The Star Wars timeline has not advanced for over five years now, with the franchise instead exploring the nooks and crannies of its existing stories. This has been pretty successful, deepening some characters and answering some longstanding mysteries in the process in shows like Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi and movies like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. If this trend is to continue, there are some more questions the franchise should definitely tackle.
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The Skywalker Saga is about 70 years long, and so far all of the movies and most of the TV shows are set during this period. Outside of the episodic Skywalker Saga, Rogue One really set the template for standalone movies. It answered fans’ longstanding curiosity about how the Rebels got the blueprints for the Death Star, building on the dramatic implications from Star Wars: A New Hope.
If the franchise is going to continue fleshing out its timeline rather than deciding what comes next, it will need to explore more cul de sacs in the story like this one. Fortunately, there are plenty of those to choose from. Read on for three of our top choices.
Luke’s Lightsaber
There are a lot of mysteries about Luke Skywalker’s behavior in the sequel trilogy, but there’s one in particular that seems like it would make for a satisfying movie or TV show: the fate of Luke’s first lightsaber. Luke lost the weapon at the end of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and we didn’t see it again until Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it ended up in the possession of the “pirate queen” Maz Kanata. There’s surely a story about how it got there, and the lives it touched along the way.
Keep in mind that this wasn’t just Luke’s lightsaber — it originally belonged to Anakin. In fact, Anakin was still using this lightsaber when he first turned to the dark side, earning it some grim nicknames from fans online. In Empire, it fell into the depths of Cloud City along with Luke’s severed hand, and he escaped without it on the Millennium Falcon. The next time we see it, Maz is offering it to Finn and Rey.
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There is one other canonical off-screen mention of the lightsaber — a 2020 comic book shows Luke returning to Bespin shortly after his duel with Darth Vader, searching for his lightsaber in Cloud City below. Ultimately, he is called away by other responsibilities before he can find it, and he eventually determines that it’s not worth it to go hunting after the past. Cloud City remained under imperial control of Cloud City for several more years after that, so it would be interesting to see who found this lightsaber and how it got into friendlier hands.
The Mysteries of Yoda’s Species
Fans would love more details on Yoda’s mysterious species at any point in the timeline, but with the popularity of The Mandalorian and Grogu, it seems likely that we’ll learn more within the setting we’re most familiar with. Yoda’s homeworld and species have been left intentionally vague from the beginning, though it is becoming clearer that they are all naturally Force-sensitive. So far, we’ve only met three members of this race: Master Yoda, Master Yaddle, and Grogu.
We know for sure that this species is very ancient and rare, and that its members have a naturally long lifespan of at least several centuries. It’s also hinted that they are born with a naturally high Midi-chlorian count, giving them a natural affinity for the Force. We don’t know where this species comes from, but it seems likely that we’ll learn more about Grogu’s past, at least, in the upcoming movie The Mandalorian & Grogu, which hits theaters on May 22, 2026. The question is whether that will include more general tidbits about his species or not.
Palpatine’s Return
Finally, Star Wars will have to address the mystery of Palpatine’s return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker eventually. The Sith lord was defeated in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — thrown from the Death Star by his own apprentice — and he himself confirmed that he died in this incident. We see that he returned from the dead with some help from cloning technology, but we don’t learn anything else about how.
Rise of Skywalker was infuriatingly vague about this plot point. At times, it almost seemed uninterested in this question and dismissive of fans’ curiosity, like with Poe Dameron’s hasty line, “Somehow, Palpatine has returned.” When asked how he did it, Palpatine himself simply reiterated a line from an earlier movie verbatim, “The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many powers some consider to be unnatural.”
There are plenty of explanations for this comeback that could be consistent and satisfying — perhaps Palpatine had prepared a cloning apparatus in advance to trigger if he died. Perhaps he had other agents as loyal as Darth Vader who helped him get to Exegol. Palpatine already mentioned that his own master, Darth Plagueis, had developed a means of overcoming death through the Force, so it makes sense that he’d be trying to advance that project himself. However he did it, seeing how Palpatine returned from the dead would go a long way in redeeming Rise of Skywalker for many fans.
You can stream all 11 Star Wars movies now on Disney+, along with most of the TV shows and specials as well. The latest title in the franchise is Skeleton Crew, which airs its season finale on Tuesday, January 14th on Disney+.
