Han Shandy

Sorry, I just don't see how Darth Maul could be alive

It's so tiresome. The original trilogy was not planned out, and even if you've chosen to believe it was, of what value is a plan when the plan changes every time you sit down to write the next instalment??

Also, "livid". Christ, grow up.

Toys-to-life ass movie

Whatever happened to "this guy's gone, he's history, he ain't coming back"?

I don't disagree with this, but often - particularly in the case of Star Wars - it was never "theirs".

Star Wars was the biggest thing on the planet before there was anything to gatekeep. If anything, they're the interlopers.

Never finished it, but it's worth $20 just to soak up the vibes of Canto Bight and Kijimi. The new planets are fun too.

Making a mystery of what had happened to the heroes of the original trilogy and uncovering it through the eyes of the new heroes was the masterstroke imo. JJ doing what he's great at, while introducing newcomers to a storied series without getting bogged down in exposition/continuity.

If you try the exercise where you try and forget everything you know about the original trilogy and watch Star Wars and Empire back-to-back, on their own terms, you appreciate they are SUCH different movies. Tonally, aesthetically - and the sequel takes considerable swerves from the original.

All I know is, if Lucas's vision for the sequels had a neo-fascist militia, full of radicalised youngsters, assault the seat of an ineffective neoliberal government on the orders of a decrepit old monster we thought we'd seen the back of, a certain section of the fandom would be "wow, so prescient".

Luke has the opportunity to ask someone who knew his father what he was like, and he doesn't take it... Because? Because he's a dead-eyed CGI apparition where an actor should be.

Completely, but not really a hot take, is it? Was received wisdom until recently

Cinema.

Be fair, he knew exactly how to deal with the ummm... water-monger... putting his prices up...?

Did this show really make it to production without anyone pointing out Favreau had not, in fact, written the story of Fett becoming the crime boss of Tatooine, but had instead written the story of him becoming the lawman of Tatooine? Obviously not, because it ended up being neither.

🙏

You'll shit a brick when you get round to watching The Empire Strikes Back

A star is born.

I think too many people underestimate the reach of toxic influencers and YouTube's corrosive algorithm

I remember him saying his introduction to Star Wars was the video game, The Force Unleashed.

That *has* to have influenced his understanding and expectation of what the role was gonna be

He wasn't "sidelined", he wasn't benched, he wasn't subbed off. His arc was as central and vital to the movie as Rey and Poe's

No to re-casting of "legacy characters". Instead, stop trying to tell stories with characters whose stories have already been told

We live in an age of "alternative facts" and denial of objective reality. It's entirely appropriate that the prequels are enjoying a renaissance

Filoni running on fumes...

Embarrassing, really.

Just the difference between those two images is stark

And demonstrated more aptitude for it too...

Terrific article, Jordan. Thanks for sharing again

And Vader was merely the black knight who killed Luke's father.
Retconning since the very first opportunity, in order to better tell the story...

Star Wars has always been made by the seat of its pants, and quite honestly, that's the first thing any fan should learn

Illustrative of the kind of terminal lore-brain that had infected discourse. No, you do not need to have played Fortnite to "understand" The Rise of Skywalker...