Star Wars Needs To Get Over The Original Trilogy
1. The Galaxy's New Hopes
The great hopes for the galaxy in this case, then, are Rian Johnson, David Benioff, and Dan Weiss.
Johnson's Episode VIII may have been divisive, but a lot of that came down to how it did - or didn't - follow on from The Force Awakens. He has his own, brand-new sandbox to play in now with a new trilogy, and has promised to deliver something unique.
No such promises have been made from Game of Thrones creators Weiss and Benioff, but we do know they'll be writing and executive producing their own film series (exact number TBC), which will "break new ground".
The downside to these, though, is that they don't appear to be coming anytime soon - there's nothing close to a release date, with Johnson only just starting to formulate his idea and hoping to make a smaller indie movie first, and Benioff & Weiss busy with Game of Thrones for a little while yet. It means there likely won't be anything truly 'new' in this sense until 2021 at the very earliest, although they do still offer cause for optimism.
Both of these series have the chance to do something that Star Wars movies haven't really done since 1977: tell a completely new story, in a whole new world, with totally new characters.
Johnson and Weiss & Benioff can go as far into the future as they like, or thousands and thousands of years into the past. Backwards, forwards, sideways, diagonal, this is a galaxy that should be without limits. Yes, it still needs to feel like Star Wars, but there are numerous ways of doing that without repeating old patterns or using familiar faces.
They can make movies about the first ever Jedi, adapt things only the more hardcore fans would know about (let's not pretend that Benioff and Weiss wouldn't be great for Knights of the Old Republic), do whatever the hell they want, really, and tell stories that we couldn't possibly imagine.
When fans first stepped into movie theatres in 1977, they didn't really have any idea what to expect, and were plunged into a fantastical galaxy that has since captured the imaginations of generation after generation. That's the beauty of Star Wars, and something, if Lucasfilm and Disney are intent on releasing movie after movie, that it needs to accomplish again. That might mean letting the past die, or it could mean exploring it like we've never seen before.
What do you want to see from the future of Star Wars? Let us know down in the comments.