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Pockets of theStar Warsfandom are expecting a desperate Lucasfilm to retcon the most controversial part ofStar warfare : The Last Jediout of existence withStar Wars 9 , but it ’s pretty safe to say that wo n’t find . After all , you only require aspect at how Disney manage the much more roundly reviledStar Warsprequels in their raw canyon .
Star Wars : The Last Jedireleased almost eight months ago , but we ’re still very much in the first waving of debate over Rian Johnson ’s good continuation of the Skywalker Saga . Like theResistanceand First Order at the bosom of the new trilogy , conflict is lock in a stalemate of unclear balance ; complaints and defenses over all aspects of the film - from the recharacterization of Luke Skywalker to the balance of anticlimax - have become more crystallized in that time , yet reevaluation from either side is a long way off . What is unavoidable from wherever you sit , though , is that the mood around the continuation ofStar Warshas sure enough changed .
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Of naturally , it ’s like verse , it rime . Like the Resistance and First Order are echoes of previous Galactic forcefulness , so too is this debate ; it may take place in a new age of the internet over a short period of sentence , butStar Warshas been here before , with audience equally irate and separate by theprequel trilogy . And that ’s also true of the expectation that Lucasfilm will , in some narrative form , assay to overwriteStar war : The Last Jedi .
No, Star Wars Isn’t Retconning The Last Jedi
Although a smattering of utmost fans have float doing a completeremake ofStar Wars 8that overthrow Johnson ’s translation , in most case the suggestion to " retcon"Star Wars : The Last Jedicomes in the more classical sentience : to retroactive change the report . Many are looking for hint or theorizing plot turns that essentially sidestep the defining aspects of Lucasfilm ’s free movie . The problem with all of these case is that the evidence is non - real .
Basically , any development in J.J. AbramsStar Wars 9is pair with the suggestion that it ’s been done to address complaints from or change the narrative ofThe Last Jedi . Most recently , the return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian , Mark Hamill as the ( now dead ) Luke Skywalker and repurposing ofStar Wars : The Force Awakensfootage to bring back the late Carrie Fisher as Leia has been cited as an attempt to pacify the fan , but each is separate fromThe Last Jedi : Abrams pitched his story forStar war 9to Disney the day the previous film released , with no time for any repercussion influence ( on a come to note , Johnson ’s hand was write beforeStar war : The Force Awakens , mean he was likewise not answer to mystery box expectations ) . Luke ’s paying back is scarcely unestablished by Johnson , while the reuse of Fisher ’s footage was for sure on the cards for a prospicient meter .
There ’s also the inexplicably lingering question ofRey ’s parent , which Johnson answered middling decisively inThe Last Jedi : they were no one . This was manifestly unsatisfying to some due to the onslaught of hypothesis regarding the magpie - turn - Jedi ’s line that originated from beforeStar Wars : The Force Awakens ' going . This , despite the fact Abrams drop no cleared clue and put forward pretty resolutely by " The belonging you seek is not behind you . It is ahead . " That ’s right : Abrams ' movie most overt addressing of Rey ’s blood is the same determination as Johnson ’s , with the only matter paint a picture he had anything more planned being a vague statement fromSimon Pegg . The current situation expecting Keri Russell or a canyon - out of the question Qi’ra to be a shock - reveal female parent is n’t dissimilar to the public debate of whether Vader lied to Luke in 1980 .
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But while these are examples for a far - off movie , you could already see the suggestion of a retcon in the reaction to current materials . TheStar Wars : The Last Jedicomic adaptationis a pretty straight singing of the motion picture ’s events , with added internal monologues for some of the more pensive scenes ; this let in extended dialogue on Luke ’s transportation and Leia ’s Force escape . These sheath are all extensions of the screenplay , yet some fans and vent have exact they ’re evidence of Lucasfilm changing the news report ( something writer Gary Whitta has roundly berate ) .
patently , there ’s nothing to support the suggestion of any degree ofStar war : The Last Jediretcon . And why would there call for to be ? After all , we ’ve already seen how Disney - epoch Star Wars plow controversial topic …
Page 2:What Disney’s Handling Of The Prequels Reveals
How Disney Handled The Prequels
While George Lucas was evidently profoundly affected by the backlash to hisStar Warsprequel trilogy - to the point it was a primal motivator in him selling Lucasfilm to Disney in the first place - he never went back on his belief on them . Many of the originalStar Warsgeneration did n’t respond positively , but he achieved his finish in telling a tale of the dogmatical Jedi blind and undone by a corrupt force within the galactic political system , and did n’t mistreat back from it ; his effort before the Disney sale were onThe Clone Wars , position betweenAttack of the ClonesandRevenge of the Sith , and other media that explicitly connect the two trilogies .
When Disney direct control , it was expected by many who ’d played a part in that backlash the fellowship would explicitly distance themselves from the prequels ; if not strike them fromStar Warscanon then having the original trilogy serve as the unofficial " Year Zero " of the franchise going forward . However , whileStar war : The Force Awakenscertainly leaned into OT ephemeron - from the focus pragmatic effects in the promotion to theplot recap ofA New Hope- it was directly light with note of clone regular army that things were n’t block .
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In the three - or - so years since , we ’ve find out a lot of prospect reappear . Star Wars Rebelsbecame a unmediated protraction ofThe dead ringer Wars;Star Wars Battlefront IIincluded all three eras with similar prominence;Solo : A Star Wars Storyhad a cameo fromMaul , a character comfortably known forThe Phantom Menace , and a central part of Luke ’s fall inStar warfare : The Last Jediwas disenfranchisement with the Jedi as stage inEpisodes I - III . On the rooter side , the cries for anObi - Wan Kenobimovie are literally an annex of Ewan McGregor ’s work in those movies .
The prequels never really choke away . Even if you want to make that argument they were still , the films were only ever just out of frame , waiting for the new epoch to pull ahead over all creed of rooter - specifically those equally vocal and gruelling - to - please - before having it as just another cardinal facial expression in the series . Disney Lucasfilm never retconned or take away the prequels , preserve them as narratively strait as they were in the early-2000s . And why would they do anything else ?
Fans Accepted The Prequels More Than They Even Realized
Star Warsis well when it retain onward . So much of the confused reaction to every movie since the 1977 original ( commemorate , there was a time whenThe Empire Strikes Backwas viewed as the weak of the original trilogy ) come from a culturally - muddied view of whatStar Warsis , something that changes with clip . Indeed , the movies may not be the most dear , but themythological impingement of the Star Wars prequelsis remarkable . Midichlorians aside ( which really were n’t that dissimilar to " durability " in the Force ) , so many ideas raised in this movies are integrated without many even realizing : formal Jedi complex body part ( including Padawan and the Order ’s celibacy ) , Palpatine / Sidious ' name , Sith propensity for red lightsabers , the rule of two ( for both sides ) , the clones as Republic soldiers ( and genetically - engineered stormtroopers at that ) , and the notion of " proportion in the Force " all came fromEpisodes I - III .
These things are accepted by fans and by Lucasfilm , to the decimal point Mark Hamill summarise the events inStar Wars : The Last Jediwithout break . The nature of the saga ’s connected storytelling way once something is in circulation it can add up back in various ways .
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We ’re already seeing this with the sequels . Many aspects - like Han and Leia ’s son falling to the dark side or a renascent conglomerate - were already previously - established in the enlarge Universe , but key elements introduced by the movies themselves - not least the nucleus characters - are already a new average for the sequels . More controversial element -Luke ’s deathand Rey ’s parent chief among them - will postdate suit . Once again , we ’ve been here before and sleep with the knee joint - jerking reaction die away over time .
Ultimately, The Last Jedi Took The Franchise In The Right Direction
All this said , everything in the treatment so far neglect a bountiful fact . It ’s easy to say that if the prequels were respected , then why would Disney want to alterStar Wars : The Last Jedi , but by even comparing the two we ’re doing the latter a ill service . WhileEpisodes I - IIIhave their sports fan , few would hold them up alongside the original trilogy ( for good understanding - as interesting as the story Lucas try out to tell is , his execution was off ) . In contrast , The Last Jediis brusquely praised , with strong military rank in all common metric unit and honest post - theater sales . It is compare to the originals directly , and does n’t depreciate from that . To suggest a retcon ofEpisode VIIis to suggest a prioritizing of those who dislike the movie over those who do .
The interrogation of that negative audience ’s importance is also up for debate - they may be light consumers - but the controversy aroundStar Wars : The Last Jedialso hides that , again irrespective of execution , its big steps move the franchise in the direction postulate it to . Star Warsas a series of episodes succeed the Skywalker kin has an expiry particular date - moving preceding Darth Vader already risks swapping space opera for easy lay - and so the photographic film ’s wider scope and deconstructive lens system serve to expand wasStar Warscan be . Thefinal scene alone , with the caption of Luke Skywalker looming large over a new , entirely disconnect generation is representative of how the various new movie serial publication , television receiver shows , games and more are envisioned to pace into a grander mythological world .
Clearly , there ’s something that ’s struck wrong with a share of the audience in doing this , but winning them back need n’t require something so direct -Solo : A Star Wars Storyhighlights branding and story justification problems that go deeper than any one movie - but this bigger picture is unavoidable .
Page 3:Why Star Wars Won’t Retcon Any Of Its Movies
Retcon Movies Are Coming To The Mainstream
The retcon discussion is going to get much more pronounced in the coming years , not just forStar Warsbut every franchise . Whereas over the past decade we ’ve seen the rise of legacy - quels - former - in - the - mean solar day sequels that keep an original story , such asTron : Legacy , Creed , Blade Runner 2049 , and , yes , Star Wars : The Force Awakens- that group is shift to involve direct retcons : removing later on , typically unpopular movies from a new " canon " .
We watch this sneakily withJurassic World(which parry the first two sequels ) andMad Max : Fury Road(which had the loose continuity potential ) , but it ’s going to become concrete in the next match of age withHalloween(a series now on its fourth persistence , this time ignoring all but the first movie),Terminator 6(skipping every non - Cameron movie ) andRobocop(where Neill Blomkamp , who started this line of recollect with hisAlienssequel , hold up back to just the first movie ) .
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In all case , the justification has been tale , which is somewhat fair ; each pic had sequel that overly complicated the story ( incest cults , atomic annihilation and jetpacks respectively ) and make doing anything else new tricky . However , what ’s unavoidable is how fan - pleasing each endeavor is , removing the conventionally disliked movies to do a novel continuation of the original classic . This style of storytelling is n’t young - when Blomkamp first suggested hisAlien 3with Ripley and Hicks , he was touching on a well - break field of lover - fiction - and is only natural when you have fans create raw stories ( or original Almighty come back ) but it ’s unavoidable that it comes from a desire to above - all appease the fanbase .
Why Star Wars Isn’t A Franchise For (Movie) Retconning
But ifHalloween " 2",Terminator " 3 " , orRobocop " 2"make it seem like mainstream consultation are open up to retcons just as the Marvel Cinematic Universe normalized intense tending to laughable book persistence , it may be worth accept a step back . Today , those late continuation are lesser - seen , so going back to the original picture show alone also creates an easygoing entry point in an era when have intercourse what come up before is crucial that bit easy .
Already , you’re able to see that this method would n’t apply forStar Wars , where the record - breaking movies are more widely - seen by world-wide audience than they are dislike by the intense fandom ( who do n’t really impact the boxwood office anyway , although the ratio is even lesser forStar Warswhen factor out in the ascendency " effortless " fan ) . The " remaking the prequels " suggestion that is now and then bandied around offers little , so too does meddle with the events ofThe Last Jedi . Star Warsis a different sort of serial . It ’s got greater purpose in its stay existence , and while that may be sand away more or less by a deficiency of a exonerated plan , it does n’t change the galactic range of the future .
Now , for completion , that ’s not to sayStar Warshistory is free of retcons . The expand Universe was a 10000 of contradictions and story changes cause by the sheer riches of overlapping textile , but that ’s part of the reason one of Disney - owned Lucasfilm ’s first moves was to render itnon - canon Legends ; one massive persistence change to fetch ongoing consistency .
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Of naturally , what most will luff to is George Lucas ' ever - changing versions of the original trilogy , with the 1997 Special Editions , 2004 DVD release and 2011 Blu - ray acquittance . However , invasive as they can be , these alter finger more than tale : the CGI , the add up scene , and other soupcon - ups rarely see narrativechanged . Indeed , that most of the disceptation hinge on whether Greedo get off a pellet before Han in the Mos Eisley Cantina shows the interpretative nature of most of the character shifts . Even Hayden Christensen inReturn of the Jedi , as exacerbating as it may be to many , is hardly castrate the mythology . After all , Lucas defended all changes by saying they were as the movie initially intended , achieving what was n’t potential in the 1970s and eighties . The trueness of that is debatable , but even in these changes , there ’s the treating of anterior movies assacrosanct .
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This integral treatment comes from a mother wit of vivid ownership of the property to the point it actually override the content . One of theStar Wars : The Last Jedi ’s most quote line is " let the yesteryear give out , kill it if you have to " , often taken as a summation of Rian Johnson ’s subversive intent . However , it ’s really only half the story : that ’s the ethos of a villain who is ultimately incompetent of following it ( he lets the Resistance escape to play with his uncle ) , while our submarine sandwich learns to bear the future tense while building on the past tense . Whichever side of the debate you find yourself on , it ’s clean-cut what the best way fore is .
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