In the franchise's 40 plus years in the mainstream, Star Wars has been one of the absolute most dominant franchises out there. Since its inception back on May 25th, 1977, Star Wars left fans and soon-to-be fans with their jaws on the floor at the sheer spectacle of the series both in its story and technical achievements.
Now with the year 2019 and its closing, and more Star Wars in the coming years, the franchise has once again renewed its dominance over mainstream media and pop culture as a whole. From the big screen, small screen, video games, and more, here are 10 of the biggest ways in which the franchise has taken over pop culture all over again.
The Mandalorian
Arguably the most successful entry to the overall Star Wars franchise this year is the flagship Disney+ TV series, The Mandalorian. Since its big premiere on the new streaming service by the media giant that is Disney, it has been a hit with new and old fans alike.
It successfully brought upon a new change of pace for what fans usually perceive Star Wars media as blending themes and tones and shifting the focus to elsewhere in the galaxy from the perspective of an unaligned and deadly Mandalorian bounty hunter in a largely Force-less environment.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Publisher EA have certainly made little positive use of the Star Wars license since it was graced upon them, so a new title being released that is being published by EA brings about a lot of caution and skepticism. This especially shows presumably since EA held on to the review embargo for the game until launch day on November 15th of this year.
Thankfully, the game has been generally positively received by critics and fans alike. It was a good single-player experience that fans have been craving for and telling an interesting story post Revenge of the Sith and mixing in Dark Souls-inspired combat.
The Rise Of Skywalker
While the Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, undoubtedly took the crown of best Star Wars story of the year, Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker is definitely the most polarizing and divisive of the bunch among critics and the fans. Regardless of what your opinion on the Skywalker finale is, it surely made a big wave in gathering people's attention to the franchise as a whole.
After all, this film is the culmination of a 40-plus-year-long saga that started with the aforementioned A New Hope. It might be divisive to people but it doesn't change the fact that this is a huge deal for the franchise and its fans.
Upcoming Cassian Andor Disney+ Series
Of course, Disney+'s The Mandalorian is just ushering in the new era for Star Wars on the new Disney streaming platform. It has been confirmed for a while now that Disney is planning for a prequel to the prequel of sorts. That is to say that there will be a planned series based on a character introduced in the year 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Cassian Andor.
While Rogue One was a great film and great Star Wars entry to fill in the gaps between Revenge of the Sith and right before the start of A New Hope, one of its faults is that there was little time to develop all the characters introduced. A series based on at least one of those characters will be a good opportunity.
The Highly Anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ Series
Even though the Star Wars franchise is composed of many characters and many films, video games, comics, television series, etc., (with more on the way in the coming years) this is arguably one of the most--if not, the most--anticipated Star Wars anything coming in the future. While the prequel trilogy had a mix of plenty of faults, it also had introduced some great things to the overall franchise canon.
And one of those things is the inclusion of Ewan McGregor as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. His take on the character is arguably the best and it has been confirmed that he will finally get his own series set during his years looking after young Luke from afar.
"Baby Yoda"
Definitely the most meme-worthy (and cutest) entry on this list. Obviously, this ties back into the widely well-received Disney+ series, The Mandalorian. However, this particular character has received such an uproar in positive response that it surely merits its own entry on this list.
Definitely one of the biggest shocks and surprises of the series thus far was the introduction of this character. No one saw coming initially that the 50-year-old target bounty for the Mandalorian would be a baby of the late Jedi Master Yoda's species. This is exciting in its own right as his species is one of the great mysteries of the Star Wars franchise.
Kevin Feige's Developing Star Wars Film
While fans have been sharply divided over the level of quality of the sequel trilogy piloted by Disney, one major success that is universal on Disney's part is their handling of the Marvel franchise on the big screen. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been largely filled with successes in the 20 plus movies produced for the masses, critics and fans alike. Earlier this year, Avengers: Endgame proved to be a love letter to fans invested in this cinematic universe since its inception.
A big part of that success and the thanks goes to Kevin Feige. That is why it was huge news that Kevin Feige was announced to be producing a Star Wars film. He's been known to be a man of the fans, so him developing a movie in this long franchise is tantalizing, to say the least.
Untitled 2022, 2024, And 2026 Films
Once again, The Rise of Skywalker is certainly the finale of the over 40-year-long saga to the Skywalker lineage but that obviously does not mean that it is the finale for the franchise on the big screen. In the lead up toward the release of The Rise of Skywalker, news swirled around the Internet over a report that Lucasfilm has plans for Star Wars to continue in film form some time after the Skywalker saga finale hits theaters.
Sure, there will be a few years of a hiatus, three years to be precise, but the franchise will return to theaters in December of 2022. While there is nothing known about these movies, especially whether they are part of a trilogy or singular adventures, there are two more films planned with one in 2024 and one in 2026.
Rian Johnson's Upcoming Trilogy
In the lead up to the release of the 2017 film, The Last Jedi, the higher-ups of Lucasfilm, namely Kathleen Kennedy, were so overjoyed with working with director Rian Johnson that they mutually agreed to give Johnson a clean slate to work with and allow him to direct (at least the first film) and overall create his own Star Wars trilogy.
This clean slate of a trilogy would be completely separate from the Skywalker saga (obviously) but was given no release date as of yet. This came as huge news and excited fans because it seemed like they were so happy with The Last Jedi. Of course, later came the extreme fan division and backlash. Whether you loved it or hated it, this trilogy is still in the cards.
The Clone Wars Series Returning
Dave Filoni, ever since his work with the animated The Clone Wars series, has been a shining star in the Star Wars universe for fans. He even had a part to play in some of the ongoing Disney+ series, The Mandalorian.
That is why fans of the space opera franchise were ecstatic to hear at Star Wars Celebration that the series would be making an epic return to the small screen for a seventh and final season. The series was an instant hit with fans and did an excellent job of filling in the gaps during the Clone Wars and adding to the franchise's overall lore.