Star Wars: How The New Jedi Order Movie Can Bring The Fandom Together Again

Star Wars fans are still processing all the big reveals that came out of Star Wars Celebration 2023, with the biggest announcement no doubt being the fact that the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy is getting a continuation, in the form of a new film saga that will follow Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker as she builds a New Jedi Order.

As Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy has teased: 

“Well we’re 15 years out from Rise of Skywalker, so we’re post-war, post-First Order, and the Jedi are in disarray. There’s a lot of discussion around, ‘Who are the Jedi? What are they doing? What’s the state of the galaxy?’” Kennedy told IGN. “She’s attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order, based on the books, based on what she promised Luke, so that’s where we’re going.”

The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy was infamously divisive: The Force Awakens banked hard on the nostalgia of the original Star Wars film before director Rian Johnson came in and totally ripped the old lore down and proposed challenging new ideas in The Last Jedi. When TLJ sparked a swell of backlash from diehard fans, Lucasfilm blinked and had The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams return and push the franchise back to nostalgia with The Rise of Skywalker. 

In the end, few fans were left happy, with some loving the bold new ideas of The Last Jedi, others preferring the tried-and-true nostalgia lore, and pretty much everyone unhappy with The Rise of Skywalker’s clear distinction as more studio product than the actual film. 

How The New Jedi Order Can Bring Star Wars Fandom Together Again

The premise of this Rey Skywalker film about the New Jedi Order is clearly one that is going to take on some level of existential questioning about what the Jedi Order is, what it has been, and what it should be. Therein lies another rare opportunity to perfectly marry new ideas for Star Wars lore with the classic “magic” that fans – of all types – are looking for in these films.

The Last Jedi went down to its very last scene trying to convey the idea that the greatness of Force users wasn’t limited to just the Jedi, or a particular bloodline (Skywalker) – that potentially anyone could discover that same sense of power and/or destiny in themselves. A movie that puts that theory into practice could hit the much-needed mark of seeing a diverse collection of characters come together as the new Jedi, in a way that’s organic to the narrative. 

At the same time, Rey’s entire quest to convince Force users to subscribe to the Jedi Order’s teachings and discipline inherently requires scenes that made fans first fall in love with Star Wars: A New Hope. That film didn’t require massive Force user action: it sold the mystique and wonder of a seemingly “normal” or “ordinary” person learning about the Force and their ability to tap into, feel, and wield it. The Froce Awakens didn’t quite tap that vein the same way, as Rey and Finn (John Boyega) never got proper teaching about what it was to be a Jedi. But, as stated, the “magic” of viewers being able to imagine that anyone (even them) could become a Jedi Knight is a universal theme that has made Star Wars so iconic and enduring. 

Finally, there are the obvious corrective measures needed. The Star Wars Sequels bypassed Boyega’s Finn and his own destiny as a Force user/potential Jedi – that is an easy thing to remedy, and rumors are the New Jedi Order movie may already be attempting to go that route. 

The other big fix needed is giving this new generation of Jedi a proper new villain (or villains) to fight, instead of bending logic to bring back Emperor Palpatine. Based on the lore, any new era of Jedi must inevitably come with the shadow of The Sith behind it, and figuring out what the post-Darth Sidious era of Sith (or dark side users) looks like is almost as exciting as seeing a new era of Jedi begin.