Here’s How to Save Star Wars

Introduction

Flashback 10 to 15 years ago. Disney releases the first official trailer for The Force Awakens and multiple ticket and trailer websites crash from the traffic. The lines to see The Force Awakens for its first several weeks in theaters were never before seen in the United States. The film went on to shatter domestic box office records, making over 900 million dollars, nearly 200 million more than the previous record held by Avatar. The already iconic franchise entered into a whole new playing field. People who weren’t Star Wars fans were talking about The Force Awakens. Its success wasn’t simply big, it seemed inescapable anywhere you went. 

Flash forward to the early summer of 2026. 7 entire years since the previous Star Wars film was released in theaters, you would think there would be huge expectation and buildup. After nearly a month in theaters, the newest Star Wars film, The Mandalorian and Grogu, will barely reach 175 million dollars.  And it isn’t like this is a bigger sign of post-covid theater struggles. On the same weekends that The Mandalorian and Grogu is flopping, extremely low-budget horror films like Obsession and Backrooms are blowing box office expectations out of the water with a fraction of the marketing. People want to go to the theater–just not for Star Wars. 

Regardless of where you think Star Wars went wrong (I have dozens of thoughts on this as well), what’s undeniable is that the franchise doesn’t hold the same weight over the culture as it once did. I’ve thought a lot about why this is, and what Disney can do to fix it. The following trajectory is a summary of my thoughts and suggestions to get the franchise back on track and in good standings with its audience again. 

Suggestion 1: Restructure Dave Filoni’s Role

Dave Filoni is a lifelong Star Wars fan who needs to be involved with Star Wars in some capacity, but time has proven it should be as the head of the animation department and a creative consultant for the whole franchise, not the one running the entire ship. He’s done spectacular work with his animated projects, but I don’t think he has the experience or the skill to direct live action. Filoni has all of George Lucas’ most destructive tendencies without the creative genius.

Filoni is one of the biggest Star Wars fans on the planet, and there is a lot of value in that. With Filoni, the chances of postmodern deconstruction inspired storytelling taking over Star Wars are very small. I want Star Wars projects made by people who love Star Wars, not by people who seek to subvert or tear down what’s been built.

However, Filoni’s extreme fandom is in my opinion the very thing that holds him back. He loves Star Wars so much that it limits his ability to think of anything new without reverting back to cameo fests and trying to piece every project back to something else, oftentimes derivatively. Where Filoni works best is fun small-scale spinoffs of the already established universe. While I like projects of that nature in small doses, I fear with Filoni in charge those are going to be the majority of what we get. 

All that said, I don’t dislike Filoni at all. I just think he works best in a different role than the one he is in now. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, seeing as he’s only been the lead for a year or so, but these tendencies in his filmmaking leave me nervous. 

Suggestion 2: Hire an Experienced Executive

I think this is an aspect of the franchise most fans don’t fully understand. Running a company like Lucasfilm involves working with some of the biggest budgets in Hollywood, employing hundreds of thousands of people, regulating everything connected to the brand from movies and tv to video games and toys. Throughout the last several years, Star Wars fans have all but rioted for Disney to put a die-hard Star Wars fan in this role, but that isn’t necessary. Hire an established executive with decades of production experience. They don’t have to love Star Wars, they just have to be familiar with it enough to hire the right people to make movies.

Being a producer, especially for a franchise this big, is more about running a business than it is coming up with creative ideas. Hire a businessman who will appropriately steer the ship, while putting in place those around him who will make the best films they can. 

Hire good directors with critical acclaim. Star Wars needs proper brand recognition again, not just from fans, but from respected critics as well. These directors don’t have to be lifelong Star Wars fans, they just need to have the talent to make a good film. Tony Gilroy was a self admitted Star Wars novice, and he made one of the greatest Star Wars projects ever. Have Dave Filoni and others involved as creative consultants, but have the director be the one making the film.

Hand Ludwig Goransson the keys to the castle in the music department. He is the most successful composer of the last 5 years. Star Wars has always had really good music, and that doesn’t need to change. 

Suggestion 3: Begin Mapping the Next Chapter

The sequel trilogy’s biggest flaw is that they weren’t planned with one consistent vision in mind from the beginning. Disney wanted a different director for every film, each of them bringing their own personal touch to the world, but what they didn’t plan for was how different each director’s decisions would affect the trilogy as a whole. Star Wars needs to think carefully about how the next chapter will be explored. They cannot afford to gamble on some projects hitting and others missing. 

Star Wars needs to feel larger than life again. As much as I enjoy The Mandalorian and Andor, these shows aren’t big enough to propel the franchise forward for the next generation. Whether it be Episodes 10 through 12, a separate trilogy, or something else entirely, Star Wars needs franchise altering movies again. They need that signature Star Wars feel: the force, lightsabers, Jedi vs Sith, etc. Whatever direction they take, they need a consistent creative vision from the top down. 

Suggestion 4: Limit the content on Disney+ 

For Star Wars to feel special and for the stakes to be high, audiences can’t have a nonchalant attitude about the theater if they know the movies will just hit streaming in a couple months. Streaming models again and again have proven to be ineffective both financially and in engaging the audience in the same way a theater does. 

Audiences not wanting to come to the theater isn’t a battle studios have to give up on. Every Star Wars film rerelease of the last 5 years has performed wonderfully at the box office. The need is there. Audiences clearly want to be excited about Star Wars again; Disney just has to give them a reason to be. Cranking out content for streaming like a factory, no matter how good the content, won’t do the trick. Star Wars needs to feel like true cinema again.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my ramblings about a franchise I’ve loved my whole life and would love to see back in its peak form again. This article was originally one giant text message to my brother, but it was fun converting it into something for others to see and interact with. What are your suggestions for the franchise? Anything I missed or anything you disagree with? I’d love to hear. 

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Aidan Lytle

Aidan is recent graduate of Welch College with a degree in English. His interests include movies (primarily Lord of the Rings and anything Christopher Nolan), oil painting, NEEDTOBREATHE, Future of Forestry, and the Tennessee Titans.

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