It’s been a very long time since anybody has gone to a theater to see a Star Wars film. Three years, in truth. It was Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker, in late 2019. It was earlier than Covid-19 closed theaters, earlier than Disney CEO Bob Iger slowed the tempo of the Lucasfilm cinematic universe. Lots has modified.
The largest shift, after all, is that followers began watching loads of their Star Wars content material on Disney+. Throughout early pandemic lockdowns, The Mandalorian grew to become a balm for a lot of. So did The Ebook of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi, with maybe barely much less culture-shifting affect. It’s no shock, then, that out of the three—sure, three—new Star Wars options Lucasfilm introduced Friday at Star Wars Celebration in Europe, considered one of them can be directed by Dave Filoni and can “shut out the interconnected tales informed in The Mandalorian, The Ebook of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and different Disney+ collection.”
What’s stunning is that that checklist doesn’t explicitly embody Andor. Not as a result of that story would match with the others, however as a result of Andor is the very best factor Lucasfilm has made in years, and I’d quite watch a two-hour story of Cassian’s revolution towards the Empire than two hours of any of these different exhibits mixed. Which brings me to my level: Make an Andor film, you cowards!
After all, there’s a counterargument to this. I can hear it already: There already is an Andor film, Rogue One. Sure, the Disney+ collection was a by-product from a movie, however so have been Obi-Wan, Boba Fett, and the others. Whereas it’s true that there isn’t an entire lot of fabric to be mined within the five-year narrative timeframe between Andor and Rogue One—and there’s already a second season of Andor within the works—followers have spent a lot of time following the event of New Republic. And, I dunno, perhaps there’s one thing else these motion pictures may very well be tapping into. (The alliance of Cassian and Luthen Rael is a film in itself.)
Furthermore, Andor’s vitality is likely to be what Star Wars wants proper now. One of many causes the present resonated so deeply is that it felt tangible, human. There have been no Jedi (that the viewers is aware of of), no lengthy monologues concerning the Power. As an alternative, there have been actual, disenfranchised individuals combating tyranny—upheavals on jail colonies and rebellions within the streets. Star Wars has at all times been about escapism, nevertheless it has an ethical core, one which Andor has tapped into extra successfully than arguably every other installment within the franchise. A movie based mostly on the present’s characters could lack lightsabers and pew-pew motion, nevertheless it may have one thing extra: soul.
Along with Filoni’s new film, Lucasfilm introduced a brand new Star Wars from Logan director James Mangold about “the daybreak of the Jedi,” and one from Ms. Marvel director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy that can “function Daisy Ridley again as Rey as she builds a brand new Jedi Order.” That’s … loads of Jedi, loads of woo-woo. Each of those movies, notably Obaid-Chinoy’s, sound promising. However extra may very well be achieved to satisfy Star Wars’ promise. As newly returned Disney CEO Iger faces off towards Florida governor Ron DeSantis over what Iger sees as retaliation for the corporate’s opposition to the so-called Don’t Say Homosexual invoice, perhaps a film a few totally different form of riot is precisely what the studio wants.