I’ll be excited about Star Wars for the next few years. This year, we’ll have Rogue One, and after that we’ll get Episode 8, continuing the stories of Finn and Rey, then after that we’ll get young Han Solo, and after that we’ll return to Finn and Rey for Episode 9, and after that, well, I’m not sure. And that terrifies me.
We were all so preoccupied worrying about whether or not Episode 7 would be any good, then preoccupied losing our minds over how amazing it was, that none of us stopped to worry about what Disney has planned in the long term.
Disney is a corporation, and no doubt are big fans of huge sums of money, and I don’t blame them. Episode 7 made $2 billion, Episode 8 will make another $2 billion or near enough, and Episode 9 after that, so why would they stop there?
They’ve got a sure thing with Star Wars. It’s massively popular and millions of people will flock to any Film bearing that title, and it’s timeless, so why would they ever stop? After Episode 9, there could easily be an Episode 10, and since Star Wars films come in packs of three, it’ll be followed by 11 and 12, and 13, 14 and 15 after that. There’s no conceivable way it will ever end, and diabolical Disney knew this even before they signed the papers to buy Lucasfilm, while we were all busy concerned with the short term and Episode 7.
I liked the ending provided by Return of the Jedi. The Rebels defeated the Empire. Han and Leia got together. Luke and Vader made peace. Everything was wrapped up in a nice, neat bow. And then thirty years later, they continued the story, so they’ll have to create a new ending and a new neat bow at some point – or will they?
Think about it. Star Wars is immortal. Star Wars will outlive everyone on the planet right now. We’ll all die, but there will still be filmmakers and there will still be Star Wars fans in the world, so Star Wars will live on.
The question is, what are they doing in these films? The story started in Force Awakens will end with Episode 9, and Episode 10 faces the burden of starting a new story.
Thing is, traditionally Star Wars trilogies are standalone three-part stories with huge time leaps between them. There was thirty years between making Episodes 6 and 7, so all the actors had aged thirty years and could play older versions of their characters introducing the younger characters into their world, thus beginning a new story while remaining a continuation of the earlier films.
Disney won’t wait thirty years to make Episode 10. They’ll wait two, which is how long it’ll take to make it. So, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac will look exactly the same. Are they going to complete their own quest and then immediately turn around and get some other kids six years younger than them started on their quest?
And then a few years later, those new kids will help ever newer kids begin their quest?
Do you see what I’m saying? As long as today’s cast are still around, will they be in the films? Will Finn be in Episode 32? Or are they going to create time jumps with aging makeup and CGI? That’d be so weird.
And when will it end? That’s the bigger question. Even if they can keep making them, when will they stop? I guess never, and I think that was the plan all along. They forfeited the “Episode VII” moniker and just went with Star Wars: The Force Awakens – which really grated with me because that’s what Star Trek titles do, not Star Wars titles – and I think they gave up on the numeral system because it’d look silly in a thousand years when they’re still churning out these movies and they have ridiculous titles like Star Wars Episode MCMLXXVII: Fall of Ren.
I don’t want to die and not know how Star Wars ends. I will, but I find some solace in knowing that Disney will never die and they’ll never stop turning out Star Wars films, so there’ll never be a definitive ending I’m missing out on.
There’s bigger things to worry about in the world – the Middle East, for one – but come on, this is quite concerning, no?
