STAR WARS’ COMEBACK YEAR
The Force is strong again… but there’s work to be done.
Along time ago – Christmas, 2015 – Star Wars ruled the world. The Force Awakens brought the franchise back into contention with a star-killing bang, setting domestic box-office records in the UK and US that still stand. The honeymoon period extended through to the following Yuletide with Rogue One, but a year later cracks started to appear, as The Last Jedi left fans as divided as Supreme Leader Snoke. Then came Solo and The Rise Of Skywalker; the former was a bomb, while the latter was branded by Forbes “the first $1 billion disappointment”.
But just when Star Wars was looking dangerously out of puff, it passed the baton to The Mandalorian, who tore off in a fresh direction. Mando mania began at the tail-end of ’19 before going global in 2020 thanks to the staggered roll-out of Disney+. The streaming service also delivered the final, triumphant salvo in the long-running Clone Wars animation series (which immediately re-spawned in the form of spin-off The Bad Batch, coming in 2021).
Elsewhere, there was high excitement over multimedia plans to explore The High Republic, while the Marvel Star Wars brand relaunched and re-energised with several new canonical series set post-Episode V. Ironically, in a year where most blockbusters were left frozen in carbonite, their scheduled debuts pushed back further and further, one of the biggest IPs in Hollywood history has recovered its mojo. There was even redemption for the words ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’, courtesy of LEGO. The new Special may have been rooted in festive frivolity, but in its scenes acknowledging Finn’s Force sensitivity – a development tossed down a reactor shaft in Episode IX – it tapped into a bigger, more serious issue surrounding Star Wars.
In September, in an interview with GQ, John Boyega spoke out about the sequel trilogy’s failure to double down on diversity: “What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are, and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good.” Following that interview, Boyega spoke to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy who, he says, “verbally showed support… we got to have a really nice, transparent, honest conversation that is beneficial to both of us.” Here’s hoping that Star Wars’ newfound momentum pushes the long-ago galaxy towards a more inclusive future. ML