It's Time For A Star Wars Old Republic Movie, Or Three

I'm going to argue the case for a 'Star Wars' Old Republic movie trilogy, given the base material scattered across various other media. Also, to show how much better they could be than the 'Star Wars' movies we come to know today.

Another trilogy has come and gone revolving around the Skywalker Saga, a poor continuation of the fabled prophecy that "Skywalker shall destroy the Sith and bring balance to the force". The directorial shifts made the script suffer, and ultimately merely imposed another slew of films to generate income and sell merchandise, with no particular thought to the story. 

The Skywalker Saga was arguably wrapped up nicely after 'Return of the Jedi': the Empire destroyed, possibly a return of the Republic, Jedi academy restored. But the powers that be decided to remake a new Empire, with an even bigger Death Star, equally useless (again).

One wannabe Jedi (again) faces overwhelming odds (again) and saves the day (again). If it sounds like rehashing and covering old ground, then you're exactly right. 

This trope has thrown some rather damning light on itself on how it showcases its' own limitations. 'Star Wars' is a franchise with limitless planets, galaxies, nebulae, yet every film somehow has to feature the planet Tatooine, to appease an insatiable God called Nostalgia. 

There are countless different alien races yet every film always seems to feature primarily humans with aliens and droids in the background or featuring as villains. All main characters are primarily human/bipedal lifeforms as well. 

The canonical movies always have to revert back to the same annoying original cast as well. Does anyone have any warm nostalgic feelings about C3-P0? Anyone? He's never a welcome sight, and R2-D2 gets far too much spotlight for a bin with a screwdriver. Chewbacca's unintelligible roarings, and obvious face-mask eyes, baffles me as to why people like him.

While the new movies introduced a couple of new droids, it was never with the intention of trying to over-franchise them more than the originals. Sort of half-hearted pushes like BB-8, to test the water and see if people care for it more than they care about R2-D2.

Poe Dameron, the maverick pilot in a waistcoat, the spiritual offspring of Han Solo. And again: no primary character droids or aliens. It's a surprising lack of imagination, where new directors daren't break away from familiarity and end up offering carbon copies of the originals.

Dogfight scenes in space lack any sort of suspense, that not even the might of John Williams can contribute to. It's never nail-biting when a few brave X-Wings take on the Empire destroyers because the audience knows they're going to win.

Whenever there is retaliatory shooting it always misses or does some minor wing damage to the main character pilot. Fair enough it's called 'Star Wars' so the dogfights are integral to showcase the theme, but they're childish in scope.

For me, and I'm sure for countless others, the heart of Star Wars is Jedi fighting Sith with lightsabres. The canonical movies only portray the Jedi as a bygone era, scattered across the galaxy, whispers, ghosts. Just one lightsabre is seen as a relic, revered by the aspiring protagonist. 

It's high time Hollywood let the Skywalker Saga die. It's neither the heart nor relevance of what Star Wars is actually about, and would do well to explore other areas.

Thankfully the small screen, in no short thanks to 'The Clone Wars' and 'The Mandalorian' are realising this, and Disney has thrown a veritable smorgasbord of upcoming titles on offer, mercifully including 'Obi Wan' and 'Ahsoka', but the time of the Old Republic is seemingly being overlooked. 

The Old Republic features many canonical books and comics and was presented beautifully by Bioware's video game of the same name. It shows a time when the Jedi were at the height of their powers, the Force being applied as second nature, (not once per movie) and there are many lightsabres thanks to the kyber crystal forges.

The Sith were equally powerful and clandestine, with colourful characters like Revan, Malgus, and various acolytes and red lightsabres joining the fray of green and blue.

The trailer for 'The Old Republic' video game may well be one of my most memorable ever, and while it is quite old now, it set the bar pretty high for me and showed me just how much better than its' own movies Star Wars can actually be.

The point is that the world perspective would change and display 'Star Wars' factions at the height of their equal respective powers. Too many times on screen we've seen the Jedi as a broken faction, every Force effort, and lightsabre being seen as a big deal, with dull dogfights of no consequence, and one pilot destroying a design flaw in the Death Star/Planet.

Who doesn't want to see a load of Jedi fighting a load of Sith? Boots on the ground, loads of lightsabres, and objects flying around in Force battles. The closest we came was during 'Attack of the Clones' when the Jedi banded on Geonosis to fight Count Dooku, but there was unnecessary, appalling comic relief showing C3-P0 losing his head on a production line, that kept interrupting the fight scenes. 

The Old Republic could also portray the tale of young Palpatine, who kills his master Darth Plagueis the Wise and show his slow-burning rise to power in politics. It could also feature a different race main protagonist, like a Twilek maybe.

In the hands of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, these two have shown that they have the imagination and the balls to break away from the main directive; excel in reviving interest, and making memorable new characters.

'Rogue One' nearly showed that a decent, mature story can be written that has nothing to do with the Skywalker Saga, but then the ending was roped into that canon.

'The Mandalorian' showed too that the world of Star Wars can be even more riveting without the Skywalker Saga, but then the season 2 ending got roped into that canon as well.

The point is to break away from Skywalker completely, even in that timeframe, and stop making linking media between 'Revenge of the Sith' and 'A New Hope'. 

In conclusion, there are plenty of directions Disney can take regarding Star Wars and they are now at least opening up to that fact. More and more Star Wars media is coming out all the time: it's an evergreen franchise, an endless well of possibilities. So never say never.

It just seems like they're very slow to pick up on one of the most riveting aspects of their own franchise and keep missing the heart of what people want from a Star Wars movie.