1. Risk And Rejuvenation
When people speak of things being rejuvenated, the implication is that while the fundamental qualities and structures will remain, worn out parts will be replaced, and new things which work better will be added. The Star Wars franchise is in an interesting position in that the human structures which created the film have been left behind. It is owned by a new company, and aside from Lucas acting as some form of consultant, will be realised by an entirely new creative team. Accordingly, the direction this team heads in may be closer to rebirth than rejuvenation. Weve seen it work very well before: Camerons Aliens; Nolans Batmans; Campbells Casino Royale. But generally, such radical changes only come about because the well of existing ideas has run dry. As Ive argued to now, though, Star Wars well is far from drywe just havent seen the moods and tones and characters and scenarios of Trilogy I successfully brought into the modern age. To give up on Star Warsto create something entirely newwould be a terrible waste. But having said that, future films offer a profound opportunity to explore new terrain. In a sense, the sequel trilogy could be seen as the biggest fan films ever made. The reason fan films are able to generate such devotion is that their creators have the freedom to accentuate the elements of a game, book, TV serieswhatever it isthat produced the greatest intensity of experience in themselves. At the very least, we need the new creators to be passionate about The Saga. Ideally, we need them to allow their own experiencesthe elements which fostered their passion for the franchiseto inform what will come next. They mustnt market test, democratise, extrapolate, conjecturethey must let go of their conscious minds and use their hearts. This is the only way we will end up with films that we can love.