Following the sequel trilogy, Lucasfilm has had a surprising amount of trouble making Star Wars movies. The franchise has remained strong on Disney+, but multiple attempts at new big-screen adventures have resulted in Star Wars movies quietly disappearing after getting announced to much fanfare. but all signs point to that finally changing. This is good news for fans looking forward to Daisy Ridley’s return as Rey.
We know at least one Star Wars movie is coming, as The Mandalorian and Grogu has completed filming. Another upcoming Star Wars movie, set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, which will see the return of Daisy Ridley’s Rey in a film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. It looks like that project will actually happen at this point, and the movie’s writer George Nolfi tells FilmStories that he will be taking significant inspiration from George Lucas’ films. At least as it regards the political themes of the franchise. He explained…
If you think about George Lucas, the six movies that he did, and the universe that he created, it’s actually very steeped in broad notions of politics. It’s not talking about today, per se, but there’s the Empire’s Nazism slash Roman Empire. The democracy of the Roman Empire collapsing and becoming an empire and the perennial story of human beings organizing themselves and against chaos, and then the tools that help human societies tamp down on chaos becomes oppression.
The politics of Star Wars certainly can’t be undersold. As Nolfi says, the themes of democracy falling into authoritarianism aren’t exactly subtle. The prequel trilogy is often made fun of for the fact that it opens with a political dispute over trade routes (not exactly the most exciting story in the world), but eventually we learn that the trade dispute was a key piece of an evil plot to take over the entire galaxy.
Of course, it has to be said that these days any discussion of politics in films can become fraught with controversy. A lot of movie fans feel, rightly or wrongly, that media has become too political. However, George Nolfi says his goal is to include these elements in a way that won’t appear to be a lecture to the audience. He continued…
So that is really very core to what I think George Lucas was trying to talk about. And one of the wonderful things about science fiction and Star Wars – which is more almost science fantasy or space opera – is that you can raise the deepest issues without it feeling like a philosophy class, or a political science class, or something I read in the newspaper today.
It will certainly be interesting to see how politics are woven into this new set of films. In many ways, the First Order in the sequel trilogy just felt like the Empire over again. Will the new films simply create a new authoritarian force to attack the Republic? Or will these films find a different angle to take the story?
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