TV Discussion The Future of Star Wars on TV

I'm hoping the next animated series is either set post-Jakku/pre-TFA with Luke, Han and Leia or The Old Republic. Probably the former as I'm thinking they may want to launch the Old Republic era in the films first.

 

Wonder if they bring arcs back for the next star wars series? One of the major complaints about rebels has always been over it's "adventure of the week" formula so I wonder if Filoni and co have taken the feedback on board?

 

Seeing as Lucasfilm is a lot more corporate based in its productions now, i doubt. TCW's ratings went under when arcs started, so i'm guessing they want to keep their ratings as high as possible.

 

I think they already did. Season 3 of Rebels had several ongoing arcs.

 

I think we'll get the announcement in late spring/summer 2018 and the show will premier in fall 2019, few months after the conclusion of the ST, so they will finally be able to fully utilise that time period.

 

Jeez that misspelling of beileve is horrible. Although for all I know I just misspelt it again.

 

Rebels has definitely handled the season arcs better than CW (which didn't really have season arcs, just multiple long term arcs spread over multiple seasons) but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to them seeding future seasons & stories the way CW did and adding in some multi episode story arcs as long as the story justified it.

I've preferred Rebels pace over all but CW definitely felt more epic with some of it's longer arcs. Plus the animation was so much nicer. I get that it wasn't cost effective and we won't see it again but damn it looked gorgeous.

 

A series in the same vein as The American's revolving around the Empire insurgents would a neat angle, maybe in the Netflix medium. I wouldn't mind a series if we saw Empire insurgents working inside the Rebels or vice versa where the Rebels work inside the Empire ranks, I think either have a lot of potential.

 

Mark Hamill has joked about how ending the story with ROTJ is like ending the James Bond films right when he gets his license to kill.

But now with Episode VII, we picked up with Han, Luke and Leia all a broken family with at least Luke and Han seemingly giving up on fighting.

It would be nice to see a younger Han, Luke and Leia still together being heroes, but I don't know how much room is left to really do a show like that and do it justice.

Considering the Aftermath books cover the fall of the Remnant, The First Order seems like a very recently emerged enemy, and there's no real indication of any significant crisis in between, given the New Republic massively demobilizing its armed forces.

Maybe they could do one about a younger Ben Solo with the big three serving as supporting characters and what kind of adventures he and Luke might get into in the Unknown Regions, culminating with Snoke turning him. But otherwise I think they really need to start moving into 100% new characters. I've been very disappointed by the announcement of the Han Solo movie and the rumor of an Obi-Wan spinoff.

The characters themselves reference past events spanning millennia. I'm all Death Star'd out.

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The period from about 5ABY to 28 ABY is a total open book at this point. They can include almost anything they want to during that time (minus any large scale wars).

Setting a series from about 5 ABY to 10 ABY would be a good way to start giving the big three some post Jakku development. They could tell stories about fighting off the remnants of the Empire after the treaty was signed (not all of them left for the unknown regions), and there will always be crime lords to have battles with. It also would be a good way to start showing the flaws in the New Republic and why it eventually deteriorated to what we eventually see in the Bloodline novel.

 

Yeah, but these aren't really their problems to deal with. Maybe in case of Leia, but she's a politician and a government official now, not a soldier, plus she just gave birth, so hopefully she wants to spend at least some time with her newborn before she runs away for more work.

Han gave up his commission as General, so he's just a regular civilian now and considering how he was portrayed in the Aftermath trilogy and Bloodlines, it looks like he doesn't care about the larger galactic events anymore, unless they directly threaten his family.

And Luke is out there gathering information about the old Jedi Order and trying to rebuild it. He doesn't have the time or, again judging by the Aftermath trilogy, inclination to continue fighting the remnants of the Empire or some random galactic criminals.

Taking out the remnants of the Empire that refused to surrender or didn't escape into the Unknown Regions is the job of the New Republic military. I wouldn't mind a series set post-Jakku about a new cast of characters, perhaps a New Republic fighter squadron, with the old crew making cameos in some episodes, however a full series with Han/Leia/Luke as the main characters would just feel forced considering how their lives and motivations were portrayed in Aftermath and Bloodlines.

Now series set during the Galactic Civil War, there I wouldn't mind the big three to be the main characters as it would make perfect sense. They are the heroes of the Rebellion and pretty much the best the Alliance can offer. And most importantly they do care about defeating the Empire, even Han, even though he's pretending otherwise pre-ESB.

 

I can agree with everything you wrote, however the problem for a TV show with that is the fact that you just described three completely separate storylines.

Which makes sense in universe, as it nicely portrays why the big three are no longer in touch by the time of TFA, as their lives took them in different directions (very real world like actually), however I don't think it would work in a TV series.

You could combine Han's and Leia's stories, but Luke just doesn't fit.

 

Oh yeah, after 8 or 9, we will definitely get plenty of Luke Skywalker stories set between 6 and 7.

But with Han and Leia, we sort of already got those stories. I actually like the fact that Han and Leia had relatively peaceful and normal life's post-Jakku. At least until Ben went all emo on everyone. Now the story how Han and Leia found out about Ben and the destruction of Luke's Order would be an interesting story, as well as the fall out from that. We know Leia started building her Resistance right before she learned about Ben and the First Order revealed itself to the galaxy.

 

What about something along the lines of the Clone Wars? Where you have a core group of characters but then still have episodes focused on other characters. So you could do a New Republic post-Jakku focus with occasional appearances from the OT leads. So whilst Luke might not be THE focus, you still get maybe an arc or a couple of episodes a season (depending on how the structure things) showing him seeking out Jedi knowledge and beginning to found his order (with Mark Hamill voicing of course). You could see Leia and Han with young Ben, especially Leia could be a recurring guest character on the NR side of things, but not have to worry about making them the leads of the show (and therefore struggling with what to do with Ben every time they go on a mission). Paths could cross every now and then, we could see Luke doing stuff that makes him a legend (and fulfilling audience desire for Jedi action).

Or maybe something did happen between Jakku (5ABY) and Bloodline (28ABY) that required them all to get together again and we could see them as the leads? Clone Wars ran for 6 seasons (8 planned) and only covered 3 years of time. They could easily think of some threat (I know the Yuuzhan Vong were meant to be teased in the Clone Wars, just as an example) that could bring everyone back to the front lines but still be resolved neatly and line up with what we know.

 

I would love an ambitious, multi-season CGI series about Luke's adventures between ROTJ and TFA. It would amazing if it focused solely on him (with Mark voicing!), just because that would make it so different to the other shows. I'd be happy with a show that jumped between Leia, Luke and Han too, but one with a singular focus could reveal so much about the character.

 

If they really wanted to delve deep into Force lore then that would be the show to do. Not sure Disney XD would be the right target audience for it but I sure would love it!

 

I doubt it, but it would be really cool to get some filler new content for The Clone Wars in between Rebels and whatever comes next.

 

I wish

 

Wouldn't really shock me THAT much if they somehow managed to pull off one more season on Netflix. Siege of Mandalore, and with four seasons of Rebels behind them that they can incorporate into the show's continuity. 10th anniversary of the show coming up, Netflix in a position where they might be able to keep Marvel and Star Wars content as opposed of losing it to the Disney streaming service, might offer to fund Season 7, etc

 

I'm fairly disappointed that LucasFilm has played it so safe with Star Wars, unwilling to branch out beyond the nucleus of Lucas' six films. Never going far enough away that they can't fall back on a Luke, Han, Leia, Obi-Wan, Vader, etc cameo to boost ratings.

It's like having a book shelf covering the entirety of European history but only caring about the one volume that covers the Hundred Years War. Never mind other parts of European history or even the history of other parts of the world (a huge section of space is unknown, and there are fringe territories like Hutt territory).

They could tell stories in completely different times, or tell stories during the same period but on the fringes of that conflict with all new characters.

I really hope they steer clear of TCW and the GCW.

I'd love a show that goes before or comes after.



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I think fans are just too impatient.

 

The idea of these long term franchises is relatively new.

Usually a movie would get made, maybe get a sequel every few years so long as interest is sustained, and then it stops and the studio moves on to something else.

Other than perhaps the James Bond films, I can't think of any other studios that really have put that kind of long term plan behind a franchise until the relatively recent boom of superhero movies, or Fast and the Furious.

There's a lineup of films going all the way til 2020 and all of them are centered on familiar characters and aesthetics. That's a long tim, from the conception of Star Wars til 2020, to have every single canonical story cluster around the same basic characters for over 40 years.

Edit: I know that there are plenty of people that are looking forward to seeing a Han Solo or Kenobi film and more TCW stuff and are content. So I don't mean to imply I am speaking for anybody other than myself.

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I mean, they're essentially doing the same thing that they did with the Marvel franchise.

You get your core lineup.

Then you branch out from there.

Everyone knows Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America. Even just in passing, they were fairly well recognized by the public. That builds up brand recognition and keeps general audiences invested in the series, since it follows people they're familiar with. But then, things get handed off to different properties that stray from the main path, like Guardians of the Galaxy, Cloak and Dagger, Marvel's Netflix Properties, Dr. Strange, etc. By that point, people are acclimated to the universe, and know that, even if it's way out there, it's all in the world they're comfortable with. Now, they're adding in comics and books to supplement the main series, acting as a sort of intermediary between the two phases I mentioned above.

We'll get to the more out of the way stuff. Hell, we're already seeing inroads with the various Old Republic lore being created, which i'm betting will accumulate in a massive KotOR marketing rush, with a re-vamped game and tie-in materials, possibly including a TV series.