Obi-Wan pretty much described the Star Wars fandom when he referred to “a disturbance in the Force.” The latest rumors came, of course, from social media; they started with an attempt to “honor” the Thrawn trilogy’s release by appealing for Disney to erase the sequels from canon and make big-screen adaptations of Timothy Zahn’s novels instead. It didn’t take long for Star Wars YouTubers to spot the opportunity, with Geeks and Gamers claiming “sources” told them Ahsoka Season 2 (or future follow-ons) would fire a Death Star superlaser straight at the sequels.
Star Wars YouTube is rarely a pleasant place. There are some excellent, positive yet critical channels out there; think Star Wars Explained or SW Centralized. Others, however, have realized modern social media algorithms react more to anger and rage. At times this has been overdone to almost comical levels; during The Acolyte, there was an absurd “scandal” about the age of Jedi Master Ki-Adi Mundi. The show contradicted a 1999 DVD-ROM that George Lucas himself ignored when he changed Mace Windu’s lightsaber color. This latest claim, apparently attributed to an anonymous source, is more of the same.
Let’s start with some context: The idea of a “canon reset” isn’t new. Disney did, in fact, do something similar after buying Lucasfilm in 2012; the House of Mouse erased the old Star Wars Expanded Universe from canon. But, on the fringes of the Star Wars fandom, there were rumors Disney would go a lot further. These fans believed that, because George Lucas’ prequel trilogy had been so controversial, Disney would erase them from canon. As evidence, they pointed to the cancellation of The Clone Wars and The Force Awakens‘ focus on OT nostalgia.
To be fair, Disney did initially seem unsure what to do with the prequels; The Force Awakens really did eschew all prequel trilogy aesthetics and designs in favor of the OT. Over a decade later, though, and this fringe movement hasn’t exactly aged well. Darth Maul returned in Star Wars Rebels and has now starred in his own movie, prequel references abound in The Mandalorian era, and we’ve even had the return of Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor. Ahsoka, Anakin’s Clone Wars era Padawan, is more important than ever before. Rather than erase the prequels, Disney has embraced them.
To paraphrase George Lucas, it seems the Star Wars fandom is like (bad) poetry: it rhymes a little too much. We’ve now moved to the idea Disney will erase the sequels instead of the prequels, for pretty much the same arguments. In reality, we already know Disney is headed in the opposite direction. Far from erasing them, the House of Mouse want to embrace them.
The Star Wars sequels were certainly divisive. But, looking at the raw numbers themselves, it’s impossible to argue they were failures. The Force Awakens was a cinematic event, a once-in-a-lifetime return to theaters that grossed over $2 billion worldwide. It’s still one of the ten highest-grossing films of all time. Sequels were never going to match that, but the trilogy as a whole made over $4.4 billion, and all three films sit among the top 50 box office hits. As far as a company like Disney is concerned, that’s not failure.
Now, I should note that I’m actually something of a critic of the sequels. I consider “somehow, Palpatine returned” to be one of the worst lines in Star Wars, and I find the trilogy’s many pivots and course-corrections to be deeply irritating. But my personal preference doesn’t change the fact these films performed. What’s more, I learned just how different real life is to the internet at Star Wars Celebration 2023. There, Rey was the most common cosplay I saw. I’ll never forget the electric reaction when Daisy Ridley stepped on stage, announcing her return to Star Wars in a “New Jedi Order” movie.
Far from avoiding the sequels, Star Wars has spent the last seven years trying to improve the way they fit into the timeline. Adam Christopher’s Shadow of the Sith tells the story of Rey’s parents, while Madeleine Roux’s upcoming Legacy novel sits between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Over on the small screen, The Bad Batch became sequels setup as it focused in on Project Necromancer – the cloning experiments that were the “somehow” between Palpatine’s return. In The Mandalorian, Grogu was explicitly sought because his midi-chlorians would help with the creation of Force-sensitive clones – more sequels setup.
The last two examples are particularly important. They took place while Dave Filoni was head of Star Wars’ TV production; that makes their sequel connectivity particularly important, especially because it was so unexpected. He was heavily involved with The Mandalorian and Grogu, which features a sequel trilogy race called the Anzellans. Filoni is now co-president of Lucasfilm, and YouTubers who claim he hates the sequels are flying in the face of all the evidence.
A decade ago, Disney seemed unsure how to work with the prequels. It’s true that this pattern seems to have repeated with the sequels; Star Wars has been slow to move on from The Rise of Skywalker, and Rey’s New Jedi Order movie – announced to rapturous applause in 2023 – has been stuck in development hell. But next year’s milestone movie is Shawn Levy’s Starfighter, a clear relaunch point for the franchise due to release as part of Star Wars’ 50th anniversary celebrations. It’s set five years after the sequel trilogy, a first glimpse at the galaxy after Palpatine’s defeat and the fall of the First Order.
Meanwhile, other mediums are increasingly diving into this part of the timeline as well. Cavan Scott’s Audible exclusive The Jaws of Jakku was the first major Rey story since The Rise of Skywalker, and it will be followed up by Roux’s Legacy in July this year. Kwame Mbalia made his Star Wars debut with The Last Order, unfortunately marketed as a post-Rise of Skywalker tale when it’s actually Finn’s backstory. This is not the kind of focus you would expect if a studio was planning to ditch a multi-billion-dollar part of the franchise.
In truth, even the YouTubers and ragebaiters know full well their predictions are nonsense. They all apparently originate with anonymous sources, and repeat the rumor with the caveat “If true” to ensure there’s plausible deniability. The truth, of course, is that these rumors are baseless. They’re designed to provoke reaction, nothing more, and hopefully perform well thanks to the YouTube algorithm. No, Star Wars is not about to erase the sequel trilogy from canon.
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