It feels like only yesterday that Disney announced we'd be getting another Star Wars trilogy, years after we thought we'd seen the saga conclude with 2005's Revenge of the Sith. With many choosing to favor the original three movies over the prequels that George Lucas put together at the start of the millennium, Disney was under pressure to get things right. Certainly, it would be no easy task.
And, while they've done that on many fronts, they've also been accused of failing to make the most of the glorious opportunity they had. So we now take a look at 10 missed opportunities for the sequel trilogy, starting with one of the most obvious.
Getting The Gang Back Together
The main reason Star Wars fans were buzzing about the prospect of a new trilogy because it would mean seeing Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford's Han Solo and Carrie Fisher's Leia Organa back on the big screen for a brand new adventure. Fans had fallen in love with the trio - as well as Billy Dee Williams' Lando Calrissian - and were looking forward to seeing how their friendship had evolved in the years since we'd last seen them.
But, disappointingly, Disney chose to keep Luke out of The Force Awakens for the most part. With Han Solo dying in that movie, and then Fisher tragically passing away in real life in 2016, it meant the chance to reunite the heroic quartet passed Disney by. It's something that, in hindsight, they should have given to fans right from the very beginning.
A New Original Story
George Lucas had his flaws, that has to be said, but there's no denying he knew how to tell a half-decent story. The plot of the original trilogy was epic and even the prequels, while they didn't scale the same heights as the original three movies, had depth and brilliance about them.
But Disney's trilogy bowed out with Rise of Skywalker. And it seems like the whole point of the sequels was to go over what we'd already seen years before. Someone training to be a Jedi? Check. Someone isolated who finds a new family? Check. Redemption? Check. We're not saying it was bad but, clearly, Disney didn't think things through. Definitely, the newest trilogy lacks the same originality and uniqueness as the originals all those years ago.
Luke Skywalker
Let's face it, Disney really did mess up Luke Skywalker. That's nothing against Rian Johnson as an individual but the character we see in The Last Jedi - who bails on his friends and refuses to help somebody who really needs it - is nothing like the same hero who illuminated Hollywood during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
They could have made Luke the most powerful Jedi around but it seems any more evolving of his character was sacrificed so that the newer individuals like Rey, Finn, and Poe could get their moment in the spotlight. A character as big as Luke should NEVER have to play second fiddle and, while he's a bit more like his old self in The Rise of Skywalker, it's a case of too little, too late.
A Brand New Threat
At the end of Return of the Jedi, the Galaxy was jubilant at the fall of the Empire with the celebrations erupting with vigor. At the end of The Rise of Skywalker, following Emperor Palpatine's defeat and the end of the First Order, similar scenes take place.
And that speaks volumes. Disney could have introduced a brand new threat but, instead, they rehashed George Lucas' old ideas. The First Order was basically the Empire - they have a leader in a scary black mask and millions of stormtroopers at their disposal - and that means they're the same old threat as before. Nobody was fooled into thinking the First Order was ever going to win, too, which is different from the Empire. You genuinely thought back in the day that there's a chance the bad guys could triumph but, nope, none of that here.
Supreme Leader Snoke
Voiced by the brilliant Andy Serkis, Supreme Leader Snoke was a genuinely intriguing villain when he first appeared in The Force Awakens. So intriguing, in fact, that fans spent the two years after that blockbuster coming up with their own theories about who he was and what his origin should be.
Among the most unpopular, however, was the idea that he was a clone or puppet of Palpatine's. He just seemed too good, too charismatic, to be a stooge. And yet, that's exactly what Disney did. Instead of creating a new chief villain, they resorted back to the same one George Lucas had killed off many years ago. That just seems like bad writing and highlights a lack of planning on their part. Was Palpatine really meant to be the endgame? Looking at the two movies before The Rise of Skywalker, we're not convinced.
General Hux
Sticking with things First Order related (hint, we're not finished just yet) it's safe to say that General Hux regressed as a character in both The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Jedi, having appeared so unforgivably vile during his debut appearance in 2015's The Force Awakens.
In the first movie of the sequel trilogy, he belittles Kylo Ren, pleases Supreme Leader Snoke and blows up the New Republic using outstanding power on Starkiller Base. He seemed like he was set to be the Grand Moff Tarkin of the sequel trilogy, someone bad to the bone. Yet that didn't happen. After Hux was made a comedy figure in TLJ, he bows out with a whimper in TROS where it's revealed he's a spy. That seems out of character and, to make matters worse, Kylo Ren doesn't even kill him. Even though, given their relationship, that should have been an obvious thing to have to happen.
Force Ghosts
At the end of 1983's Return of the Jedi, we knew of three force ghosts in existence at least. Anakin Skywalker, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi all secured themselves a nice shiny blue outline and, in the prequels, it was revealed that Qui-Gon Jinn had achieved the feat as well.
So where did they go when the First Order business was kicking off? Where was Anakin while his grandfather wrongly idolized the Darth Vader side of his persona? The fact they didn't appear whatsoever is genuinely mystifying. It was cool to see Luke Skywalker and Leia cross over to the other side but, given this is the final installment of the Skywalker saga, the failure to include any of the other force ghosts is up there with Disney's very worst.
Romance
Whether you like it or not, Star Wars has always had romance within its movies. In the original trilogy there was the Han, Luke and Leia love triangle and, in the prequels, we had to watch Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala fall for each other - despite their relationship being forgiven.
Kylo Ren and Rey exchanged a kiss at the end but that's it. Even Reylo fans were furious and we also feel the decision to completely ignore Finn and Rose Tico's kiss at the end of The Last Jedi feels off too. Romance doesn't have to be the main plot point but Disney missed out on the chance to give fans of the genre something to be happy about.
Making Kylo Ren Unique
At the end of The Last Jedi, it looked as if Star Wars had decided to give Kylo Ren a different arc to grandfather Darth Vader. He looked beyond the point of redemption, having snubbed the offer to side with Rey, and fans were hoping he’d stay evil to the end.
Yet Disney chose to instead have Kylo redeemed, with Palpatine then becoming the big villain for The Rise of Skywalker. This means that Ben Solo’s arc echoes Vader’s, with him falling to the dark side - and then embracing the light once again - before dying. The one small difference is we didn’t even get to see Ben’s force ghost…
Delving Deeper Into Finn’s Arc
When we first met Finn at the beginning of The Force Awakens, he seemed intriguing. We’d never seen a stormtrooper revolt against his villainous organisation and we thought this would mean John Boyega’s character getting into all sorts of interesting situations.
Except his stormtrooper past was snubbed for the entirety of The Last Jedi and, by The Rise of Skywalker, it’s too little too late. Sure, he and Jannah share stories about how they escaped the clutches of the First Order. But it’s nothing meaningful to the plot - instead serving only to flesh out Naomi Ackie’s character a little bit more.