The Future of Star Wars may Reside in the Past
By Ariel Adams Posted 3/01/2020 in ENTERTAINMENT
The Star Wars film franchise has cemented itself in cinema history. The expanding Star Wars universe both in film and on television continues to introduce new characters and add detailed backstory for all our favorite established characters. Disney Plus has taken the world by storm with The Mandalorian as the breakout hit of the new service. Disney masterfully expanded on the established fan favorites Boba Fett and Yoda to bring us something similar, but new, different, and exciting. With “Baby Yoda” already a household name and the continued record-breaking success of Star Wars films, it’s clear Star Wars will continue to bring us new content for a long, long, time into the future.
With Lucasfilm’s announcement of the Star Wars Anthology Series, a series of stand-alone Star Wars films, and new Star Wars related programming on Disney Plus, there is an ever-growing opportunity for some of the franchise’s less appreciated characters to finally take a starring role. While we bask in the glory of The Mandalorian, lets consider a few characters and a group of characters from the Star Wars canon universe that deserve their own anthology film or television series.
Sheev Palpatine
Most Star Wars fans know Sheev Palpatine as the tyrannical emperor of the Galactic Empire and the terrifying Sith Lord Darth Sidious. He’s played a major role in many the Star Wars films. However, young Palpatine’s past is ripe for a detailed exploration full of drama and intrigue. A basic outline can be established from various sources. To start, he had a troubled childhood as a member of a wealthy family on Naboo. That alone could be covered in a multiple season television series.
Eventually, a teenage Palpatine was found and further corrupted by Sith Lord Darth Plagueis, who quickly took Palpatine as his apprentice. The relationship between the two is perhaps the most fertile ground for this expanded Sheev Palpaitne content. Together the two set in motion the plot to dismantle the Republic and destroy the Jedi Order. Spoiler alert, the plan was ultimately successful. Let’s not give too much away just in case this wish for a Sheev Palpatine movie or series comes true, but there is a reason most of you don’t know much about Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. At least not yet.
Ahsoka Tano
A lot is known about Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan, at least to fans of the animated Clone Wars television series, but Ahsoka has never seen time in the Star Wars movies. Ahsoka would be a welcome addition to the on-screen franchise. An expanded film adaption of many of the Clone Wars events would captive audiences and would in fact be entirely new material for many Star Wars movie fans. It’s clear that, while the program was popular, the events of the Clone Wars Television series are unknown to many fans of the films.
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One of Ahsoka’s most interesting story arcs begins when she is framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple. After her name is cleared and the Jedi Council offers to bring her back into the order, she refuses and gives up her life as a Jedi. Ahsoka quietly wanders the galaxy in hiding as one of the few remaining with ties to the Jedi Order after Palpatine and Vader wiped out almost all of the Jedi. She can’t stay out of the fight for long, however, as Ahsoka eventually reunites with Bail Organa and becomes the manager of the intelligence network for the fledgling Rebel Alliance.
Darth Bane
“Always two there are; no more, no less. A master and an apprentice”. Yoda repeats this Sith doctrine to Mace Windu when it became clear that the Sith had emerged again after a thousand years of peace in the galaxy. What is known as the Rule of Two was created a millennium prior to the events of The Phantom Menace by a Sith Lord named Darth Bane. Bane was the sole Sith survivor of the Jedi-Sith war, which the Jedi believed would wipe out the Sith forever. The events of the Jedi-Sith war are far removed from most of Star Wars continuity. This creates almost endless possibilities. A film could be framed as “Star Wars the Jedi-Sith War,” and fans would go crazy.
While established cast and characters do bring viewers back to the theater, a Star Wars film with an almost entirely clean slate would be refreshing. This approach would certainly focus in part on Darth Bane, and perhaps his back story. There would certain be enough material for a Jedi-Sith War trilogy. Darth Bane recognized the true downfall of the power-hungry Sith Order; the constant infighting that led the Order to weaken. So, Bane created a new philosophy, the Rule of Two, and quickly took an apprentice. Eventually, the Jedi hunted down Bane, believing him to be the last Sith Lord, and killed him. Unbeknownst to them, Bane’s apprentice survived, and the line of two remained unbroken all the way through Palpatine and Vader.
Black Sun Crime Syndicate
Fans of Star Wars Rebels will recognize bounty hunter Ketsu Onyo as a member of the Black Sun Crime Syndicate whose influence stretched from the Outer Rim to the Core Worlds. The Black Sun was involved in every type of criminal activity, from piracy to smuggling, to bounty hunting and with that comes an opportunity to tell a very different kind of Star Wars story on the big screen. References to the seedy underbelly of the Star Wars galaxy are made in the Star Wars films, but moviegoers have never seen the Syndicate as the main focus. While it’s admittedly more likely that the Black Sun Crime Syndicate will feature as a side store on a Disney Plus series, I for one am hoping for a spin-off series or film that centrally focuses on the Black Sun Crime Syndicate. This is another part of the Star Wars universe where we have some established ideas, but almost an entirely open slate waiting for some creative team to map out a different kind of exciting Star Wars experience.
Both old and new Star Wars fans alike know there is a lot more coming. The Star Wars universe is expanding, and the opportunities for new and diverse story lines are endless. We have been teased with bits and pieces of history about many different characters, events, and organizations, and while I’m looking forward to stories in the Star Wars future, I hope to see more detail and back story from the Star Wars past.
