Par for the course,Star Warsfans were polarized to say the least by the new trilogy released by Disney. Where George Lucas’ prequel trilogy – similarly met with vicious backlash from the fan base – was a well-told story with compelling characters (anda couple of not-so-compelling characters) and a handful of technical flaws to overlook, the sequel movies were technically brilliant, but suffered from clunky storytelling and inconsistent characters.
A lot of the biggest problems with the sequel trilogy arose from the changes in creative direction. J.J. Abrams directedThe Force Awakenswith one vision forStar Wars’ future, then Rian Johnson directedThe Last Jediwith a totally different vision – a contradictory one, even – and thenThe Rise of Skywalkercame along and Abrams bowed down to the fan backlash faced by the previous movies with a conclusion that doesn’t feel true to anything that came before, let alone satisfying as a conclusion tothe entireStar Warssaga. If just Abrams or Johnson had directed all three sequel movies, mapping out the story and characters from the beginning and figuring out the details along the way (as George Lucas did with the other two trilogies), then fans would’ve at least gotten a trilogy with a singular vision and a more cohesive arc.
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When Kathleen Kennedy first hired J.J. Abrams to helmEpisode VII, she initially offered him the chance to helm all three movies in the trilogy. Since the task of helming just one post-Return of the JediStar Warssequel was daunting enough, he turned down the offer and just directed the first one. So, Kennedy decided to get a new filmmaker for each movie. After Abrams directedEpisode VII, Rian Johnson would directEpisode VIIIandColin Trevorrow would directEpisode IX. However, after a creative clash, Kennedy parted ways with Trevorrow and brought back the more agreeable Abrams. As a result, the trilogy jumped from Abrams’ vision to Johnson’s vision back to Abrams’ vision.
Not only does the sequel trilogy not have a single creative vision at the helm; its two visions clash with one another. Abrams was interested in recapturing the feel of the original trilogy and playing on fans’ nostalgia with an affection for the past. Johnson was interested indeconstructing theStar Warsmythand letting the past die. Both of these visions for the next chapter of theStar Warssaga could’ve been great, but neither of them can work effectively in a patchwork trilogy that switches between the two.
Despite turning down the opportunity to helm the entire sequel trilogy, during the making ofThe Force Awakens, Abrams wrote story treatments forEpisodes VIIIandIXthat would follow on from the “mystery box” setups he was planting inEpisode VII(that mostly got dropped by the trilogy’s unceremonious conclusion), so he clearly had ideas for where all these stories were heading.
Abrams didn’t necessarily have to directEpisodes VIIIandIX, but he could’ve taken the approach used by George Lucas when he made the original trilogy. After directing the firstStar Warsmovie, Lucas outsourcedThe Empire Strikes BackandReturn of the Jedito other directors, but washeavily involved in the writing, shooting, and editingof each movie as an executive producer. The most important thing is that one vision with a firm grasp on the themes of the story is guiding the way from start to finish – it doesn’t need to be from the director’s chair per se.
When Rian Johnson came aboardEpisode VIIIas a writer-director, he disregarded Abrams’ treatment and started from scratch, because Johnson had his own vision forStar Warsthat was completely separate from Abrams’, which is respectable from a filmmaking standpoint but confusing from a narrative standpoint. Seeing different directors’ takes on theStar Warsuniverse – like the thought-provoking work ofThe Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow and Rick Famuyiwa – is one of the upsides of Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and the ensuing onslaught ofStar Warscontent. But Johnson’s cynical deconstruction of the myths peddled byStar Warswould’ve been better-suited tohis seemingly mooted trilogyunconnected to the Skywalker saga. It was at odds with the reverence of theStar Warsmyth offered by Abrams’ own vision, and it carried an unusually dreary tone for one of the mainline “Episode” movies.
When Abrams was brought back forEpisode IXafter it lost its original director, he couldn’t use his old treatment forIXbecause Johnson had thrown out his treatment forVIIIand made a completely different version.The Last Jediblatantly dropped a lot of Abrams’ ideas fromThe Force Awakens, andThe Rise of Skywalkerwould, in turn, blatantly drop a bunch of Johnson’s ideas fromThe Last Jedi. Johnson dropped Finn’s Force sensitivity and the threat of the Knights of Ren. Abrams dropped “Broom Boy” and Finn and Rose’s burgeoning romance. Abrams introduced Snoke as a store-brand Emperor Palpatine, then Johnson cut him in half, then Abrams revealed him to be a creation of Palpatine’s,opening up all kinds of plot holes. Abrams set up Rey for special parentage, prompting dozens of fan theories, then Johnson revealed her parents to be “nobodies,” then Abrams retconned that and made her a Palpatine instead.
While some fans are still divided on the prequels, most of theStar Warsfandom can agree that both of Lucas’Star Warstrilogies followed a singular vision with meticulously crafted story arcs that led to immensely satisfying payoffs. The original trilogy is about Luke Skywalker’s journey to become a Jedi and Darth Vader’s redemption and the Rebels taking back the galaxy from the Empire – it always strived toward a goal and ultimately paid off all the story threads in unexpected and emotionally engaging ways in the thrilling final act ofReturn of the Jedi. The prequels tell Vader’s origin story, framing Anakin Skywalker as a tragic hero torn between two mentors: aspiring dictator Sheev Palpatine, who tells him everything he wants to hear in order to exploit his power, andhis master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who loves him like a brother and wants nothing but the best for him. Like all great prequels, it uses the inevitability of tragedy as a dramatic tool.
Lucas changed details along the way, but he always had a roadmap from the beginning with a general arc planned out for the characters and storylines that provided a strong foundation for trilogies that really feel like three-part stories and hold up as a complete three-volume work. The unplanned nature of the sequels extends beyond the fact that it changed hands between directors. Abrams changed Rey’s parentage back and forth even whenThe Rise of Skywalkerwas in production. Daisy Ridley played some scenesthinking Rey was a Kenobiand some scenes thinking she was a Palpatine, based on the ever-changing information Abrams gave her. When an actor still doesn’t know who their character is in their third movie playing them, something’s gone wrong.
Ultimately, the greatest tragedy of the sequel trilogy is that its fly-by-the-seat-of-one’s-pants storytelling squandered some of the finest actors in the world. The sequel trilogy assembled such incredible performers as John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong’o, only to waste their talents on one-note characters riddled with inconsistencies. TheStar Warsprequels aren’t perfect movies, but the character arcs are consistent, the payoffs inEpisode IIIcan betraced back to setups inEpisode I, and the story threads mostly satisfy in setting up the original trilogy where the sequel trilogy fails to explore the post-Return of the Jeditimeline in a satisfactory way, because Lucas was steering the ship the whole way. It’s like the old expression that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. The original and prequel trilogies are horses and the sequel trilogy is a camel.
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