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‘star wars: the rise of skywalker’: film review.

Director J.J. Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio close the book on the core origin story of George Lucas' space saga as the torch of intergalactic control is passed from one generation to the next in 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.'

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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How many film franchises have lasted for 42 years? Who will be surprised if Disney, the adoptive parent of George Lucas ‘ remarkable baby, doesn’t keep siring new offspring for the seemingly inexhaustible intergalactic mother ship known as  Star Wars  for longer than anyone connected with the original series is still alive? Will movie theaters still exist when the children, biological or otherwise, of Rey or Poe or Finn are old enough to fly? Has the property now become too Disneyfied? Will even more of the core fan base that angrily turned on  The Last Jedi continue and amplify their vendetta in the wake of the new entry?

These are some of the questions swirling around  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ,  which eventfully, if not exactly satisfactorily, closes the book on the core origin story of this indelible world. On a popular level, it succeeds in a way that good escapist fiction always has, by transporting you completely to a fabulous foreign realm unvisitable by any other means. No one who has seen the preceding VIII chapters will dare miss this concluding installment, which means that the vast majority of the known moviegoing world will turn up. And in theaters, no less. But there are nagging problems that, while evident in the previous two entries, have become more pronounced now.

Release date: Dec 20, 2019

With J.J. Abrams back at the helm after having efficiently relaunched the franchise four years ago with  The Force Awakens ,  there was little doubt that the serious business of keeping Disney’s most valuable acquisition well-tended would be responsibly managed by the man who previously relaunched  Star Trek  on the big screen. If anything, the director has overcompensated, practically tripping over himself in a mad-dash effort to deliver the expected goods and then some. It’s easy to conjure up the image of him as a beleaguered chef in a large kitchen preparing a huge banquet, trying to satisfy lots of customers in the ways that count and not goof up anything too important.

In the most obvious ways he has largely succeeded, even if the more-is-more approach ultimately leaves one both bloated from too many courses and uncertain about some of the ingredients. To switch metaphors, he’s also a traffic cop; there’s more travel here than in  Around the World in 80 Days,  and it sure moves a lot faster, but half the time you don’t know either where the characters are or why they’re going somewhere else, which is virtually all the time. The dramatic structure owes more to a pinball machine than to a logically planned trip, but this doesn’t matter all that much, as most viewers will just be on board for a great ride and more than willing to go wherever the film takes them.

The core dynamic at play in the script by Chris Terrio ( Argo, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League ) and Abrams, from a story by Derek Connolly ( Safety Not Guaranteed ,  Jurassic World, Monster Trucks ), is, appropriately enough given the franchise’s jump from Fox to Disney, the passing of the torch of intergalactic control from one generation to the next. Courtesy of a rather significant amount of previously unused footage, the late Carrie Fisher ‘s Leia Organa is on hand to participate in the transfer of power. The sense of continuity is furthered by the liberation from self-imposed hermitude of Mark Hamill ‘s Luke Skywalker and the big-screen re-emergence, after 34 years and numerous gigs as the character on TV and in video games, of Billy Dee Williams’ Lando Calrissian. 

At the outset, the universe is at a point where domination by the First Order once again seems a possibility. You would think that the utter and repeated obliteration suffered by the dark side in the past would be enough for peace and quiet to prevail at least for a few lifetimes. But, no, somehow old Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is still hanging in there and a massive generation of young stormtroopers is at the ready to attack once heir presumptive Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver ) sheds his Hamlet-like indecision and decides to seize his opportunity to rule the world.

The main thing giving him pause is his keen attraction to Rey ( Daisy Ridley ). Despite his predilection for wearing his own, red-veined version of a Darth Vader mask, for the longest time he remains hung up on a fantasy that he and Rey can become the ruling couple of the universe. But she’s no more prone to entertain this notion than she’s ever been, preferring to hone her skills as a badass warrior, a vocation furthered when Leia bestows her personal lightsaber on the intensely focused younger woman.

For quite a long time, the film jumps all over the place, making as many stops as a local subway train. Rey and ace pilot Poe Dameron ( Oscar Isaac ) remain at odds about most things, but the main demand on the latter’s time is jerry-rigging his rickety used spacecrafts and otherwise wrestling with physical jeopardy, which happens all the time as the small band of Resistance fighters fly hither and yon looking for the Emperor’s gathering forces. Never does a mechanical problem remain unsolved by Poe for more than a minute or two.

So agreeable are most of the performers and so busy are the characters tending to urgent matters that the why and wherefore of what’s happening onscreen becomes increasingly obscure: Where does everyone stand in relation to one another? Where is so-and-so going and why? What’s at stake in this particular confrontation? (Of course, there has to be at least a mini-crisis every few minutes.) Not everything can represent the same urgent importance, nor should the fate of the universe be at stake every 10 minutes. Yes, it was so in 1930s serials like  Flash Gordon,  which is what inspired Lucas to create  Star Wars  in the first place, and very occasionally, such as in  Raiders of the Lost Ark,  a modern director has been able to pull off a highly episodic adventure like this. 

Here, though, the massive jumble of standoffs, near-misses, tense confrontations, narrow escapes and slick victories, while momentarily exciting, can lack plausible motivation and credibility. More often than not, one wonders not so much what just happened but why, and what was at stake. A plot like this, featuring so many characters, locations and story dynamics, can by nature be confusing; so relentless is the pileup of incident that, at a certain point, one can be excused for checking out on the particulars of what’s going on at a given moment and why in favor of just going along for the amusement park ride.

There are directors who are content with such ambitions, just as there are large audiences for same. Abrams has a foot in one camp and the other foot in another, hoping to have it both ways, which he manages for the reason that  The Rise of Skywalker  has a good sense of forward movement that keeps the pic, and the viewer, keyed up for well over two hours. It might not be easy to confidently say what’s actually going on at any given moment and why, but the filmmakers’ practiced hands, along with the deep investment on the part of fans, will likely keep the majority of viewers happily on board despite the checkered nature of the storytelling.

Still, an increasingly vexing issue that serves to hold one’s enthusiasm in check are the main characters and cast of episodes VII to IX. The simultaneous onscreen presence here of Fisher, Hamill, Williams and a fun, unbilled appearance by another franchise favorite creates a wave of sentimental affection and goodwill that the younger leads have never generated across three films. Isaac has loosened up a bit to become more engaging as the series has progressed, but the same can’t be said for Ridley, whose portrait of Rey runs the gamut between determined and grim. As Kylo Ren, Driver is, for the most part, broodingly recessive in a not particularly intriguing way; his character an uninterestingly conflicted, not to mention inarticulate, Hamlet.

It almost goes without saying that, from a physical production point of view, The Rise of Skywalker  is stupendous, enough reason by itself to see and even enjoy the film. Clearly no expense has been spared in making almost every scene spectacular, and cinematographer Dan Mindel has here surpassed his work on  The Force Awakens  and numerous other special effects extravaganzas with his often striking images (some eye-popping settings, particularly in Jordan and along a stormy seacoast that makes the one in  Ryan’s Daughter  look like a wading pool, don’t hurt). Production designers Rick Carter and Kevin Jenkins and costume designer Michael Kaplan aced their jobs as well, as have, in spades, the visual and special effects teams.

John Williams, 87 years young, has composed yet another rambunctious, melodious, propulsive score for a very big film; you wouldn’t want anyone else on the job. 

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Production companies: Lucasfilm, Bad Robot Distributor: Disney Cast: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega , Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson , Richard E. Grant , Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell , Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams Director: J.J. Abrams Screenwriters: Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams, story by Derek Connoly, Colin Trevorrow, Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams, based on characters created by George Lucas Producers: J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy , Michelle Rejwau Executive producers: Tommy Gormley, Callum Greene, Jason D. McGatlin Director of photography: Dan Mindel Production designers: Rick Carter, Kevin Jenkins Costume designer: Michael Kaplan Editors: Maryann Brandon, Stefan Grube Music: John Williams Casting: Nina Gold, April Webster, Alyssa Weisberg

Rated  PG-13,  141 minutes

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‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’: Film Review

No "Star Wars" film can fully recapture the thrill of 40 years ago, but as directed by J.J. Abrams, the ninth and final chapter in the saga that George Lucas created may come closer than any "Star Wars" movie since.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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In “ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ,” there’s a lightsaber duel that’s pretty fantastic — not because of any unprecedented whirling-action whoa! factor (we have, after all, been through one or two of these my-sword-of-electric-fire-is-mightier-than-your-sword-of-electric-fire duels in our “Star Wars” lifetimes), but because of the emotions it channels. Visually, it’s a splendid fight. Rey ( Daisy Ridley ), the Jedi Knight who’s in the midst of trying to figure out, you know, who she is , and Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver ), the First Order commander who’s certain that he’s figured out the Dark Side badass he is, face off outdoors, standing atop the ruins of the Death Star, a wasteland of corroded metal that looks like the aftermath of some intergalactic 9/11.

As stormy black ocean waves crash and churn around them, like something out of “Wuthering Heights,” Ren uses his red Sith lightsaber, with the cross-handle that makes it look like a pulsating version of Excalibur; Rey uses her trusty blue Jedi lightsaber. After much fateful combat, a saber is plunged, and there’s a clear victor — but then something quite unexpected happens. It’s game-changing, it’s powerful and moving, and at that moment it’s everything you want from a “Star Wars” film.

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In 1977 and 1980, “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” were two movies that the whole wide world agreed on (to put it in fanboy terms: that they were the greatest things ever). And that’s part of why they changed the world. The universality of the adoration for “Star Wars” became one of the cornerstones of its aesthetic. In the 40 years since, there has been less to agree on about “Star Wars,” which may be one reason why this distended-through-the-decades space-opera odyssey now feels, by turns, inspiring and dispiriting. Most agree, at least, that the George Lucas prequels were an eye-popping but empty experiment in technologically driven brand enhancement. Yet that isn’t exactly a consensus to take heart in.

And the last two films? Fans fell hard for “The Force Awakens,” until they woke up and realized that they’d been seduced by a kind of painstakingly well-traced “Star Wars” simulacrum. “The Last Jedi” was admired by some and disliked by many, with the divide often carrying an ugly subtext: a resentment at the film’s diversity casting, while others leapt to its defense for that very reason, turning what was supposed to be a piece of escapism into an ideological turf war as messy and overblown as some of us thought the movie itself was.

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” might just brush the bad-faith squabbling away. It’s the ninth and final chapter of the saga that Lucas started, and though it’s likely to be a record-shattering hit, I can’t predict for sure if “the fans” will embrace it. (The very notion that “Star Wars” fans are a definable demographic is, in a way, outmoded.) What I can say is that “The Rise of Skywalker” is, to me, the most elegant, emotionally rounded, and gratifying “Star Wars” adventure since the glory days of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” (I mean that, but given the last eight films, the bar isn’t that high.)

It’s a puckish and engrossing movie, fulsome but light on its rocket feet. At two hours and 28 minutes, is it too long? Yes. Does it feature several dead characters coming all too conveniently back to life? Yes. (Actual dialogue: “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” “Wait, do we believe this?” And no, that’s not a spoiler. It’s revealed in the opening 20 minutes.) If you look past its foibles, though, “The Rise of Skywalker” has been directed, by J.J. Abrams (the script is by Abrams and Chris Terrio), with much the same neo-classic-Lucas precision and crispness and verve that he brought to “The Force Awakens,” though in this case with less of the lockstep nostalgia that made that film such a direct clone of the first “Star Wars” that the thrill of going back to 1977 was mitigated by the fact that the entire thing had been transparently engineered to give you that feeling. It was like a pharmaceutical drug called Starzac.

That said, maybe there’s no escaping that the final entry of this series, coming 42 years after the original “Star Wars,” is — at best — going to be less a brilliant piece of stand-alone escapism than a kind of exquisitely executed self-referential package. “The Rise of Skywalker” has rousingly edited battles, like the opening dogfight, with Poe (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) trading quips as they race the Millennium Falcon back from an intel mission. It has the irresistible presence of old friends, like Gen. Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher ), still guiding the Resistance and mentoring Rey, and an older and wiser but feisty-as-ever Gen. Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams, in his first part in the series since “Return of the Jedi,” wrapping his velvet baritone around lines like “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”), plus one or two other returning icons you might not expect.

The story, abetted by trademark John Williams music cues that always manage to drop in at the perfect moment, is a digressive but satisfyingly forward-hurtling MacGuffin that stays on course. It follows Rey and her team as they bop from one planet to the next, all in order to locate the wayfinder crystal that will lead them to Exogol, the hidden land of the Siths where Palpatine, bent on domination of the galaxy, has set up his stone-throned, dark-shadowed supervillain hell cave. They find a dagger inscripted with the information they need — except that it’s written in the forbidden runes of the Sith, which C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) is programmed not to translate. So they have to travel to a renegade planet to find a black-market droid tech, who has to erase C-3PO’s memory.

This may sound like a fancy form of time-killing, except that Isaac’s Han-lite renegade Poe, Boyega’s loyal cut-up Finn, and the usual nattering gang of rubbery cute beasts have now gotten into enough of a groove to evoke the “Guardians of the Galaxy” crew (who, of course, were a knockoff of the “Star Wars” team). “The Rise of Skywalker” also features what is far and away Daisy Ridley’s most accomplished performance as Rey. After all her Jedi training, Rey now has powers so advanced they’re dangerous (she detonates a spaceship with her grasping hand — and, it appears, blows up one of her comrades). Ridley wears Rey’s mission with furious charisma, bringing a possessed quality to the character, never more so than when she learns who she is . What makes her performance so much more than “diversity” casting is that “The Rise of Skywalker” pointedly completes the “Star Wars” saga as a myth embracing the rise of women.

What no contemporary “Star Wars” movie can have, no matter how slavishly it imitates the template that Lucas invented, is the primal awe of the original films’ space battles. At the time, the gritty-yet-frictionless, zipping-through-the-canyons joystick stuff was miraculous. It anticipated the digital era, and the only place you could see it — could live it — was at a “Star Wars” film. But “Star Wars” turned Hollywood into an industry devoted to space-race fantasy and action candy. So the only real dimension of “Star Wars” that’s defining anymore is…the cosmology. No wonder the thrill isn’t there the way it was.

“The Rise of Skywalker” has to deal some of with the anti-Lucas curveballs that director Rian Johnson introduced into “The Last Jedi,” and it may actually be a better movie for it. Rey and Ren, locked in mortal combat, commune through the cosmos, as if both were linked up to some advanced communication system called ForceTime. Ren’s murky moral ambivalence has been clarified — he now presides over the First Order in a mask modeled on his grandfather Darth Vader’s, though this one has glowing red cracks and a chrome grill that make it look like something off a ’70s album cover. And where, in “The Last Jedi,” Mark Hamill’s Luke was practically a doomsday nihilist, inviting the eradication of the Jedi (which was a bit loopy), Abrams draws his movie back from that ledge.

He also does not send his characters on too many disparate missions, the way “The Last Jedi” did. For all its sprawl, “The Rise of Skywalker” is all of a piece. Palpatine is indeed alive, with Ian McDiarmid returning to play him, looking more like a rotting monk than ever. His desire to squash what’s left of the Resistance, and to establish a reign of total terror, may seem standard issue, but now, for the first time, it has a jolting topical resonance. The villainous forces of “Star Wars” were always a sci-fi variation on 20th-century fascism, and that made them, at the time, seem ominous but historically distant. But in “The Rise of Skywalker,” the fascism looms, for the first time, as something more real; it’s what we’re now facing. The film keeps repeating that though the forces of the First Order are actually outnumbered, those forces work to make the Resistance fighters feel isolated and alone, as if they had no power. And you’d better believe that’s a pointed and timely statement. In its way, it’s also a tip of the hat to George Lucas, who in the “Star Wars” saga drew on the pop culture of the past to create a revolutionary new pop culture, and in doing so foresaw the future. Maybe more than he knew.

Reviewed at SVA Theater, New York, Dec. 17, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 142 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Bad Robot, Lucasfilm Ltd. production. Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Michelle Rejwan. Executive producers: Tommy Gormley, Callum Greene, Jason D. McGatlin.  
• Crew: Director: J.J. Abrams. Screenplay: Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams. Camera (color, widescreen): Dan Mindel. Editors: Maryann Brandon, Stefan Grube. Music: John Williams.
• With: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams , Ian McDiarmid, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Anthony Daniels, Jimmy Vee, David Chapman, Brian Herring, Joonas Suotamo, Domhnall Gleason, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Ackie, Kelly Marie Tran, Keri Russell.

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi

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Watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi honors the saga's rich legacy while adding some surprising twists -- and delivering all the emotion-rich action fans could hope for.

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• DVD & Streaming

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• December 20, 2019
• Daisy Ridley as Rey; Adam Driver as Kylo Ren; John Boyega as Finn; Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron; Anthony Daniels as C-3PO; Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca; Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian; Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico; Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine; Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa

Home Release Date

• March 17, 2020
• J.J. Abrams

Distributor

Movie review.

Death Stars are so lame.

Oh, the Galactic Empire gave the concept a go—twice, actually. Both literally blew up in their faces. The upstart First Order figured they’d improved on the concept by getting back to the basics: What’s the point in building a whole new Death Star when you can just stick a gigantic laser cannon in a planet? As we saw in The Force Awakens , that didn’t go so hot, either.

So (spoiler warning, though you learn about this next point in both the trailers and the second sentence of the movie’s opening crawl) Emperor Palpatine—recently dead but, through the miracles of galactic science and evil, still capable of a nefarious plot or two—has hatched a shiny new plan. And both First Order Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and wanna-be Jedi Rey figure prominently in it. The first will be Palpatine’s younger, more mobile avatar in the galaxy, the Emperor hopes; his spiritual son, if you will. The second will be—if all goes well—dead.

But as we’ve seen, Kylo Ren tends to have somewhat violent relationships with his would-be father figures. And honestly, Kylo’s not quite sure he wants Rey dead. She could be a powerful ally, he believes, if Rey could somehow be turned to the Dark Side. Together, they’d be unstoppable.

But Rey has no intention of joining the Dark Side. She’s got other things on her mind: finishing her Jedi training, protecting her friends and, oh yeah, saving the galaxy, too.

Death Stars may be a little passe in this new galactic era. But the Jedi … well, despite always seemingly on the edge of extinction, the old order still has life in it yet.

Positive Elements

For most of the movie, Rey stands as a worthy inheritor of the Jedi order’s lofty, altruistic goals. She’s the film’s primary hero, doing all manner of heroic things and risking her life in all manner of ways. She’s willing to sacrifice herself for her friends and for the galaxy, of course, but that’s old news: The ultimate sacrifice for her involves something a little more complex, and she shows a willingness to make it if she must.

But perhaps the thing most resonant about Rey’s story is that she’s more than just a warrior here: She’s a healer , and her kindness and willingness to help even threats pays dividends.

Of course, all of Rey’s associates—Poe and Finn and Leia and Chewbacca and many, many others—show off their own forms of heroism and sacrifice. Indeed, even droids sacrifice for their cause, and in strangely poignant ways.

Spiritual Elements

The Force is still (ahem) a force in Rise of Skywalker . Though Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace offered a naturalistic explanation for it (midichlorians, as you recall), it acts and feels much more spiritual, and leaning heavily into an Eastern understanding of spirituality—a near-Taoist yin-yang sense of the cosmos. The Light and Dark sides of the Force are locked in eternal conflict, and we hear at least one reference to the Force needing to be brought “in balance.” (In practice, of course, the Light Side Jedi have always seemed pretty interested in conquering the Dark Side, which leads to a certain spiritual dissonance in worldview messaging, but we move on.)

That Force gives its users, both Light and Dark, a variety of impressive powers: The ability to levitate objects, fire off lightning bolts and, for the first time that I’m aware of, the ability to magically heal others. When those who are strong in the Force die, their corporeal selves sometimes vanish peacefully. They also have the power to return in a more ghostly form, offering advice and such.

We see Rey levitating with her legs crossed while meditating.

[ Spoiler Warning ] The Rise of Skywalker offers one more new twist here, however: We learn that all the Jedi (and all the Sith over on the Dark Side) who’ve previously lived and died somehow live within their still-living representatives. While meditating, Rey seeks to establish a connection with deceased Jedi in two scenes, repeating the phrase “Be with me.” She subsequently hears the encouraging Jedi voices of some who’ve gone before her from within her psyche—an idea that this film plays out in ways that previous installments have not.

Sexual Content

Two primary characters share a kiss. Poe Dameron renews acquaintences which someone who appears to be an old flame; at one point, he looks at her and flicks his head toward a more secluded spot—a silent invitation, the movie suggests, to engage in a more intimate encounter. The old flame shakes her head no. One female character wears a low-cut top.

Back-to-back scenes during a crowded celebratory sequence show a gay female couple kiss and hold hands.

Violent Content

If you count up all the planets and Death Stars destroyed, the Star Wars movies have always had an obscenely high body count. Rise of Skywalker has that, too, but the violence here can feel more intimate and visceral than we’ve seen before. We see a couple of people (and creatures) sport some bloody wounds. In the aftermath of one battle in which Kylo Ren slays many opponents, we see bodies and a dismembered arm lying next to a corpse.

Kylo shows little hesitation in killing aliens and people alike—in the opening moments hacking through dozens of non-humans in a harsh battle sequence. He performs a Darth Vader-esque chokehold on one of his underlings—more violently than we’ve seen Vader do, though not necessarily as lethal. Countless storm troopers, rebels and extras fall to light saber slashes, blaster fire, magic lightning, crashes and explosions.

People fall, or nearly fall, from some pretty lofty heights. Characters get sucked into a quicksand-like trap. The life force is sucked out of a few folks, one way or another. The head of a sentient alien being is tossed on a table.

We see lots and lots of firefights and saber battles. Someone expresses a longing to see Poe’s “brains in the snow.” Our main characters encounter a pile of bones. “Never a good sign,” says C-3PO.

Crude or Profane Language

Three uses of the word “h—,” two of “d–n” and one of “a–.” We hear bit of name-calling here and there as well.

Drug and Alcohol Content

We hear that Poe was once a “spice runner.” Though the movie doesn’t explain exactly what “spice” is, the extended Star Wars canon makes it clear that it’s an illegal substance that forms the foundation of a recreational drug. (It’s perhaps a nod to the addictive spice found in another seminal sci-fi series, Dune . )

Palpatine’s cadaverous new life seems augmented by a phalanx of chemical components, and the guy’s body is attached to some sort of technological tether that, presumably, pumps him full of whatever he needs to keep his constitution in order.

Other Negative Elements

Characters bicker a bit, and they engage the help of a couple of shady characters at times. They use subterfuge to gain access to a First Order ship as well.

It’s the end. Only not really.

The Star Wars universe will continue well past Rise of Skywalker —on TV, in video games, in fan fiction, in toys, in shiny new movies. But certainly, this episode— Episode IX —closes the book on the core Skywalker saga that launched the whole universe and has been running for, oh, 42 years now.

I need not reiterate, really, that the franchise has been perhaps the most influential pop-culture force in the last half-century. The original movie redefined what it meant to be a “blockbuster,” and it’s largely responsible for the cinematic world we live in today: Sprawling, multi-movie storylines; special-effects spectacles; obscenely passionate fans. Without Star Wars, it seems unlikely we’d have the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Harry Potter saga or much of anything that routinely lands on the top of the box-office charts. Star Wars , in many respects, changed the world, and so this film truly marks the end of an era.

So does it end that era well ?

The final trilogy— The Force Awakens , The Last Jedi and now The Rise of Skywalker —seem as though it’s become progressively more problematic. The violence, while largely bloodless, can feel more visceral and even grisly than it did in some earlier segments (though, admittedly, even the earliest allowed our heroes to spill the ropelike guts of a tauntaun in The Empire Strikes Back ).

While the original Star Wars movie featured only a single swear word—and some, I think, steered clear of profanity altogether— The Rise of Skywalker peppers the dialogue with about a half-dozen profanities. In a first for the Star Wars cinematic universe, we very briefly see a same-sex couple onscreen. It’s a content concern that families have not been forced to address in this franchise, but one that will now require intentional thought if younger eyes notice this brief scene.

And, of course, parents will have to navigate with the issue they’ve always had to deal with in this franchise: the ever-present, all-powerful Force.

Aesthetically, there’s plenty to pick at, too. This movie requires even a greater level of suspended disbelief than in the past.

But for fans of this franchise, The Rise of Skywalker works: not necessarily logically, but emotionally. And it works well.

Rey, Kylo, Finn and Poe have never been more engaging. Some of the action sequences might make you want to jump out of your seat and cheer. The film ties up the saga powerfully and sometimes beautifully, if not cogently. And for those inclined to learn and teach some lessons through the magic of film, this one has plenty to choose from: how love triumphs over hatred. How courage trumps fear. How our choices, not our backgrounds or lot in life, define who we are. How it’s worth fighting for what’s good and right, even when the odds against triumph seem so very long.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker —and really, all the Star Wars movies—have always leaned into emotion. These are movies you feel , and that you don’t necessarily want to think about too much.

But on some level, that’s unfair to these movies. They do want us to think, to think about the heroism, sacrifice and friendship we see. Those are thoughts worth having here. And these themes—heroism, sacrifice, friendship and love—are why (along with some cool light saber battles) I embraced the series from the very beginning, when I was 7 years old. And why, even today, hearing the opening orchestral fanfare makes me grin like I’m 7 again.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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May the 4th be with you! Here’s everything our critics have said about the ‘Star Wars’ franchise

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With “Star Wars” Day looming, it’s an apt time to take stock of The Times’ reviews of each installment — movies and TV shows — in the ever-evolving, paradigm-shattering intergalactic franchise.

Updating our list from 2015 , which came before a new wave of “Star Wars” films and TV series endeared the franchise to a new generation of fans, we’re including our reviews of the latest theatrical entries in “Star Wars” movie canon, and some notable mentions of the TV, streaming and serial projects that gave us backstories for Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Mandalorian and his beloved Grogu.

Here, in the order of the action in the “Star Wars” universe, are the reviews and features (some from a long time ago) that appeared in a newspaper in a galaxy not so far, far away ...

‘Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace’ (1999)

Former L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan — who reviewed all three prequel films — didn’t love “The Phantom Menace.” His review said it was obvious that the new addition to the franchise was “aimed at younger audiences” and noted that it “delivers lots of spectacle but is noticeably lacking in warmth and humor.”

Review: The Prequel Has Landed

‘Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones’ (2002)

Turan was also not feeling newcomer Hayden Christensen and his sulky take on Anakin Skywalker: “Judging by his performance here (perhaps not a wise thing to do), young Canadian actor Hayden Christensen was picked for Anakin strictly on his ability to radiate sullen teen rebellion, something he does a lot. Anakin chafes like a grounded adolescent at the restrictions Obi-Wan places on him, grousing that the master is “overly critical. He never listens. He just doesn’t understand. It’s not fair.”

Turan dubs the relationship between Anakin and his beloved Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) “High School Confidential in Outer Space” and states that the two are less troubled by their forbidden love and more “burdened by a formidable lack of chemistry.”

Review: “When We Last Saw Our Heroes ...”

‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ (2008)

Times staff writer Michael Ordoña described the feature film that launched George Lucas’ computer-animated TV series as a “theatrical pilot for the upcoming animated television series” and wrote that “anyone older than 8 with the majority of brain functions intact will have a bad feeling about this.”

“But where new characters, plot threads and better dialogue might have made up for much, ‘Clone Wars’ simply doesn’t aim high enough,” he wrote. “For those who had expected improved writing from the last four films [‘Return of the Jedi’ to ‘Revenge of the Sith’], your hopes will be dashed on the ornately realized rocks of Tatooine.”

Review aside, the TV series ran for seven seasons — first on Cartoon Network, then Netflix and finally Disney+ — from 2008 to 2020. Not to mention, “The Clone Wars” (both film and series) introduced its share of key characters and lore that has been indispensable to the franchise in the Disney+ era.

Review: It’s a Weak Jedi Mind Trick

‘Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith’ (2005)

Turan came in with show-stopping pun: “‘Revenge of the Sith’ is a visual stunner, but beware of the talk side.”

Enough said.

Review: It Looks Hot ...

‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ (2018)

Former Times film critic Justin Chang took on the newer “Star Wars” installments after Turan left The Times in 2020. His duties involved reviewing the lesser-loved film “Solo,” whose rocky behind-the-scenes story involved the firing of original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller and the hiring of their replacement, Ron Howard. The film details how fan-favorite rogue Han Solo scored the famous Millennium Falcon, met Chewbacca and came by his surname.

“[Howard] and his collaborators (including screenwriters Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan) have cobbled together a high-speed, low-energy intergalactic heist movie, an opportunity to spend too much time with people you don’t care about and too little time with people you do,” Chang wrote.

Review: ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Never Gets Off the Ground, But Don’t Blame Alden Ehrenreich

Obi-Wan Kenobi has a deep history. Before the Disney+ series, here’s what to know

We look back at the Star Wars history of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, originated by Alec Guinness and played in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ by Ewan McGregor.

May 26, 2022

‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ (2022)

The titular former general and Jedi master, introduced in 1977’s “ A New Hope ” and whose backstory was expanded upon in 1999’s “ The Phantom Menace ,” got his own space adventure in this Disney+’s six-episode limited series starring Ewan McGregor.

Times staff writer Tracy Brown explained that for series co-write Joby Harold, part of the excitement of the Disney+ series was exploring what could have happened between “Revenge of the Sith” and “A New Hope” for McGregor’s Kenobi to become the version embodied by Alec Guinness. The series is also a touching tribute to everybody’s favorite princess: “Leia’s role in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ both expands her significance in the overall ‘Star Wars’ story and recontextualizes existing canon in a way that deepens Leia’s imprint on the saga,” Brown wrote.

Commentary: How Disney’s ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ changes Princess Leia’s legacy forever

‘Star Wars Rebels’ (2014)

Times television critic Robert Lloyd wrote that the 2014 expression of the “Star Wars” brand seemed “sent to hold your attention until the arrival of the seventh live-action film.” The cartoon series premiered on the Disney Channel and was “the first tangible fruit of the incorporation of ‘Star Wars’ into the Walt Disney empire, and a Disney cartoon is very much what this is.”

“Though firmly in the Lucas tradition, this is also a Disney cartoon, for a Disney crowd and a Disney corporation — watching, you can almost feel the plastic and the plush — and whatever the characters are up to, however cute or sentimental the business, it is smartly designed and cinematically staged, and not hard to enjoy.”

Review: Disney Is the Driving Force of ‘Star Wars Rebels’

‘Andor’ (2022)

The critically hailed Disney+ series “Andor ” tells the story of how Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) transforms from disaffected, self-centered thief to committed resistance fighter willing to die for the cause, Brown wrote.

“Eschewing many of the familiar tropes and set pieces associated with the franchise, the series has pushed ‘Star Wars’ storytelling to new heights,” Brown said, and its political proclivities made the series must-see TV.

Commentary: ‘Star Wars’ Has Always Been Political. ‘Andor’ Made It Must-See TV

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ (2016)

Landing in theaters a year after “The Force Awakens,” the brisk and momentous story was actually set about three decades prior and is a “swiftly paced, rough-and-ready entertainment that, in anticipating the canonical events of ‘A New Hope,’ manages the tricky feat of seeming at once casually diverting and hugely consequential,” Chang wrote.

“With the Death Star undergoing its final quality assurance tests, the evil Galactic Empire is very much in the ascendant. The Rebel Alliance is fractious and disorganized. And what initially seems like a zippy stand-alone adventure soon reveals itself as a grimly exciting prequel to the first, or should I say fourth, film in the series, ‘Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope.’ (Think of the new movie, if you must, as ‘Star Wars: Episode III.V — Dawn of a New Hope.’)”

Review: ‘Rogue One’ Adds an Uneven but Thrilling Wrinkle to the Mythology of ‘Star Wars’

Unlike ‘Andor,’ ‘Mandalorian’ is going all in on ‘Star Wars’ lore. Here’s what to know

Season 3 features protective space dad Mando (Pedro Pascal) and adorable Grogu (Baby Yoda) on yet another journey steeped in “Star Wars” allusions.

March 1, 2023

‘Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope’ (1977)

The first-ever “Star Wars” film from director Lucas — originally titled simply “Star Wars” — was heralded by the late Times critic Charles Champlin as “the year’s most razzle-dazzling family movie, an exuberant and technically astonishing space adventure in which the galactic tomorrows of ‘Flash Gordon’ are the setting for conflicts and events that carry the suspiciously but splendidly familiar ring of yesterday’s westerns, as well as yesterday’s ‘Flash Gordon’ serials.”

Review: ‘Star Wars’ Hails the Once and Future Space Western

‘Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980)

Champlin really got into the spirit of the Force, praising both the first film and this one for their optimism and more: “‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ like all superior fantasies, have the quality of parable, not only on good and evil but on attitudes toward life and personal deportment and there is something very like a moral imperative in the films’ view of hard work, determination, self-improvement, concentration and idealism,” he wrote. “It does not take a savant to see that this uplifting tone only a little less than the plot and effects is a central ingredient of the wide outreach of the films.”

Review: In the ‘Star Wars’ Saga, ‘Empire’ Strikes Forward

‘Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi’ (1983)

We found someone who loved the Ewoks! The late Times movie critic Sheila Benson called the final film in the original trilogy “frankly irresistible” and heaped tons of praise on the furry fiends from the moon of Endor.

Review: ‘Star Wars’ Continues With an Inventive ‘Jedi’

‘The Mandalorian’ (2019)

The big-budget, live-action series launched Disney’s streaming platform (and gave us the adorable “baby Yoda,” a.k.a. Grogu). Lorraine Ali, who was then a Times’ TV critic, described the show as “‘Star Wars’/Disney right down to its weird sand creatures and blighted outposts, and a safe-but-entertaining start” for Disney+.

“The premiere episode of the first live-action series in the ‘Star Wars’ universe is a direct descendant of the big-budget film franchise in both tone and execution. It’s long on impressive special effects and alien shootouts, and short on a fresh story line beyond the usual unwitting hero with a mysterious family tree and a destiny that involves saving the universe (or part of it),” she wrote. “The feel of the series is blockbuster cinema — action-packed, predictable, entertaining — so it’s jarring when the first episode ends at around 35 minutes.”

Review: ‘The Mandalorian’ Is ‘Star Wars’ to the Core: A Safe, Entertaining Blockbuster

‘The Book of Boba Fett’ (2021-22)

The first spinoff of “The Mandalorian” focuses on fan-favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett, who left a lasting impression despite only six minutes and 32 seconds of screen time and four spoken lines during the original trilogy, Brown wrote. (Hey, the action figure was cool.)

Picking up after the events of “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” follows Fett (Temuera Morrison) as he establishes himself as the new crime lord in charge among the local scum and villainy on Tattooine, along with his faithful right hand, Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). The series also filled in some gaps about what Fett was up to between the events of “Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi” (1983) and his appearance in “The Mandalorian.”

Commentary: Boba Fett Had Four Lines in ‘Empire Strikes Back.’ How He Ended Up With His Own TV Show

‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ (2023)

When Ahsoka Tano crashed into Anakin Skywalker’s life as his newly assigned padawan apprentice in 2008’s animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” she changed “Star Wars” forever.

Much like her master, the teen was reckless, impulsive, stubborn and didn’t always follow the rules. She was also the first female Jedi protagonist who audiences got to see in action onscreen in a franchise that until pretty recently held the lightsaber-wielding users of the Force in the highest regard.

The next chapter in the character’s 15-year legacy was “Star Wars: Ahsoka,” which similarly broke new ground on the live-action side of the galaxy far, far away. Starring Rosario Dawson, the series boasts the first nonhuman “Star Wars” title hero as well as a core cast primarily composed of women. Both are representational milestones and examples of how “Star Wars” has become much more inclusive than it was when the original film premiered in 1977.

Commentary: ‘Ahsoka’ Proves That ‘Star Wars’ Has Long Been a Galaxy Where Women Can Be Heroes

‘Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens’ (2015)

Turan wrote that the most hotly anticipated motion picture since “Gone With the Wind” had “an erratic, haphazard quality to it” but was “a definite improvement” on the franchise’s “abortive” second trilogy set, “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.”

“‘The Force Awakens’ is only at its best in fits and starts, its success dependent on who of its mix of franchise veterans and first-timers is on the screen,” Turan wrote. “But ‘The Force Awakens’ is also burdened by casting miscalculations and scenes that are flat and ineffective. Sometimes the Force is with this film, sometimes it decidedly is not.”

The Force was certainly with it at the box-office. The film grossed $120.5 million on its opening day, and in 2016 became the highest grossing movie in U.S. history (at the time), not adjusting for inflation.

Review: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’: Was It Worth the Wait?

‘Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi’ (2017)

The series’ eighth official episode, directed by Rian Johnson, was hailed as “easily its most exciting iteration in decades” by Chang, who described it as “the first flat-out terrific ‘Star Wars’ movie since 1980’s ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’”

“It seizes upon Lucas’ original dream of finding a pop vessel for his obsessions — Akira Kurosawa epics, John Ford westerns, science-fiction serials — and fulfills it with a verve and imagination all its own.”

Review: ‘The Last Jedi’ Brings Emotion, Exhilaration and Surprise Back to the ‘Star Wars’ Saga

‘Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker’ (2019)

“The Rise of Skywalker,” the frenzied big-bang conclusion of the franchise’s third movie trilogy, “offers itself up in the spirit of a ‘Last Jedi’ corrective, a return to storytelling basics, a nearly 2½-hour compendium of everything that made you fall in love with ‘Star Wars’ in the first place,” Chang wrote in 2019.

“The more accurate way to describe it, I think, is as an epic failure of nerve,” he said. “This ‘Rise’ feels more like a retreat, a return to a zone of emotional and thematic safety from a filmmaker with a gift for packaging nostalgia as subversion. Still, let’s acknowledge [director J.J.] Abrams for the proficient craftsman and genre-savvy showman he is. Like some of his other major pop-cultural contributions (two enjoyable ‘Star Trek’ movies and the twisty TV series ‘Lost’ among them), ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is a swift and vigorous entertainment, with a sense of forward momentum that keeps you watching despite several dubious plot turns and cheap narrative fakeouts.”

Review: ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Is Here to Remind You Just How Good ‘The Last Jedi’ Was

Former Times staff writer Meredith Woerner contributed to this report.

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Writer/director Rian Johnson ’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is a sprawling, incident- and character-packed extravaganza that picks up at the end of “ Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens ” and guides the series into unfamiliar territory. It’s everything a fan could want from a “ Star Wars ” film and then some. Even the sorts of viewers who spend the entire running time of movies anticipating every plot twist and crowing “ called it!” when they get one right are likely to come up short here. But the surprises usually don’t violate the (admittedly loose) internal logic of the universe George Lucas invented, and when they seem to, it’s because the movie has expanded the mythology in a small but significant way, or imported a sliver of something from another variant of Lucas’ creation (Genddy Tartakovsky’s magnificent TV series “Clone Wars” seems to have influenced the last act).  

The first part of “The Last Jedi” cross-cuts between the remnants of our heroes’ ragtag fleet (led by the late Carrie Fisher ’s Leia) running away from the First Order, aka the next-generation version of the Empire; and Rey ( Daisy Ridley ) on the aquatic planet Ahch-To ( gesundheit !) trying to convince the self-exiled Jedi master Luke Skywalker ( Mark Hamill , whose sandblasted face becomes truly iconic in close-ups) to overcome his grief at failing a group of young Jedi trainees and rejoin the Resistance. The New Order's Supreme Leader Snoke ( Andy Serkis plus CGI) has grand plans for both Rey and his Darth Vader-obsessed apprentice Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver ). The leathery old coot may not be a great bad guy—he’s too much of a standard-issue deep-voiced sadist, in a Marvel mode—but he is quite the chess player, and so is Johnson.  

I’m being vague here on purpose. Suffice to say that, despite being comprised of variations on things we’ve been experiencing directly (in “Star Wars” films) and indirectly (in “Star Wars”-inspired entertainment) since 1977, “The Last Jedi” still manages to maneuver in unexpected ways, starting with the decision to build a whole film around a retreat where the goal is not to win but to avoid being wiped out. Along that narrative backbone “The Last Jedi” strings what amount to several tight, often hastily devised mini-missions, each of which either moves the heroes (or villains) closer to their goals or blows up in their faces. The story resolves in lengthy, consecutive climaxes which, refreshingly, don’t play like a cynical attempt to pad things out. Old business is resolved, new business introduced.

And from scene to scene, Johnson gives veteran characters (Chewbacca and R2-D2 especially) and those who debuted in “The Force Awakens” enough screen time to showcase them at their best while also introducing compelling new faces (including a heroic maintenance worker, Kelly Marie Tran ’s Rose Tico; a serene and tough vice admiral in the Resistance, played by Laura Dern ; a sort of “safecracker” character played by Benicio Del Toro ). 

“Jedi” does a better job than most sequels of giving the audience both what it wants and what it didn’t know it wanted. The movie leans hard into sentiment, most of it planted in the previous installment, some related to the unexpected passing of one of its leads (Fisher—thank goodness they gave her a lot of screen time here, and thrilling things to do). But whenever it allows a character to cry (or invites us to) the catharsis feels earned. It happens rather often—this being a film preoccupied with grieving for the past and transcending it, populated by hounded and broken people who are afraid hope will be snuffed out. 

Rey’s anguish at not knowing who her parents are and Kylo Ren’s trauma at killing his own father to advance toward his "destiny" literally as well as figuratively mirror each other. Lifting a bit of business glimpsed briefly in “ The Empire Strikes Back ” and " Return of the Jedi ," Johnson lets these all-powerful characters telepathically “speak” to each other across space as easily as you or I might Skype with a friend. This gimmick offers so much potential for drama and wry humor that you might wonder why nobody did it earlier. 

Sometimes "The Last Jedi" violates our expectations in a cheeky way that stops short of telling super-fans to get over themselves. There’s a touch of “ Spaceballs ” and “Robot Chicken” to some of the jokes. Snoke orders Kylo to “take off that ridiculous helmet,” Luke chastises an old friend for showing a nostalgic video by muttering “That was a cheap move,” and an early gag finds one of the heroes calling the bridge of a star destroyer and pretending to be stuck on hold. This aspect adds a much-needed dash of self-deprecating humor (“The Force Awakens” was often a stitch as well, especially when Han Solo, Chewbacca, BB-8 and John Boyega ’s James Garner-like hero/coward Finn were onscreen), but without going so meta that "The Last Jedi" turns into a smart-alecky thesis paper on itself.

The movie works equally well as an earnest adventure full of passionate heroes and villains and a meditation on sequels and franchise properties. Like “The Force Awakens,” only more so, this one is preoccupied with questions of legacy, legitimacy and succession, and includes multiple debates over whether one should replicate or reject the stories and symbols of the past. Among its many valuable lessons is that objects have no worth save for the feelings we invest in them, and that no individual is greater than a noble idea.

Johnson has made some very good theatrical features, but the storytelling here owes the most to his work on TV’s “Breaking Bad,” a playfully convoluted crime drama that approached each new installment with the street illusionist’s panache: the source of delight was always in the hand you weren’t looking at. There are points where the film appears to have miscalculated or made an outright lame choice (this becomes worrisome in the middle, when Dern’s Admiral Holdo and Oscar Isaac ’s hotshot pilot Poe Dameron are at loggerheads), but then you realize that it was a setup for another payoff that lands harder because you briefly doubted that “The Last Jedi” does, in fact, know what it’s doing. 

This determination to split the difference between surprise and inevitability is encoded in “The Last Jedi” down to the level of scenes and shots. How many Star Destroyers, TIE fighters, Imperial walkers, lightsabers, escape pods, and discussions of the nature of The Force have we seen by now? Oodles. But Johnson manages to find a way to present the technology, mythology and imagery in a way that makes it feel new, or at least new-ish, starting with a shot of Star Destroyers materializing from hyperspace in the sky over a planet (as seen from ground level) and continuing through images of Rebel ships being raked apart by Imperial cannon fire like cans on a shooting range and, hilariously, a blurry video conference in which the goggle-eyed warrior-philosopher Maz Kanata (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o ) delivers important information while engaging in a shootout with unseen foes. (She calls it a “union matter.”) 

There’s greater attention paid here to color and composition than in any entry since “The Empire Strikes Back.” Particularly dazzling are Snoke’s throne room, with its Dario Argento-red walls and red-armored guards, and the final battle, set on a salt planet whose flat white surfaces get ripped up to reveal shades of crimson. (Seen from a distance, the battlefield itself seems to be bleeding.) The architecture of the action sequences is something to behold. A self-enclosed setpiece in the opening space battle is more emotionally powerful than any action sequence in any blockbuster this year, save the "No Man's Land" sequence of " Wonder Woman ," and it's centered on a character we just met.  

There are spots where the film can’t figure out how to get the characters to where it needs them to be and just sort of shrugs and says, “And then this happened, now let’s get on with it.” But there are fewer such moments than you might have gone in prepared to forgive—and really, if that sort of thing were a cinematic crime, Howard Hawks would have gotten the chair. Most importantly, the damned thing moves, both in a plot sense and in the sense of a skilled choreographer-dancer who has visualized every millisecond of his routine and practiced it to the point where grace seems to come as easily as breathing. Or skywalking.     

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence.

152 minutes

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker

Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa

Adam Driver as Kylo Ren

Daisy Ridley as Rey

John Boyega as Finn

Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron

Benicio Del Toro as DJ

Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke

Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico

Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata

Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux

Anthony Daniels as C-3PO

Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma

Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo

Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca

• Rian Johnson

Writer (based on characters created by)

• George Lucas

Director of Photography

• Steve Yedlin

Cinematographer

• John Williams

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Encore: Tom Shales' 1977 review of the new movie 'Star Wars'

On this May the 4th, now known as Star Wars Day, we listen back to an original NPR review of the now beloved classic. In 1977, Tom Shales reviewed the new film Star Wars for NPR.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Star Wars Movies In Order: How to Watch the Saga Chronologically

If you want to watch the Star Wars movies in chronological order, witnessing the separate rises of Anakin, Luke, and Rey as they unfolded in their timeline, we’ve ordered all the movies (and thrown in some bonus Mandalorian ) in one complete list.

The Star Wars movies are spread across three trilogies, with spin-offs and side-stories filling in the universe’s mythic lore. First comes the prequel trilogy ( The Phantom Menace , Attack of the Clones , and Revenge of the Sith ), introducing prodigy Anakin Skywalker and his fall from Jedi light side to become Darth Vader. You can wedge in 2008’s The Clone Wars between Attack and Revenge , which was followed up with its own, much better-received animated series . The Obi-Wan Kenobi show is set close after that.

Afterwards, it’s time to meet a certain space rogue in Solo: A Star Wars Story . Next in the timeline would be animated show Star Wars Rebels , which takes place simultaneously with Andor. The political thriller series famously leads into  Rogue One , a movie whose story events lead directly into the original trilogy. We’ll see Luke Skywalker emerging from the desert, his hero’s journey against the Galactic Empire seen across A New Hope , The Empire Strikes Back , and The Return of the Jedi . The infamous Star Wars Holiday Special , no longer canon, can be viewed between Hope and Empire if you’re into that kind of thing.

Additionally, two 1980s TV movies, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (also both now uncanonized) have generally been placed as occurring before Return of the Jedi .

But that’s all that remains for strange satellite films within Star Wars : In 2014, a great disturbance was felt when the Lucasfilm Story Group rebooted the canon, preserving the main films and shows, and punting the associated TV movies, books, games, and comics into the “ Star Wars Legends” category. That now leaves the reconstructive decades post- Return of the Jedi wide open for stories, with  The Mandalorian the first to officially toss his helmet in.

Finally, we approach the sequel trilogy, as Rey (last name pending) takes on the Jedi mantle in The Force Awakens , The Last Jedi , and The Rise of Skywalker . Animated series Star Wars Resistance runs parallel across the three sequel-trilogy movies. Now see the full list of Star Wars movies and shows in order below!  (And for more guides, check out  Star Wars  movies ranked by Tomatometer .) — Alex Vo

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) 52%

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) 65%

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) 19%

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) 79%

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021) 88%

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) 69%

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) 82%

Star Wars Rebels (2014) 98%

Andor (2022) 96%

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) 84%

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) 93%

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 95%

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) 82%

The Mandalorian (2019) 90%

The Book of Boba Fett (2021) 66%

Star Wars: Ahsoka (2023) 86%

Star Wars Resistance (2018) 92%

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) 93%

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) 91%

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) 51%

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‘The Acolyte’: This ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Series Isn’t a Force To Be Reckoned With

By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

The Jedi barely appear in the original Star Wars trilogy. Obi-Wan and Yoda are both hermits hiding from their own failures in distant corners of the galaxy, and both die after teaching Luke Skywalker a bit about the Force. Luke himself never technically completes his training, though he gets close enough to be considered a Jedi master in later films. So the Jedi exist more as a exciting symbol in those early films, as well as a mystery: How could a group of people so wise and powerful have just ceased to exist?

(*) A.K.A. the guy who turned out to be so boring , his own show had to morph into a Mandalorian bonus season partway through.

The newest Disney+ Star Wars series, The Acolyte , at least attempts to openly confront the reality that the Jedi are smug, complacent, and kind of terrible. But the execution of that idea is spotty throughout the four episodes given to critics. And the decision to set it a century before the rise of the Empire seems to defeat the purpose of the whole thing, because the Jedi of The Phantom Menace have learned exactly zero lessons.

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(*) Two of that show’s actors play Jedi here. Rebecca Henderson is Vernestra, a green-skinned, high-ranking member of the order. Charlie Barnett is Yord, a Jedi nerd.

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Star wars fans are intense. 'the acolyte' showrunner leslye headland is ready, where to watch ‘star wars: the acolyte’ online.

Manny Jacinto injects some welcome scoundrel energy as Mae’s ally, Qimir. Like Han Solo and Finn, he doesn’t care much about the Force, which is an element the prequels badly lacked. It’s especially helpful in a story that is so much about the Force, and which people the Jedi believe should be allowed to wield it. This was, of course, a key theme of the sequels, both within the story and within the awkward baton-passing between writer-directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson. 

Johnson’s The Last Jedi goes out of its way to democratize the Force, rather than treating it as something worthy only of characters with noble bloodlines. It positions Rey as the child of nobodies, and its final scene features an orphaned boy casually using the Force to grab a broom and sweep out a stable on Canto Bight. In The Rise of Skywalker, Abrams retcons things so that Rey is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, and he has zero interest in Broom Boy.

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In other words, this feels like a narrative dead end. That doesn’t automatically preclude a good series: The fact that no one learns anything here could be the whole tragic point of the story Headland and company are telling. It’s good to see another Star Wars project that, like Andor , interrogates some of the franchise’s fundamental assumptions. Entertainment-wise, though, the first half of The Acolyte is unfortunately a lot closer to The Book of Boba Fett .  

The first two episodes of The Acolyte begin streaming tonight at 9 p.m. ET, with additional episodes releasing weekly. I’ve seen the first four of eight episodes.

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Star Wars: The Acolyte Spoiler-Free Review

The latest star wars series for disney+ takes us to an earlier era than we’re used to with mixed results..

The following is a spoiler-free advance review of the first four episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte, which premieres Tuesday, June 4 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on Disney+.

There’s something innately exciting about how The Acolyte brings us to a never-before-seen era of Star Wars : About 100 years before the rise of the Empire, at the tail end of the High Republic period featured in recent books and comics . It allows us to dive into a very different galaxy, one where no one’s heard the names Skywalker or Palpatine, and where a thriving Jedi Order functions more along the lines of what we know from the prequel trilogy. After five consecutive series set either in the midst of or in the aftermath of the Empire’s rule, Disney+’s newest live-action Star Wars series changes things up from the get-go – there’s no Stormtroopers in sight! – and that timeframe, along with some intriguing story ideas, provides a strong hook. But it's not quite enough to bring balance to the first four episodes, which, on a filmmaking level, feel more “TV” than Star Wars ever has – thus losing much of its defining epic quality.

Amandla Stenberg does good work establishing twin sisters Mae and Osha as two distinct characters, imbuing each half of her dual role with different mannerisms and energies, without pushing things to extremes. Both sisters have been trained in the ways of the Force: Mae by a mysterious Sith master, and Osha at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant (before leaving the Jedi behind). It’s a solid setup and also a nice spotlight for Stenberg, who’s been an engaging onscreen presence since her breakout performance in The Hunger Games and up through projects like The Hate U Give and Bodies Bodies Bodies .

Star Wars: The Acolyte Character Posters

The Acolyte was created by Leslye Headland, best known for co-creating Netflix’s excellent Russian Doll . You can tell she’s a big Star Wars fan, and she does commendable work showing how your average Jedi Knight or Master does the job of keeping the peace during this era. Her new series follows characters who operate under the Jedi Council – which is referenced but unseen in the first four episodes – and must navigate both that power structure and the exterior element of the Republic Senate. The Acolyte finds another anchor in one such character: Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), who draws Osha into the hunt for Mae after the assassination of a Jedi in a thrilling series-opening brawl. Lee gives a standout performance, exuding Sol’s innate Jedi calm and wisdom mixed with regret. The Squid Game star conveys a lot through his facial expressions, giving us insight into Sol and the burdens he carries without saying a word.

A big underlying element in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy was the arrogance and hubris of the Jedi, which built up within the Order to the point that it was weaponized against them. The Acolyte shows the emergence of these flaws, and finds some of its most interesting material in topics introduced in those movies. Turns out the Order's methods of finding and taking in Force-sensitive children aren't as universally beloved or accepted as Qui-Gon Jinn made them sound.

What's the best Star Wars fight?

The franchise shouldn’t be expected to maintain one specific approach for every project: The differences between The Mandalorian and Andor, for example, prove the benefits of exploring different genres of storytelling within this universe. Yet both of those shows still feel fundamentally Star Wars. In its visual style and storytelling, The Acolyte feels a bit off in this regard.

The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi each took knocks for their visuals and feeling more “fake,” but The Acolyte is the most a Star Wars show has felt like, well, a TV show. There’s often an overt artificiality to the sets, costumes, and makeup that underline how this series lacks the cinematic production values we expect from Star Wars. (And before you point a finger at ILM’s polarizing video walls, a.k.a. The Volume, those weren’t used for The Acolyte.) To be clear, it’s not that it feels low budget – this is obviously a very expensive series packed with special effects – but this is a franchise that has typically operated at a different and grander scale than this. In terms of the long-running sci-fi institution it most readily evokes, the flatter visual language and character interactions of The Acolyte often feel more like Star Trek than Star Wars. In addition, some of the plot points feel clunky – characters change their mind about something they were adamant about far too quickly or escape danger in a strangely convenient manner. Some attempts at humorous banter fail to earn a laugh.

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More often than not, The Acolyte is at its best when dealing with the conflict between the two sisters and Sol’s dynamic with them. Also, it has some great and innovative fight scenes. Early episodes hold off on traditional lightsaber vs. lightsaber battles, instead focusing on the knife-wielding Mae’s one-on-one fights with various Jedi like Sol or Carrie-Anne Moss’ Indara. This allows us to see Jedi characters using martial arts in an exciting and well choreographed way, underlining just how skilled they are in combat that doesn’t involve laser swords. Moss puts her Matrix background to very cool use, showing Indara’s nearly effortless counters to Mae’s attacks.

Elsewhere, The Good Place ’s Manny Jacinto is fun as Qimir, who gets to represent the smuggler/scoundrel element of Star Wars, while Dafne Keen forges a warm rapport with Stenberg as Osha forms a bond with Sol’s padawan, Jecki Lon. Charlie Barnett, who previously worked with Headland on Russian Doll, has a bit of a thankless role as the by-the-book Jedi Yord, who feels extraneous to the story in the first four episodes – but we’ll see if that changes in the second half of the season.

Setting its story in a longer, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away allows The Acolyte to feel fresh and different from other recent live-action Star Wars series, with an intriguing storyline that seems to be setting the stage for the return of the Sith we know is coming. However, outside of its exciting Jedi fight scenes its execution sometimes feels off, with frequent cheesy moments and a lack of visual flair that contributes to the ongoing concern that all these Star Wars streaming series have diminished the epic nature of the franchise and what makes it special. Taken on its own terms, The Acolyte does offer some enjoyable character dynamics and an enticing mystery, but its first four episodes fail to coalesce into something that truly shines. But look, it does have a wookiee Jedi, and that’s always a plus.

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Critic’s Notebook

A Four-Hour-Long Hotel Review That Is Actually About So Much More

Jenny Nicholson’s granular critique of Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser experience reflects the fraught relationship between studios and fans right now.

By Esther Zuckerman

One of the most captivating pieces of entertainment I’ve seen so far this year is a four-hour-long YouTube video in which one woman describes her stay at a Disney World hotel. I’m as shocked by this as anyone.

To be clear: I was initially resistant when my partner encouraged me to watch Jenny Nicholson’s epic “ The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel,” which breaks down in microscopic detail her visit to Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. During the experience, now closed, guests on vacation were encouraged to live out their George Lucas dreams by participating in a role-playing game while staying in a structure on the outskirts of the park near Orlando, Fla.

Nicholson’s monologue, which runs longer than “Lawrence of Arabia,” has been viewed more than seven million times since it was uploaded last month and has been the talk of social media, yet I was still unprepared for how absolutely riveting it was. While it highlights a litany of problems with the hotel itself, the video can also be viewed as a diagnosis of the entertainment industry’s current ills writ large. In her frustration, Nicholson becomes a valiant truth teller, clearly articulating how corporate greed betrays loyal fans to sell a cheaper and less emotionally enriching product. And she does this against a backdrop of stuffed animals and while wearing various costumes, including, at one point, a giant suit resembling a Porg, the puffin-like creature in “The Last Jedi.”

Nicholson is a great storyteller, even in Twi’lek head-tails and a Rodian beanie. She lands somewhere between a friend letting you in on some great gossip and a Homerian poet of 21st-century pop culture, engaging in the oral traditions of the ancients, only the subject is theme parks and “Star Wars.”

Here’s the very abridged version of what she’s talking about: In 2022, Disney opened the Galactic Starcruiser, billed as a “two-night adventure.” (Think: A cruise, but on land.) Guests would spend their days and nights inside a largely windowless hotel built to look like a spaceship, and actors would engage them in a story in which the Resistance battles the First Order for control of the vessel. As Stormtroopers and aliens roamed the halls, the visitors would play games immersing them in the world via an app on their phones.

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Review: The Force is not with new Jedi-centric 'Star Wars: The Acolyte'

"Star Wars" is a complicated beast.

Sometimes it's dark, complex and ambitious, like Disney+ series "Andor" or "The Last Jedi" film. Sometimes it's rousing, epic and feel-good ("Return of the Jedi.") And sometimes it's just weird, silly and unsatisfying (prequel "The Phantom Menace").

So perhaps it's only fitting that the prequel to that prequel, Disney+'s new series "The Acolyte" (streaming Tuesdays, 9 EDT/PDT, ★★ out of four) falls into that last category. Full of logical fallacies, hokey dialogue and nonsensical plots, "Acolyte" feels entirely of a piece with the worst elements of the prequel trilogy, which many hardcore fans love to hate, even 25 years later. The series, created by "Russian Doll" producer Leslye Headland, certainly has ambition as it tries to tell a showy story about the mythology and magic of the Jedi and the Force. But even the best of intentions can go awry.

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All the sci-fi/fantasy jargon, dramatic costumes, brightly colored lightsabers, fancy hairdos and ominous villains Headland can stuff into "Acolyte" can't make a good story on their own. There has to be some emotion and depth to the characters and their woes. There has to be more than perfunctory plot points. There has to be a sense of adventure and wonder. And there has to be something that captures the feeling of "Star Wars," not just the aesthetics. "Acolyte" doesn't have it, no matter how hard it tries.

A century before Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) felt a disturbance in the Force in "Phantom," a rogue "Force-user" is hunting and killing Jedi masters across the galaxy. At first thought to be former Jedi Padawan Osha (Amandla Stenberg), it turns out the Jedi killer is her twin sister, Mae (also Stenberg), long presumed dead after a mysterious fire when the two were children. The blaze resulted in the death of their family and Osha being taken into the Jedi order. (This "twist" is revealed in the first few minutes of the series premiere.)

Determined to bring in Mae or Osha (or both) and figure all this out is Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae, "Squid Game"), who trained Osha before she left the order. He's joined by a handful of other colorful and utterly forgettable Jedi: Is Mae out for revenge for what she believed happened to her family all those years ago? Or is there a more nefarious power brewing in the galaxy? There's the pickle, and a flashback episode featuring Jodie Turner-Smith as the girls' mother, Aniseya, and the leader of a "witch coven" doesn't provide many answers.

It's all a little too complex (witches, in this galaxy?) and a little too simple (ah yes, the old evil-twin twist). The reveal of Mae comes too early in the series, removing much of the mystery element that makes "Acolyte" unique in the ever-expanding "Star Wars" canon. There are too many characters with too many quirks to make them stand out from one another. You'll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between various aliens paired with Charlie Barnett's Jedi knight Yord.

But "Acolyte" has its moments. The final scene of Episode 4 (the last made available for review) captures a real sense of horror and fear when a villain is introduced. Perhaps that bodes well for the final four episodes in the season. Jung-jae and Stenberg make a great pair, and the former nicely proves his acting chops in English (he won an Emmy for "Squid," which was entirely in Korean). And it's always nice to see "Matrix" star Carrie Ann Moss, who appears briefly in two episodes, wielding a lightsaber as if she's done it all her life.

Certainly a segment of the "Star Wars" fandom will devour every frame of "Acolyte." For them, the complex mythology is the meat of the meal, not a frilly and silly garnish. But superfans can forgive a lot of sins. Some genre TV series can make their mythology and internal world-building more interesting and engaging than this (Amazon's late, great "The Expanse," among many others). As it stands, though, the Jedi lore is obtuse and dull. It needs spicing up.

Like the young Padawans (the "Star Wars" term for students or apprentices) that are omnipresent in the series, "Acolyte" has a great deal of potential. "The Mandalorian" made "Star Wars" a Western. "Andor" made it a revolution . "Acolyte" could have made it a great work of fantasy and mystery.

But mostly it's a great big sigh.

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The acolyte’s 15% audience score is embarrassing, for the audience scorers.

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The Acolyte

While Star Wars has had many controversies in the Disney era, viewers have now mobilized a fleet of TIE bombers to obliterate user scores of The Acolyte wherever possible, namely on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB .

I previously reported that this started up right at release, as The Acolyte quickly became the lowest audience-rated Star Wars project besides the infamous Holiday Special . Now, its former 33% score has dipped below the Special’s 20% score, and is all the way down to 15%.

At a certain point, this is just absurd, and it says a lot more about the viewers than it does the quality of the show itself, which has barely even gotten started, now just three episodes in.

No, I am not going to entertain a debate that this is not review bombing. A 15% score is barely more than a third of the last most controversial Disney Star Wars project, The Last Jedi. Nothing is even close except that Holiday Special. On IMDB, it’s even easier to see. A full 54% of all reviews are 1 star, giving it a 3.6/10.

There’s also how fast this happened. For instance, Ahsoka only has 5,000 reviews in on Rotten Tomatoes after being out for months while The Acolyte has aired three episodes in two weeks and has 10,000 reviews in. The last season of The Mandalorian only has 2,500 reviews in. The beloved Andor, 5,000 reviews total, years later.

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Rotten Tomatoes has previously tried to curb review bombing in the wake of what happened with Captain Marvel’s release, “verifying” people had watched the movie before reviewing. But there has been no way to enforce such a system with TV, so here we are.

Why is this happening? There are a bunch of dimensions to this, and none of them good. There is absolutely a racial and gender component to this. A clip from star Amandla Stenberg about “making white people cry” was shared tens of thousands of times online, taken out of context from an interview years earlier about her film The Hate U Give. Showrunner Leslye Headland has starred in many YouTube thumbnails lambasting the “woke” nature of the series, but also it allegedly “breaking canon.”

This is the main reason for the surge since episode 3 aired, where fans (“fans”) believe the show has broken canon or destroyed the lore of Anakin Skywalker by implying that like Anakin, the twins are a “virgin force birth.” Anakin was conceived purely through the force alone, part of his “chosen one” mythology. And now they say that’s happened again, ruining everything.

The problem is…we simply have no idea if that’s true, even if that’s what everyone is assuming after last week. Specifically, while they say the girls “have no father” it is implied that their mother did something unnatural to create them, which would not be a “spontaneous force baby” situation. Dark side meddling? Witch magic? Cloning? We simply don’t know yet, but that has not stopped fans from leaping to conclusions and saying that in three half hour episodes the series has destroyed 50 years of canon.

There is also pushback about the portrayal of the Jedi as…not great, acting as space cops rounding up force-sensitive kids to test and train, not by abducting them per se , but you know, luring them away from their families for “their own good,” which is what happened to Osha, and sparked the events that led to the death of her family and community. Of course, the concept of the Jedi as rulers has dealt with this topic many times over the years, most famously in the prequels where the arrogant, clueless Jedi council’s actions, or lack thereof, directly led to the Imperial takeover of the galaxy.

The 15% score is embarrassing. Not for the show, but for those review bombing it to a frankly laughable degree. I’m not even The Acolyte’s biggest fan, as the first two episodes I didn’t love, though I thought episode 3 was more interesting. But the worst Star Wars project by an order of magnitude in the history of the series? And it just so happens to be one mostly starring black women? This whole situation is a parody of the modern toxic fanbase of the series, and if you want to disguise it as being upset about “canon” than it shows a distinct lack of understand of both the material of the show and the wider universe. You can critique a show, sure, but overwhelmingly, that is just not what’s happening here, and it goes well beyond that. While we have seen many things like this happen with Star Wars fandom over the years, I can’t help but feel like it’s absolutely getting worse.

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Screen Rant

Star wars: the acolyte review bombing accidentally hits a 2008 movie & a fan-film.

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Why Is Leslye Headland, Star Wars' Next Showrunner, So Controversial?

"i think she does": one of the acolyte's jedi is breaking a massive george lucas rule, wookieepedia under fire for changing ki-adi-mundi's birth date after the acolyte.

• Review-bombers target "The Acolyte" in misguided campaign, accidentally hitting 2008 movie and fan film.
• Fandom division highlighted as viewers criticize show's "woke" agenda, missing the mark with wrong targets.
• Backlash against show reflects ownership battle in Star Wars fandom, creating unhealthy debate online.

A review-bombing campaign against The Acolyte , the latest Star Wars Disney+ TV show, has accidentally hit a 2008 movie and a fan-film. The Star Wars fandom has always had a reputation for being divisive, and the review-bombing campaign against The Acolyte has reinforced that impression. Scores of viewers are campaigning against The Acolyte , complaining against its "woke" agenda, and targeting showrunner Leslye Headland and some of the stars.

In a hilarious twist, it seems some of these review-bombers are accidentally criticizing the wrong thing. Jayson Koos was the first to spot that a 2022 fan film called The Acolyte recently received a number of one-star reviews that look rather suspicious.

Cinelinx's Jordan Maison added to this, discovering that a 2008 movie called Acolytes is also getting caught up in the review-bombing.

This is certainly an amusing twist, supporting the argument that The Acolyte 's low audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic isn't really representative at all.

Star Wars' next showrunner, Leslye Headland, is proving surprisingly controversial on social media - so what's causing all the furore..?

Why Is The Acolyte Being Review-Bombed?

The Acolyte is Lucasfilm's first attempt to take Star Wars beyond the Skywalker saga era, which means it's particularly important in testing the long-term future of the entire franchise. Some parts of the fandom are currently focused on their dislike of Disney's tenure; they don't really want this iteration of Star Wars to flourish, and are thus doing their best to damage it. Like every Star Wars backlash , at heart there's a battle of ownership going on - does Star Wars "belong" to this portion of the fanbase or not?

Making matters even more explosive, The Acolyte has been caught up in the culture wars. An old clip from Star Wars Celebration 2023 was used to argue showrunner Leslye Headland was approaching the show with a social justice agenda; this was even shared by Elon Musk , who mocked it with a meme based on a South Park episode criticizing Lucasfilm. Right-wing accounts on social media seem particularly devoted to attacking The Acolyte .

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, this backlash is generating a lot of heat but not much light. Legitimate criticisms and analysis are being drowned out, with viewers forced to take positions where they either defend The Acolyte or attack it relentlessly. It's another unhealthy twist in the story of the Star Wars fandom, and the ridiculous nature of this debate is perfectly illustrated by the fact the wrong movie and a fan film have been caught up in it.

Source: Jayson Koos , Jordan Maison

The Acolyte

The Acolyte is a television series set in the Star Wars universe at the end of the High Republic Era, where both the Jedi and the Galactic Empire were at the height of their influence. This sci-fi thriller sees a former Padawan reunite with her former Jedi Master as they investigate several crimes - all leading to darkness erupting from beneath the surface and preparing to bring about the end of the High Republic.