Star Wars Is Finally Listening To George Lucas’ Biggest Force Awakens Criticism

Ten years after Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm has finally begun to listen to George Lucas’ biggest criticism. Although he initially tried to present something of a lukewarm front, George Lucas was no fan of The Force Awakens. Writing in his autobiography, The Ride of a Lifetime, Disney CEO Bob Iger remembered his disappointed reaction. “There’s nothing new,” Lucas observed, criticizing the plot and the lack of visual or technical leaps forward.

To be fair, as Iger argued, this was kind of the point. Disney felt under real pressure to make a film that felt quintessentially Star Wars, and “we’d intentionally created a world that was visually and tonally connected to the first films, to not stray too far from what people loved and expected, and George was criticizing us for the very thing we were trying to do.” But now, finally, Star Wars is listening to George Lucas’ first Force Awakens criticism.

Star Wars Has Dined Out on Nostalgia

Lucasfilm played the nostalgia card with The Force Awakens, deliberately creating a story that was thematically, tonally, and visually reminiscent of A New Hope. The problem, though, is that Lucasfilm learned the wrong lesson from The Force Awakens‘ $2.07 billion box office success; as the years have passed, nostalgia has essentially come to define Star Wars. Worse still, a divided and divisive fanbase has come to expect nothing more, sometimes reacting badly to anything more experimental.

Take, for example, Leslye Headland’s High Republic TV show, The Acolyte. This was far from perfect; the narrative structure was flawed, and some potential character arcs were rushed. The reaction from the fandom, however, was far in excess of The Acolyte‘s flaws, and that’s partly because the series dared to try to move on from the stories we’ve seen before. In a recent interview, Headland discussed The Acolyte‘s cancellation; “It’s the old adage of the first one through the wall is the bloodiest,” she observed.

Nostalgia is a useful tool, but it is a terrible master. Star Wars TV shows have released to diminishing returns for some years now (with the odd Andor-shaped exception). It’s true that this partly reflects over-saturation, but it also points to the fact nostalgia can only go so far. If Star Wars is a vehicle, then it’s gradually become clear that it is running on fumes – for that is all nostalgia has become.

Star Wars’ Upcoming Movies Have Learned George Lucas’ Lesson

Star Wars has been relegated to the small screen since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, but all that is finally changing. Lucasfilm is ramping up the movies once again, with next year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu leading the charge back to the big screen. Even more excitingly, Shawn Levy is currently filming a new movie that will celebrate A New Hope‘s 50th anniversary in 2027. Levy recently spoke about the mysterious Star Wars: Starfighter, and he stressed that this is something so very different.

“When Kathy called me in August of 2022 and said, ‘I want you to do a Star Wars movie,’ and I said, ‘What’s it a prequel to? What’s it a sequel to? Which one is it?’ The answer was, ‘It’s whatever you want it to be. You pick the writer, you pick the story, just imbue it with the feeling that your movies have, and let’s make an entirely original Star Wars movie.’

There is no mandate or interference other than the constant encouragement to ‘Make this new.’ And that’s the truth…Starfighter is all-new characters based on new ideas that Jonathan (Tropper) and I cooked up…In a time period that’s never been in a Star Wars movie, it is not about legacy characters.”

“Make this new.” Three words of unparalleled significance for a franchise that’s been relentlessly focused on its yesterdays. Ten years on, it feels almost like a direct response to George Lucas’ criticism of The Force Awakens, to his disappointment that there was nothing new about the movie that set the pattern for Disney Star Wars. It’s taken Lucasfilm ten years, and so many stumbles and misfires, but the studio is finally daring to make something new.

There is a risk, of course. The Star Wars fandom hasn’t always been receptive to new ideas (to say the least), meaning it’s entirely possible Starfighter won’t go down well. But that diminishing performance suggests even this fanbase is losing interest in its nostalgia fix, and Starfighter would be better positioned to aim at general audiences who haven’t been tuning in on Disney+ and may not even turn up for The Mandalorian and Grogu. Yes, there is a risk – but it’s worth it, and it’s the only way for Star Wars to go.

Star Wars has been running on fumes for too long. It’s time to put some gas in the engine.

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