James Mangold, the illustrious filmmaker, has been toiling away on a mysterious and yet-to-be-titled Star Wars opus for what feels like eons. This saga unfurls in a vast epoch far removed from even the earliest Star Wars tale, The Phantom Menace. In a recent discourse, Mangold expounded upon his rationale: a deliberate avoidance of the labyrinthine lore entwined with that film and the broader Skywalker Saga narrative of Star Wars.
“[The] Star Wars chronicle I envision transpires some 25,000 years prior to any known Star Wars fable,” Mangold disclosed to MovieWeb. “It’s a realm and realm of recreation that has always beckoned me, an inspiration that ignited during my formative years. I find myself less enamored with the constraints imposed by such extensive lore at this juncture, verging on being unalterable, disillusioning all.”
Mangold further elaborated that establishing such a substantial temporal chasm between his magnum opus (unofficially dubbed “Dawn of the Jedi”) and the established canon of the Skywalker Saga is the lone avenue to ensure his creative liberty in birthing something truly novel. And he isn’t far off the mark: modern Star Wars does, indeed, grapple with an overabundance of lore, and unless more visionaries at Lucasfilm emulate Mangold’s lead, the future of the franchise hangs in the balance.
Telling Stories Around the Skywalker Saga CAN Work
One can’t deny the palpable narrative magnetism present when tales orbit the peripheries of the Skywalker Saga. Witness the acclaimed 2016 offshoot, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, slotted deftly amid the crevices of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Similarly, the masterful small screen venture, Andor, unfolds within this temporal tapestry.
Let’s not overlook The Mandalorian, arguably Lucasfilm’s apex Star Wars endeavor since the Disney era – a series that nestles snugly between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. The animated gems in recent years, from The Clone Wars’ final season to Rebels and The Bad Batch, deftly thread through the intervals of the Skywalker Saga with finesse.
Why do these creations flourish? The architects behind these tales meticulously chose their temporal vantages within the overarching chronicles. The Clone Wars and the moments preceding the deployment of the inaugural Death Star represent pivotal junctures laden with electrifying events in Star Wars history. Crucially, when these series unfurled, these epochs were sufficiently nebulous to permit a degree of narrative maneuvering within the established lore.
A similar narrative territory was excavated immediately subsequent to the termination of the original Star Wars trilogy era. The Mandalorian positioned itself in this uncharted terrain, with scant competitors in the post-Disney recalibration of the timeline. Equally, the preexisting lore synergized seamlessly with the underlying thematic depths explored in Andor, anchoring its narrative in the Rebellion’s burgeoning ascendancy.
Star Wars Lore Is Too Middle-Heavy
Yet, we now find ourselves ensnared in the throes of Skywalker Saga saturation. The scarce unused narrative nooks between the nine sagas remain scarcely extant, bereft of any vestiges of narrative gold. The abundant troves have been pillaged, rendering the prospect of recounting tales with familiar personas or within familiar confines a gargantuan challenge. As Mangold astutely observes, any narrative undertakings within the Star Wars oeuvre risk upending established storylines or resorting to trite, low-stakes storytelling — a conundrum with no clear victor.
While Solo: A Star Wars Story may exude a charm often underestimated, its essence remains distressingly unessential. The same sentiment appears to encapsulate Skeleton Crew. The Book of Boba Fett flounders in its attempt to remodel the ruthless bounty hunter into an amiable protagonist. On a parallel note, Obi-Wan Kenobi careens recklessly over the meticulously constructed hiatus between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader, heedlessly tampering with the crucible of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa’s childhoods.
Granted, the Star Wars mythos has always been tinctured with imperfections; franchise creator George Lucas frequently revised key details. However, the contemporary narrative continuity clash bears the hallmark of excessiveness, for the Star Wars galaxy no longer expands a la Lucas – it piles up. The chronicle has grown disproportionately middle-heavy, glaringly concentrated around the nexus of the Skywalker Saga. Individually potent as these sagas may be, they struggle to sustain further resonant narratives bearing substantive revelations.
Even The Acolyte – a series tentatively positioned around the epoch preceding The Phantom Menace by approximately 100 years – grappled with its proximity to the Skywalker Saga. Prior to The Acolyte’s premiere, a deluge of social media threads teemed with fervid debates on the synergism of a Sith-centric narrative within this era vis-a-vis established continuity. Albeit navigating this potential quandary with finesse in its eventual kickoff, the mere existence of such discord underscores the prevailing milieu. Likewise, the spatial leap to alternate galaxies did little to invigorate Ahsoka. The novelty of new realms notwithstanding, the inaugural season relentlessly orbits the comeback of Thrawn, a villain vividly etched in Rebels’ annals. It foregoes novelty in favor of posturing a conflict destined to unfold in a trajectory already etched in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Lucasfilm Needs to Figure Out Star Wars’ Purpose Beyond the Skywalker Family
The crux of the issue boils down to this: Star Wars stands at a precipice where the immediate past, present, and future have neared an impasse, with a dearth of tales overcome by rigorous validation. Why should the resurgence of Thrawn reverberate with the audience? We know his eventual downfall, situated as he isn’t within the villainous pantheon of the sequel trilogy (to an extent he isn’t even whispered of in those narratives). Should Thrawn engineer an unforeseen triumph, the fabric of lore would stand unthreaded.
In light of the circumstances, why tether narrative arcs to Thrawn? Why not catapult a century – or a millennium! – into the future of Star Wars and delineate a fresh saga embroiled in perpetual discord between virtue and vice? The answer is crystal clear: while there persists inextinguishable zeal for narratives, tethered to the luminary Skywalker Saga, filmmakers yearn to wield the classical accoutrements from those sagas – be it X-Wings and Stormtroopers, or the indomitable persona of Luke Skywalker – an audience drawn to spectacles ensues. Nevertheless, for Star Wars to chart a robust, enduring trajectory, this predilection demands a cease.
There exists a dearth of untold lore within this temporal conduit of the saga. Even if sagas brimming with potential linger, the historiography is bereft of vacuities warranting their exploration. The only recourse lies in striding into uncharted territories. For all its stumbles, the High Republic initiative by Lucasfilm (inclusive of The Acolyte) embarked on this odyssey, albeit within a restricted compass – constrained within a contour preluding the Phantom Menace by 500 years, a limitation deemed archaic. Mangold’s assertion rings true: to essay a saga of significance, one must transcend bygone eons or plunge into distant futures on the Star Wars timeline, a mandate to heed.
Discarding notions of enshrining Rey Skywalker in forthcoming celluloid enterprises, shackled to the constraints of contemporary status quos (as Lucasfilm seems poised to undertake), a paradisiacal realm awaits: a wholly novel Star Wars diaspora, steeped in the essence of antecedent tales yet unchained from its yoke. Although the trajectory seems intimidating, eschewing the trappings of established lore offers liberation from celestial shackles.
James Mangold’s untitled Star Wars endeavor remains an enigma with an elusive debut date.
