// BY DARREN ORF //11
The Rise of
Skywalker, the
last film in the
family's saga, is
the beginning
of a new era
of Star Wars
stories.I
N THOSE ILL-FATED PRE-
quels, Anakin Skywalker
becomes Darth Vader. In the
original trilogy, Luke strug-
gles against the Empire. And
in the sequel trilogy, the entire
galaxy must face the aftermath
of Luke’s not-so-wise decisions,
while Kylo Ren grapples with
Darth Vader’s lasting legacy.
For more than 40 years,
Lucasfilm, and now Disney, has
stretched the tale of the Skywalker
family to its narrative limits. With
The Rise of Skywalker, the newest
and final movie in the sequel tril-
ogy, the story of the Skywalker
saga will finally come to a close.
After nine movies, the past will
die. Sure, Vader and his progeny
will continue to appear in Star
Wars comics and video games.
But as far as films are concerned—
almost out of necessity due to the
age of the actors—The Rise of Sky-
walker is an exclamation point on
a long, and sometimes rambling,
cinematic sentence. So...what’s
next? Can Star Wars survive in a
post-Skywalker world?
A little more than a month
before The Rise of Skywalker,
Disney released The Mandalo-
rian. Following a bounty hunter
in the outer reaches of the galaxy,
this is the first-ever live-action
Star Wars TV series, the first
Star Wars show on Disney’s new
streaming service, and the first
live-action Star Wars...anything,
without a Skywalker in it. (Except
for maybe Solo, but that’s a movie
best forgotten.)The titular character is meant
to bring bount y hunter Boba Fett to
mind, as both characters wear sim-
ilar-looking Mandalorian armor.
But showrunner Jon Favreau,
the director who kick-started
the entire Marvel cinematic uni-
verse with 2008’s Iron Man, has
said that he’s creating some-
thing different than what’s comebefore: “The type of Star Wars I’m
inspired to tell is a smaller thing
with new characters,” he said.
And Favreau’s fresh direction
isn’t a one-off affair. Director
Rian Johnson, who was on the
receiving end of some fans’ ire
after taking the series in an
unexpected direction in The
Last Jedi, will also be helming a GETTY^ IMAGES40 December 2019Same Galaxy, New Characters,
No Nostalgia: W h a t I s S t a r W a r s
Without the Skywalkers?