TV Could Define the Future of ‘Star Wars’ in the Wake of ‘Ahsoka’ - The Ringer

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With Disney struggling to bring another ‘Star Wars’ movie to life, TV may be the medium in which the franchise truly makes its mark

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Lucasfilm has several new Star Wars movies in the works. As announced at the Star Wars Celebration in April, three projects taking place at various points in the franchise’s sprawling timeline, including a so-called biblical epic from James Mangold about the origins of the Force, are poised to become the first films set in a galaxy far, far away since The Rise of Skywalker limped into theaters in 2019. Of course, it’s one thing for Star Wars to have new movies in active development; it’s another challenge entirely for the movies to reach the big screen. Whether it’s Rian Johnson’s stand-alone trilogy, a Kevin Feige–produced film, or Patty Jenkins’s take on Top Gun in space with Rebel fighters, recent history has proved that fans should take news like this with a Crait of salt. Frankly, I won’t believe any of these movies exist until the trailers drop.

But as much as Star Wars has struggled to follow up the disappointing end to the Skywalker Saga, the franchise also found a new hope (sorry) in the world of television. Ever since The Mandalorian became the first live-action Star Wars series in 2019, Lucasfilm has kept the streaming projects coming at a steady rate. In all, four live-action shows have already been released—to say nothing of new animated series like The Bad Batch and Tales of the Jedi—and four more are on the way. The latest of these shows, Ahsoka, arrives on Tuesday with plenty of fanfare. Originally introduced in the Clone Wars animated film as the young Jedi Padawan of Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano has since been portrayed by Rosario Dawson in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Now, by headlining her own show, Ahsoka is essentially merging Dave Filoni’s animated empire of the past with the franchise’s future, which will culminate in an Avengers-esque crossover film incorporating characters from several live-action series.

If that sounds like a lot to keep track of, well, it is. (Just trying to follow the franchise’s chronology with all the new announcements is liable to make someone go full Pepe Silvia.) Under Disney’s stewardship, Star Wars has begun to more closely resemble the Marvel Cinematic Universe, weaving together films and shows to ensure fans always have something new to look forward to. The MCU may be in the midst of its worst stretch to date, but even if it fails to reach the heights of Avengers: Endgame again, there’s no denying that Feige and Co. engineered an unprecedented commercial achievement. But Star Wars isn’t Marvel, and the kind of fatigue that audiences are feeling for superhero movies could threaten the enduring appeal of Disney’s other cash cow.

For decades, Star Wars had been known for its event films: The movies in George Lucas’s original trilogy came out every three years before a 16-year hiatus between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. While die-hard fans were sated with the Star Wars Expanded Universe of novels and comics—since de-canonized by Disney following its acquisition of Lucasfilm—it’s almost unheard of these days to have such a long layoff in a storied franchise. But there’s real value to the less-is-more approach: The closest modern analogue to Star Wars is probably James Cameron’s Avatar series, which comprises two of the three highest-grossing movies of all time. Regardless of where you stand on Avatar, Cameron’s franchise feels special in the same way that Star Wars does—a blockbuster occasion that demands to be experienced on the big screen.

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Star Wars no longer has that novelty, which can be traced back to Solo: A Star Wars Story. Released within six months of The Last Jedi, the Han Solo origin story performed well below expectations. Disney CEO Bob Iger has since conceded that the release schedule was “a little too much, too fast.” But Disney is already repeating that mistake with Star Wars on the small screen, ramping up the number of shows and diminishing the brand after an encouraging start. The Mandalorian’s first season scored rave reviews—and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series—but the longer the series goes on, the more aimless it becomes. An unnecessary cameo from a deepfake Luke Skywalker in the Season 2 finale was a harbinger for the show’s lackluster third season; meaningful developments related to Grogu (né Baby Yoda) occurred instead in The Book of Boba Fett, wherein Grogu quit his Jedi training and reunited with Mando.

Given that The Book of Boba Fett was caught between continuing the adventures of Mando and telling its own underdeveloped story about the original trilogy’s infamous bounty hunter, it should come as little surprise that the series was a bizarre misfire. But the real issue with both shows is their insistence on shoehorning in characters from the Skywalker Saga: Instead of letting the past die, present-day Star Wars is milking every drop of nostalgia from it. (In other words, classic Disney.) That directive explains the existence of the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries, which is set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. As someone who grew up with the prequel trilogy, I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a Pavlovian response to John Williams’s iconic score in the show’s teaser trailer and that I eagerly anticipated the series’ debut. But Obi-Wan Kenobi does little to deepen the audience’s understanding of its titular character; in fact, the series arguably undermines the emotional impact of Obi-Wan and Darth Vader’s showdown in A New Hope by letting them cross paths multiple times with minimal stakes.

Even in the absence of feature films since The Rise of Skywalker, these shows have led to an oversaturation of all things Star Wars, which puts Disney’s handling of the franchise into question. (The company’s problems extend to its theme park operations, where the immersive Star Wars–themed hotel, Galactic Starcruiser, is shutting down just 18 months after it opened.) It’s a predicament that Iger wants to avoid repeating by scaling back the number of Star Wars projects to emphasize quality over quantity. However, that won’t stop Lucasfilm from churning out the Star Wars shows already in the can: Ahsoka notwithstanding, the coming-of-age series Skeleton Crew and the High Republic Era prequel The Acolyte will be released over the next two years. Meanwhile, Donald Glover will be reprising his role as a young Lando Calrissian for a miniseries that the multihyphenate is writing alongside his brother. But unless these shows collectively put up a higher batting average than The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the latter seasons of The Mandalorian, Star Wars will be doing itself more harm than good in the years to come.

Thankfully, there is one notable outlier amid the franchise’s recent streaming woes. With Andor, a [deep breath] spinoff series centered on the eponymous Rebel spy from the spinoff film Rogue One that leads into the opening of A New Hope, Disney unexpectedly delivered what may be the greatest Star Wars project since the original trilogy. Grounded, mature, and refreshingly political, Andor is prestige TV by way of a galaxy far, far away. The show’s standout moments have nothing to do with franchise nostalgia: It excels in the powerful emotional payoffs of, say, inmates’ escape from an Imperial prison. (“I can’t swim” lives in my head rent-free.) Andor has provided the blueprint for a better type of Star Wars series—one that is mercifully liberated from needless callbacks and Easter eggs. With any luck, at least some of the new shows in the pipeline will follow suit: The Acolyte, which hails from Russian Doll cocreator Leslye Headland, holds particular promise, as it predates the prequel trilogy. (Less encouraging: Andor reportedly lacked the viewership of other Star Wars shows, though one has to wonder whether the lukewarm reception for The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi is partly to blame.)

With its franchise ties going back to the Clone Wars era, Ahsoka certainly doesn’t fit the Andor mold, but that doesn’t mean the series will be a letdown. Filoni has earned plenty of goodwill for what he’s accomplished within the world of animation: If someone can steer live-action Star Wars back in the right direction, he’s as good a bet as any. But on the whole, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Star Wars is losing more of its idiosyncratic charms, especially when Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy aspires to have the franchise “go on forever.” Considering the uneven quality of the Star Wars shows released in the last five years and the uncertainty about whether projects will actually make it to the big screen, I find that level of faith disturbing.

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TV Could Define the Future of ‘Star Wars’ in the Wake of ‘Ahsoka’ - The Ringer
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