Why the Star Wars franchise is a poisoned chalice

Telegraph

2 days ago

It's the ultimate Jedi mind trick. Announce a new Star Wars film, generate gigawatts of publicity and then, faster than you can say 'these aren't the droids you're looking for', pretend the movie never existed and the whole thing was a figment of the audience's imagination.
Such has been the apparent strategy of Star Wars' parent studio, Lucasfilm, which has unveiled a Sith Lord's ransom in new spinoffs, only to ultimately leave fans spinning in deep space.
The latest Lucasfilm associate to attempt an Obi-Wan Kenobi-style mind wipe is Taika Waititi, who has shelved his 'Untitled Star Wars Film' – its quasi-official name – in favour of an adaptation of trigger-happy 2000AD anti-hero Judge Dredd.
Who needs a Jedi Knight when you have Judge Dredd? Not Waititi, who is confirmed as collaborating with screenwriter Drew Pearce on a new feature about Mega-City One's trigger-happy law enforcer.
The news appears to confirm previous rumours that Waiti's Star Wars feature is on indefinite hold. That would be quite a u-turn from the far-off morning in May 2020 when Lucasfilm – a subsidiary of the all-powerful Disney – revealed that Waititi would be directing a 'fresh and unexpected' take on the galaxy far, far away. Unexpected – or non-existent? With Disney and Lucasfilm, it's increasingly hard to tell the difference.
We are living through strange times, when Coldplay end marriages rather than soundtrack them, and in which freshly reformed Oasis are the hottest new band in Britain. Even so, how bracing to think that, at the halfway point of 2025, Judge Dredd has more appeal to a successful director than Star Wars – for so long, the last word in bum-on-seats franchises.
With Waititi bouncing into the escape hatch and pressing the 'eject' button, it is worth reconsidering the idea of 'a Star Wars curse'. Like a sort of King Midas in reverse, everything Lucasfilm touches turns to dross. That includes the careers of once-buzzy directors Josh Trank and Colin Trevorrow, who went from the future of cinema to yesterday's story the moment it was confirmed they were to direct new Star Wars films.
A similar miasma has hung over the careers of actors Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, up-and-coming stars, until the day they signed up to Disney's big new 2015 – 2019 'Sequels Trilogy'. The first of that sorry triptych, JJ Abrams's The Force Awakens, turned 10 this year, and its legacy might kindly be described as chequered.
Boyega has since expressed his misgivings about the 'Sequels' (and pointed out how his character Finn was marginalised as the story went along). Ridley, by contrast, doubled down on the brand when agreeing to front an all-new trilogy about her spiky heroine Rey, to be directed by Pakistani journalist and documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, only for that project to follow Waititi's trajectory into permanent limbo.
Likewise drifting in the void is Rogue Squadron, a supposedly gritty X-Wing movie directed by Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins, and a long-cancelled trilogy from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D B Weiss. They are joined by Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, who decided he'd much prefer making Knives Out whodunnits rather than being abused on social media by Star Wars fans.
Why do so many Star Wars films stutter? Assuming it isn't a curse cooked up by Darth Vader and his fellow Sith Lords, the explanation is probably that the saga is a victim of its own iconic status. George Lucas's original trilogy forms a geek holy grail – here are hokey, flawed films that, over the decades, have come to be regarded as flawless masterpieces, pop art treated with the reverence of a Caravaggio.
The weight of that legacy is felt by those hired to continue Lucas's work. When Godzilla director Gareth Edwards was tapped to direct the 2016 spinoff Rogue One, he spoke about the job not as a gig, but as carrying on a sacred tradition.
'You start to wonder whether this is all actually virtual reality. It seems too good to be true, like I'm playing the game version where I get to make a Star Wars film. It's not the sort of thing that should happen to you in your career, like even the best version of where your career could go.'
Seemed too good to be true – and ultimately proved too good to be true, as well. Halfway through Rogue One, Disney concluded the production was running away from Edward and brought in unsentimental screenwriter Tony Gilroy.
Gilroy, if not a hack, knew how to get a movie over the line. Moreover, he cared not a jot for Star Wars' associated baggage and didn't agonise over wrangling the film into shape. He brought the same indifference to the Jedi fanbase of his excellent Disney+ series, Andor, as he made clear in an interview with the Telegraph. 'The thing about the Star Wars community is they all disagree on everything and the moment they stop chewing on you, they start chewing on each other,' he said with a shrug.
The other issue is the influence of Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, a former lieutenant to Steven Spielberg who has become a sort of Galactic Emperor of green-lighting Star Wars projects. It was she who announced Waititi and used her address at the 2023 Star Wars Celebration fan convention to announce that she had reached out to Daisy Ridley about another red-letter day for Rey.
Kennedy is passionate about Star Wars – perhaps to a fault. She is certainly not afraid to meddle. Such was the case with 2017's Han Solo movie, from which comedy improvisational duo (and Lego Movie directors) Lorde and Miller departed – supposedly because their improvised approach didn't chime with Kennedy's more straight-laced philosophy. With the pranksters expunged, Kennedy turned to a safe pair of hands, Ron Howard, who delivered what would prove to be the first-ever Star Wars film to post a loss.
'There's one gatekeeper when it comes to Star Wars, and it's Kathleen Kennedy,' an insider told Variety several years ago.
'If you rub Kathleen Kennedy the wrong way – in any way – you're out. You're done. A lot of these young, new directors want to come in and say, 'I want to do this. I want to do that.' A lot of these guys [i.e. Trevorrow] got very rich, very fast and believed a lot of their hype. And they don't want to play by the rules. They want to do sh–t differently. And Kathleen Kennedy isn't going to f–k around with that. '
But Kennedy's track record isn't anything to wave a lightsaber in the air over. She is widely regarded as having damaged the Star Wars brand with subpar TV spinoffs, such as The Acolyte and Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan – expensive shows that featured low-budget production and poor writing.
Still, fans will hope Waititi's departure marks the beginning of the end of Star Wars' long nightmare. At least two features are going ahead. Ryan Gosling's Star Wars: Starfighter is set for release in 2027, with Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy directing. Before that, Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda will reunite for The Mandalorian and Grogu, a spinoff of the Mandalorian television series.
Kennedy, meanwhile, is due to step down as head of Lucasfilm before the end of the year. There is the caveat that she is to 'continue to produce Star Wars content'. Still, her hand is going to be off the tiller, and there will be a new Star Wars movie coming down the line. After years of disappointment, you might say the saga has a new hope.