The biggest mistake Disney and Lucasfilm made with the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy was failing to map out a complete three-movie arc during the development process. The Force Awakens was an entertaining if a little too reverential reintroduction to the mythology, and it set up a number of potential story directions for the next two installments.
However, Rian Johnson admitted his surprise when he signed on to direct The Last Jedi, only to discover that there wasn’t much set in stone in regards to the narrative of Episode VIII. The filmmaker made sweeping changes to many plot points and aspects of the wider Star Wars lore, only to split the fanbase right down the middle with what turned out to be one of the most divisive blockbusters in recent history.
After Jurassic World‘s Colin Trevorrow became the latest director to get their marching orders from Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams stepped back into the breach and reworked almost the entirety of Trevorrow’s pitch into what became The Rise of Skywalker. Once again, though, the reception from fans was incredibly polarized, and this time critics unanimously agreed.
Since then, there’ve been constant rumors ranging from mildly plausible to bewilderingly insane that the studio is somehow going to figure out a way to either wipe the Sequel Trilogy from canon, or retcon certain elements. Jason Ward of Making Star Wars has a solid track record when it comes to breaking stories from a galaxy far, far away long before they become public knowledge, and he’s now offered his two cents on the speculation, which you can see below.
“There is nothing that makes me think anyone has any inkling of reworking the Sequel Trilogy. In fact, the idea is preposterous. Each of the Sequel Trilogy films is performing rather well for Disney/Lucasfilm financially. To ‘erase’ those would weaken a consistent revenue stream that is currently being capitalized on.”
He definitely has a point. After all, Disney aren’t going to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in production costs into the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy only to disregard them based on a disgruntled section of the fanbase, especially when the box office revenue and merchandising sales generated countless billions in profits for good measure.