I can still clearly recall how excited I was before Star Wars: The Force Awakens Premiere, but just under a decade later, I’m not sure if Star Wars Will never feel like that again. The reception of the Star Wars Sequel trilogy is pretty well known at this point. Unfortunately, many in the fans still consider the sequels to be some of Star Wars Worst movies, and some of the actors from those movies, Daisy Ridley in particular, continue to be skewered in certain corners of the Internet.
Unfortunately, this negativity has bled into many of Star Wars Movies and TV shows since, which is clear with updates such as The acolyte cancellation. In recent years, dissatisfaction has turned into outright vitriol from some viewers, which is something the franchise doesn’t seem to be getting past anytime soon. The latest story makes me wonder: Will Star Wars Ever feel as hopeless as it was just before the sequel trilogy?
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The Force Awakens felt like a brand new start for Star Wars
Before the release of The Force Awakens, The sequel trilogy truly felt like a brand new era of Star Wars. The prequel trilogy is undoubtedly thrilling, because there was a considerable gap between the original Star Wars Trilogy and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. However, the prequels are limited in some ways because they have to lead into the original trilogy. Yes, there was a lot of room for innovation (which I believe the prequels executed brilliantly), but in a sense, the end has already been revealed.
The sequel trilogy, in contrast, seemed to have endless possibilities. In fact, after Disney bought Star WarsMany of the stories that were written about the time after Return of the Jedi They were removed from the canon and instead became part of legends. For better or worse – and many believed it was worse, unfortunately – this meant that the sequels had effectively unlimited story potential. Because of that, go in The Force Awakens On opening night I really felt as if something could happen.
The movie didn’t quite live up to the hype – and that hurt the franchise
The Force Awakens was not the beginning of a new era that many had hoped to see. The biggest complaints about the movie included a lack of originality and the poor treatment of the original trilogy’s heroes. Especially, many felt that The Force Awakens To closely mirror the arc of A new hopeWith a young Force-sensitive character from a desert planet with no idea of ​​their untapped power feeling a little too close to Luke Skywalker and the strategies and ranks of the First Order too much like the Empire. (Starkiller Base being basically a big Death Star didn’t help.)
The Force Awakens was not the beginning of a new era that many had hoped to see.
Moreover, while Star Wars is known for its ‘rhymes’ between stories, characters and concepts in the franchise, Even George Lucas agreed that the similarities were a little too derivative A new hope. In terms of the original trilogy heroes, Luke’s almost complete absence from the movie and Han Solo’s death at the hands of his son, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, both proved to be extremely unpopular. Unfortunately, the next two installments of the sequel trilogy didn’t exactly improve matters.
The sequel trilogy changed hands for Star Wars: The Last JediWent from JJ Abrams to Rian Johnson. Because of this, the themes of the trilogy shifted significantly. While The Force Awakens Felt quite similar to A new hope, The Last Jedi Introduced a number of brand new characters, concepts and plotlines, many of which proved unpopular.
in truth, I enjoyed several updates that were largely considered controversialSuch as the Force alliance between Kylo Ren and Rey (not explicitly named the Force Dyad until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). However, even I have to admit that some choices in the movie made very little sense. Two of the biggest were suddenly killing Supreme Leader Snoke when he seemed to be the ‘big bad’ and devoting too much time to Finn and Rose Tico’s side quest.
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The Last Jedi Also doubled down on certain uncomfortable plot pointsSuch as Luke’s isolation from the galaxy. While many hoped Luke was standing next to his legendary wife Mara Jade’s tombstone at the end of The Force AwakensPerhaps saying that his grief over her death led to his exile. The Last Jedi revealed that it was instead Ben Solo’s fall to the dark side that caused Luke’s complete lack of faith in the galaxy and the Jedi. Luke’s death at the end of the movie seemed to only anger audiences further.
The Rise of Skywalker Felt like a jarringly disorganized conclusion with little connection to The Last Jedi.
Many of these concerns end up being the least of the sequel trilogy’s problems, though, as The Rise of Skywalker Felt like a jarringly disorganized conclusion with little connection to The Last Jedi. This is perhaps due in part to the trilogy changing hands once again, back to the direction of JJ Abrams. true but The issues were much broader than just a change in direction.
rather, The Rise of Skywalker Taking a number of sharp left turns, most notoriously conveyed in the line “Somehow Palpatine came back.” Which was meant to explain Emperor Palpatine’s bewildering resurrection and late-stage emergence as the true villain of the sequels. Until The Rise of SkywalkerI had kept some semblance of excitement and hope, even if The Last Jedi Made decisions I wasn’t thrilled about. with The Rise of Skywalker In the end, though – which also saw the deaths of Leia Organa and Ben Solo – that hope has absolutely fizzled.
It will be hard for new Star Wars to feel this exciting again
I certainly wasn’t alone in my growing disappointment when the sequel trilogy movies were released, and, sadly, Fan expectations have remained fairly low ever since The Rise of Skywalker. In fact, there are a number of upcoming ones Star Wars TV shows and new Star Wars movies in the works, but the general sentiment about each project seems to be hope tempered with a bit of skepticism. This is not to say that Star Wars Has not had successes in recent years.
On the contrary, I have enjoyed many of these Star Wars TV shows that have been released since the sequel trilogy ended, including those that have proven controversial, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi And The acolyte. But, in a way, the damage has already been done. Expectations were so high before the sequels and then dropped so low The Rise of Skywalker That the fanbase in general does not seem to reach the same level of enthusiasm as before The Force Awakens.
This is partly about timing. There was a 10-year gap in Star Wars movies between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith And The Force Awakens. In comparison, it has been just under 5 years since The Rise of SkywalkerAnd The Mandalorian & Grogu has already been confirmed for 2026. Going forward, it seems very unlikely that a 10-year gap will occur in the franchise again, meaning that the same level of anticipation will not build. Given that, I remain sadly unsure whether Star Wars Will ever reach the same level of excitement as before Star Wars: The Force Awakens.