The two most recent Star Wars films to hit theaters—The Force Awakens and Rogue One—have balanced throwbacks with new characters to build and branch out on the Star Wars universe. But one of Rogue One’s writers believes that Star Wars films might not always be so reliant on the older characters that hooked many in the first place.
In an interview with Coming Soon to promote Rogue One’s home release, Gary Whitta spoke about the possibility of a Star Wars movie without some of the story’s biggest and most visible players. We’ve seen plenty of Darth Vader, stormtroopers, and the Millennium Falcon throughout the movies. Seven of the eight Star Wars films out right now revolve around the Skywalkers, which Lucasfilm has dubbed the “Skywalker saga.”
Eventually, Whitta believes, the Star Wars films won’t rely on those legacy characters.
“The next spin-off is Han Solo, that’s another familiar character, but I think increasingly you’re going to see… One of the thing things we really want to do at Lucasfilm is create a universe and not keep relying on old legacy characters,” Whitta said. “We’ve got Rey and Finn and Kylo Ren, they’ve already introduced a new generation of characters. Whatever kind of Star Wars films they’re making 10 or 20 years from now, I don’t think they’re going to be relying on the same legacy story elements as we have in the past.”
Whitta added that he doesn’t actually know if that’s what Lucasfilm plans to do but in the long run holding onto those legacy characters might restrict writers.
“I’m speaking purely as a fan. I obviously have no idea what their plans are for the franchise,” he explained. “I did my small piece of it, but it makes sense to me that you don’t want to keep telling the same story over and over again. You want to tell new stories.”
This makes sense. One of the criticisms against The Force Awakens was that it was too similar to A New Hope, and Rogue One was similarly dinged due to its many Easter eggs. With upcoming films continuing to expand the Star Wars universe, we’ll likely have enough players to fill in once the characters and actors we love are no longer able to do so.
H/T Coming Soon