Will Disney Nail Star Wars in 2020?
This was a huge week for Star Wars fans as Disney dropped a ton of news about the Mandalorian (a Disney+ exclusive) and The Rise of Skywalker, finally bringing the newest trilogy to an end. However, as a fan I can’t help but feel like the latest Star Wars offerings have been a bit subpar. Here are a couple of areas they missed the mark on:
Finn is not force adept, maybe force sensitive.
The character development in the recent trilogy has left a lot to ask for. While Rey being too overpowered (this could be a whole new article) has been argued to death by fans for years now, what was even more frustrating to me is Finn and his connection to the force. I am all for viewers having to fill in some of the blanks, but Finn has way too many things that happen in his favor by “chance.” If Finn was never to be a strong force user, this would have been fine, but there were plenty of opportunities to explain this in the first film. As for The Last Jedi…you could have literally cut out all the scenes Finn was in and there would not have been a major impact to the story. Our friends on IG largely felt the same way:
Weak gaming franchises and microtransactions
I hate to bash anything, but Star Wars Battlefront II was pretty bad. EA poorly implemented too many elements of Stars Wars and traditional Battlefront games together. The flight gameplay was ok (definitely no Rogue Squadron), but if you weren’t playing on a team with at least a few friends there was usually little chance you could win. The icing on the cake though was Electronic Arts making certain characters far too overpowered combined with pay to win microtransactions. This led to extremely poor fan reception. There were no other strong Star Wars games ( I do not count the Lego ones) to fill the void which weakened the series for gamers.
However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. There have been 3 recent Star Wars announcements that could help the franchise tremendously:
#1 The Rise of Skywalker Ending
The current trilogy is full of plot holes and weak character development, but to be fair this is a movie franchise about people with space magic, so you have to suspend disbelief at times. The latest series has relied too heavily on nostalgia and leveraging older characters instead of spending time building up new ones. Even the latest movie title mentions the Skywalker family.
However, Disney does have a chance here to fill in some of our questions and hopefully wrap it all together nicely in The Rise of Skywalker. If nothing else, we get to see Billy Dee Williams *cough*, I mean Lando, fly the Millennium Falcon.
#2 The Mandalorian on Disney Plus
Disney+ is looking to come out swinging on November 12 with a strong lineup. They absolutely have to as most of us probably have multiple streaming services that we are already subscribed to. Exclusive content is a way to draw in subscribers (admit it, a lot of you cancelled HBO after Game of Thrones went off the air) and we expect The Mandalorian to be a top tier exclusive.
Carl Weathers (aka Apollo Creed) and Giancarlo Esposito (Gus from Breaking Bad) will have starring roles in the show as well, which is enough for me to check it out.
#3 Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
Star Wars and gaming naturally go together. I have been playing Star Wars games since the 90’s. There have been a mixed bag of games with some being absolutely fantastic (Rogue Squadron and the Knights of The Old Republic series) and some being a pass (Star Wars Battlefront I & II, and Star Wars Episode I: Racer).
With Jedi: Fallen Order you are going to have to decide if you will trust EA again with your money. I am going to take a leap of faith on this game, as the gameplay looks like a combination of the Batman Arkham series and The Force Unleashed.
There is a lot riding on the success of the franchise as Disney paid quite the price tag to acquire Star Wars. Overall, I am optimistic that we will get some great content this fall.
If nothing else, Disney has always been a brand primarily a company geared towards children’s entertainment and we expect to see some great costumes this Halloween. What Star War properties are your excited or not excited about? Let us know in the comments; here is what our Color Commentary team members thought:
