How do you reinvent Star Wars? How do you flip the script and subvert expectations for a long-running, much-loved cosmic saga? The truth is, nobody really knows, because other than George Lucas, no one has really tried.
The prequels, for all their beige politics and clunky dialogue, were at least the Star Wars creator’s brave if misguided attempt to rewire the mainframe: a widescreen tragedy about the corruption of democracy, wrapped in a toybox of podracers and CGI frogmen with comedy accents. Elsewhere, experiments have been patchy. The excellent Rogue One took a gritty war-movie detour, only to end with a Vader cameo. The Last Jedi flirted with real subversion, then got bludgeoned into retreat by a panicked studio. And Disney+ has provided everything from samurai-inspired anime shorts (Visions) to Ewan McGregor brooding in a desert hut (Obi-Wan Kenobi). Bold strokes, yes – but ones that have usually been followed by a hasty retreat back to the warm embrace of lightsabers and Skywalker surnames.
