As the latest Star Wars spin-off, The Acolyte, arrives on Disney+, it’s worth considering if we have all been too harsh towards the entertainment giant’s stewardship of the franchise from a galaxy, far, far away. Yes, some of Disney’s contributions to the saga have been ricketier than the Millennium Falcon halfway through The Empire Strikes Back. But it wasn’t as if Star Wars creator George Lucas was without blemish. He gave us psychopathic teddy bears the Ewoks, the apocalyptically irritating Jar Jar Binks and, in Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen, the on-screen couple with the worst chemistry in cinema history. Star Wars had been misfiring on all cylinders long before the Mouse House caught the saga in its tractor beam.
It should be acknowledged that, at its best, Disney Star Wars has been the equal of anything that went before. Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka and Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi might have been resounding damp squibs, but The Mandalorian years one and two were a lark. Prequel movie Rogue One is meanwhile generally agreed to be the third best Star Wars film after the original and Empire. And Tony Gilroy’s Andor is one of the most outstanding TV shows of the past five years. It’s easy to hate on the Magic Kingdom (it’s also obviously great fun). Amid the schadenfreude, though, perhaps there is space to recognise the Disney Wars era hasn’t been an unmitigated flop.
