, but odds are there was at least one that you liked. If not, maybe Rogue One was more your cup of tea. However you look at it, there have been good Star Wars movies and bad Star Wars movies. Hell, if I were to draw a line between the two, the franchise as a whole is doing barely better than 50%. There's no reason to believe that both of these things won't continue. There will be another Star Wars movie that you love one day (maybe soon), and that will be awesome.
Rise Of The Resistance Is Almost Open At Disneyland
In addition to 2019 being the year that the Skywalker Saga came to a close, it also was the year of a new beginning: the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. The new land puts you on a planet in the Outer Rim and lets every guest tell their own Star Wars story. If there was a downside to the initial opening, it was one of the major attractions, Rise of the Resistance, did not open with the land.
But Rise of the Resistance is now open at Walt Disney World and it's set to open at Disneyland in just a few short days. Based on the reaction to the ride in Florida, the attraction is truly everything we've been hoping for as both a theme park ride and a Star Wars experience. If you can't embrace the story being told on the big screen, go to Batuu and make your own.
Disney+ Has Even More Star Wars On The Way
While not everybody loves Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the response to another recent Star Wars property was much more positive overall. A lot of people loved The Mandalorian, even if the main reason may have been the presence of Baby Yoda. If you were one of those people, then the good news is there's a lot more on the way.
Not only are we getting a second season of The Mandalorian, which is currently in production, but we're also getting two other Star Wars series: a Rogue One prequel starring Diego Luna's Cassian Andor, and an Obi-Wan series starring Ewan McGregor himself. We're even getting more Clone Wars. While Star Wars has always been a cinematic franchise first, television is clearly going to be a big part of the brand going forward. At the end of the day, good Star Wars is good Star Wars, no matter where it comes from.
Rian Johnson's Trilogy Has A Lot Going For It
Now hang on just a second. Even if you're one of the people who really didn't like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there's still a lot of reason to be excited about the Star Wars trilogy that is still, as far as we know, coming from Rian Johnson.
If part of your problem with The Last Jedi was the way Rian Johnson treated your favorite pre-existing characters, then good news: from everything we've learned, the idea behind this trilogy is to tell a wholly original story not connected to anything we've seen before in Star Wars. If this entire Sequel Trilogy felt a little scattered and disconnected to you, like there were too many cooks in the kitchen, then this trilogy will fix that problem by only having one person in charge of the story. Many of the perceived problems of late would seem to be solved with this trilogy, so we can all give it a fair shot.
There's A Galaxy Of Possibilities
But the best part about the future of Star Wars has to be that we simply have no idea what is going to happen yet. There will be more movies, from Rian Johnson or otherwise. There will be more series, both live action and animated. We can be confident that the world of Star Wars will continue to expand.
Are every one of us going to love everything new from Star Wars from this point out? If past is prologue, then I can safely say no. However, in the same way that I know we're not all going to love it all, I can feel confident that nearly everybody will find something to love.
Most of us don't want to dislike Star Wars. When we see a movie or other piece of media we don't care for, it's more disappointing than anything else. But Star Wars as a whole is still great. When the "bad" is taken with the "good," it's still fun, and there's plenty of fun in our future. Let go of the anger and the hate; that's the path to the dark side.
