10 Movie Franchise Staples Nobody Actually Cares About

7. Nostalgia, Nostalgia, Nostalgia - Star Wars

It wasn't surprising to anyone that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a shameless nostalgia trip, recycling countless plot elements from A New Hope and effectively serving as a victory lap for legacy characters Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and General Leia (Carrie Fisher).

And considering how wretched the prequel trilogy was, you can't even really blame J.J. Abrams and co. for assembling a safe sequel that was, admittedly, too reliant on nostalgia.

Sequel The Last Jedi then seemed to indicate a move away from the dew-eyed nostalgia-bait of its predecessor, only for the movie's polarising fan response to prompt a sharp change of course, or so it seems.

Everything we've seen of The Rise of Skywalker so far suggests it's going to be far more fan service-infused than The Last Jedi, returning to the safe comfort of familiarity with the return of Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), sentimental re-purposing of Carrie Fisher's deleted scenes from the last two movies, and of course, the belated dusting-off of Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams).

It feels like a massive reactionary move, and an over-correction to melodramatic online bile which, in honesty, doesn't reflect the mindset of your average movie-goer (hence the film's "A" CinemaScore).

If Star Wars is going to endure beyond Ford, Fisher and Mark Hamill, Kathleen Kennedy needs to understand that the nostalgia well can't be drained forever, and The Last Jedi's success with general audiences proves that it really doesn't need to.

By catering so aggressively to the hardcore lot who, let's be honest, would nitpick a Star Wars movie regardless, Lucasfilm has lost sight of this franchise's potential to move on from the past and create something new. That's the only way it's going to survive in the long run.