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The Star Wars sequel trilogy ended up being divisive and disappointing, and it means it actually peaked before a single scene had even been watched.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy peaked very early – before a single scene had actually been seen, in fact. The Star Wars sequels couldn’t have had a better start for Disney. Star Wars: The Force Awakens made over $2 billion at the box office, quickly making the Mouse House’s purchase of Lucasfilm for $4 billion look like an absolute bargain. Financially, there’s no denying it was a worthwhile investment – all sequel trilogy movies crossed the $1 billion barrier – but there were diminishing returns, and not just at the box office.
The general excitement of Star Wars coming back gave way to divisiveness with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and then disillusion with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Looking back with the full view of the sequels as a whole, it’s a trilogy with many problems and that bright start seems like, well, a long time ago. So long ago, in fact, that the moment it truly peaked wasn’t even with a scene from any of the movies.
Star Wars’ Sequels Peaked Just Before The Force Awakens’ Opening Crawl
The exact moment the Star Wars sequels peaked at the beginning of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, during the brief pause between “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” and the opening crawl starting alongside the main theme. The Force Awakens had a genius marketing campaign, with teasers and trailers that expertly built excitement without giving too much away, and this moment was, finally, the culmination of that. It was the apex of anticipation, the last moment of hype (and nervousness) before truly settling in to see what Disney had in store.
What was in store was, unfortunately, divisive. The Force Awakens‘ itself was a crowd-pleaser, but also too much of A New Hope redux; a good, but not great, movie. Star Wars: The Last Jedi split the fandom in two; Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker pleased few in trying to make audiences happy again. But for that brief moment before The Force Awakens‘ opening crawl, everything was perfect. A silent theater, a black screen, a fandom so completely unified in a blissful moment of excitement and feeling that, miraculously, Star Wars was back.
Star Wars’ Sequels Couldn’t Live Up To The Hype (But Could Have Done Better)
Mileage may vary on the individual movies that make up the Star Wars sequel trilogy but, taken as a whole, it was ultimately a disappointment. In truth, it was always going to be – much like the Star Wars prequels, the chances of living up to the pre-release hype and the weight of expectation were slim-to-none. This was dealing with having to bring the franchise back after a decade, of proving Star Wars could still work, and almost 40 years of fandom. Even with all that, the Star Wars sequels made some fatal mistakes that led to their overall failure.
The biggest of these is a lack of cohesion, because there was overarching vision. Disney had no plan for Star Wars‘ sequels, which resulted in The Last Jedi going in some unexpected directions after The Force Awakens, and then The Rise of Skywalker going back the other way. Big twists were divisive at best, and character arcs didn’t land. The sequels also came and went too quickly – released within four years, and charting only a single year in-universe. With more time and unified planning, the sequels could have been better – they should have been better – but even then, they wouldn’t have met the almost unprecedented hype they were met with.
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