Was my memory wiped or was the Star Wars sequel trilogy just that forgettable? | Star Wars

There would possibly simply be a wierd irony to this week’s information that Oscar Isaac, AKA the tousled X-wing pilot Poe Dameron, is up for a return to Star Wars if the script is true. As a result of earlier than the actor’s feedback in a brand new interview with Selection, it was fairly attainable to overlook that the sequel trilogy ever existed. Was The Pressure Awakens actually a movie, or simply two hours of Disney rummaging by way of George Lucas’s recycling bin? Did The Final Jedi cut up the fanbase so violently that Brexit seemed like a parking dispute? And will The Rise of Skywalker actually have stunk that badly?The issue with the post-Lucas movies is that they by no means fairly determined what they wished to be. The Pressure Awakens tried nostalgia cosplay. The Final Jedi tried to set hearth to nostalgia cosplay. The Rise of Skywalker then tried to urgently sew nostalgia again collectively once more. The consequence was messy, divisive, and – crucially for Disney – virtually unattainable to spin off.Isaac is perhaps up for returning as Dameron, however the fact is that no person can bear in mind why that may have ever appeared like a good suggestion. He had a pleasant leather-based jacket, proper? When all’s stated and executed, and 6 years after JJ Abrams’s closing instalment vanished down the reminiscence gap with all of the grace of Jar Jar Binks making an attempt parkour, this most dysfunctional and directionless of trilogies actually does appear to have fewer memorable characters primed for Disney+ spin-offs or standalone films than the Mos Eisley cantina band’s roadie crew.The final hope? Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Rise of Skywalker. {Photograph}: Lucasfilm Ltd./APLucas, for all his faults, gave us the unique trilogy – and iconic titans of area opera similar to Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Leia Organa and Han Solo (to not point out Yoda, Chewie and even Boba Fett). Then he did it another time, with a lot much less success however nonetheless a couple of shiny new Jedi buying and selling playing cards alongside the best way: loads of Star Wars followers actually hated the prequels, however these three movies and the spin-off Clone Wars sequence nonetheless gave us Ahsoka Tano, Darth Maul and Ewan McGregor’s younger Obi-Wan Kenobi. What precisely have the sequels left us? To date it seems to be a jittery ball droid, a half-melted clone of Palpatine and a man who shouted “TR-8R!” as soon as earlier than Han Solo zapped him.Sadly, Lucasfilm doesn’t appear to have fairly grasped the issue. Within the years since The Rise of Skywalker vanished from the cultural lore, the Disney-owned studio has properly pivoted to a totally completely different galactic period, many years earlier than Luke. It has discovered a candy spot on TV with the likes of Andor and The Mandalorian, a lot in order that the latter is getting a giant display screen switch with the forthcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu.However formally, not less than, we’re additionally nonetheless getting director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s “new Jedi order” movie, by which Daisy Ridley’s Rey will try to rebuild the cuddly area monk cult from the ashes of 9 more and more bewildering movies. The web has tried actually laborious to announce that the mission is cancelled however thus far seems to be failing. Nonetheless, there’s something slightly suspicious in regards to the truth we don’t have a launch date but (it was faraway from Disney’s official slate late final yr) or perhaps a film title. And given the pitiful survival price of earlier Kathleen Kennedy tasks – that elusive Taika Waititi movie; Josh Trank’s mysteriously vanished spin-off about Boba Fett; a complete Rian Johnson trilogy, for Yoda’s sake – it could hardly be a shock if the entire thing ultimately slipped quietly into the Sarlacc’s gaping maw.Within the meantime, the longer this one sits in improvement limbo, the extra the likes of Dameron, Normal Hux and the drive ghost of Kylo Ren danger drifting into that very particular sort of Star Wars purgatory normally reserved for expanded universe novels about tax disputes within the Coruscant Senate. In a galaxy the place even Boba Fett’s jetpack as soon as received a spin-off, the $4bn trilogy meant to avoid wasting Star Wars could find yourself remembered as little greater than a dusty Wookieepedia footnote – the cinematic equal of Greedo capturing first, and no person actually caring both method.