Adi Shankar Explains Why Star Wars Is A Terrible Franchise

Film producer Adi Shankar talks about his problems with the Star Wars franchise, and that he thinks that Powers Rangers is superior in terms of narrative. Best known for his work on Dredd and Castlevania, Shankar worked with director Joseph Khan to create the 2017 bootleg Power/Rangers movie set in a timeline where the titular heroes lost. It was generally praised by fans and even some of the members of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Learning more about the Power Rangers mythos after having worked with it, Shankar says that he appreciates the fact that the franchise deals with the complicated in-betweens of a situation which makes their stories more interesting and relatable. And for him, this is significantly better than focusing on the clear-cut good vs. evil dichotomy like he thinks Star Wars does.

In an interview with ComicBook, Shankar got candid about his thoughts on the Star Wars franchise, going as far as declaring that the Power Rangers mythos better than the famed soap opera. The producer didn't stop there, though; he also pointed out how he doesn't understand the central conflict between the Rebellion/Resistance and the Empire/First Order mainly because Star Wars tends to tell the narrative from the perspective of the good guys.

"I literally think Star Wars is not as cool as Power Rangers. Power Rangers is not about good versus evil. It's not and never has been. It's the lens through which the stories are told to us, through the lens, the narrative lens, but really it's about shades of gray, and it's always been about shades of gray, and it's about people working together to overcome those shades of gray, through a single point of view. That's why the Power Rangers are super powerful. Star Wars is about good versus evil. I don't know what the empire did wrong. I still have no idea. I still don't know, they got up and they dress the same and then they (the rebels) kill them because they dress the same, like, I don't understand it. Yeah they blew up a planet, but that's a cheap reason to want to hate someone. The point is Power Rangers is way doper than Star Wars.

"Dude, I think Star Wars is f****** horrible. I think Star Wars is a terrible franchise. It has terrible values. What are you teaching people with Star Wars, right? 'Oh yeah, we're the rebels and we're just gonna blow up people who dress the same?' Like it's good versus evil? It's terrible because there's really very little evil out there. The evil is taught to us through a narrative, but the evil has a point of view, the evil has a perspective., and if you don't get to know the perspective of the evil then how do you know you're not evil?"

The producer presents a valid point in terms of Star Wars needing to give both sides of the story equal opportunity to present their cases with regard to the same issues. But to be fair, the prequel trilogy traced back the history of Anakin Skywalker and gave fans a better understanding of what he was before he became the evil Sith Lord. Sure, the execution wasn't really the best, but George Lucas had a good narrative that ultimately made the lore richer.

In terms of the contemporary Star Wars, both directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson attempted to veer away from the stereotypical good vs. evil stories that Shankar is talking about. Star Wars: The Force Awakens gave people the opportunity to see what life was like being a Stormtrooper, while Star Wars: The Last Jedi explored the notion of "balance" in the Force instead of one side dominating the other. However, if there's any film from the franchise that best feature duality in storytelling and exploration of the "gray" area, that would be Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which not only exposed the tricky politics within the Empire but also how the Rebellion isn't as pure and good as they always have been portrayed.