How You Can Tell The Magic Of Star Wars Is Gone

Episode IX Feels Completely Unnecessary

Thus, we come to the big final chapter in what could be the last episodic Star Wars movie for quite some time, providing Disney segue into solo prequels, one-offs and tacked-on trilogies instead.

Point being: Episode IX has next to nothing to do. Rian Johnson went all out when he was given the keys to the kingdom, and Episode VIII - after establishing that war never ends and there'll always be rebels vs. an empirical reign - closes out as though it was the end of everything.

Hopefully there's a way to take such a disheartening message and turn it all around into one of the most soul-stirring moments in cinema history, but that would also require JJ Abrams to do something he never does: Conclude a story.

All of which is besides things that were set up to assumedly span the entire trilogy in the first place. Snoke's origin, purpose and powers, the First Order's capabilities, Rey's parents, the Knights of Ren etc.

We've heard the latter points reeled off ad nauseam, but sufficed to say the way The Last Jedi rattled through them means Episode IX will have to introduce completely new elements, in the final movie, only to wrap them within that same runtime.

It'll be a miracle if when all's said and done, this Sequel Trilogy feels remotely cohesive.