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Credit: LucasfilmIncoming scoops are reporting that Disney wants to restructure the struggling Star Wars franchise around its original hero, Luke Skywalker.
It is fair to say that things are pretty tumultuous at Lucasfilm these days. Along with every other branch of the vast Walt Disney Company (except Pixar, of course), the studio has been struggling to adapt to the modern media environment.
The Disney-produced sequel trilogy of films made a huge amount of money and introduced new characters like Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), but was hampered by increasingly bloated budgets and fan backlash as the series went on.
Similarly, the Disney+ streaming Star Wars series started out strong with The Mandalorian, which helped transform Pedro Pascal into one of the highest-paid actors on TV and sold approximately 10 billion plush Grogu dolls.
Since then, the franchise has been losing steam, with much-anticipated shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi (featuring the return of Ewan McGregor) and The Book of Boba Fett failing to generate a Season 2 and Ahsoka (centered on Rosario Dawson as a live-action version of the beloved Clone Wars character) receiving middling reviews and even more fan backlash.
Related: Lucasfilm Star Admits He’s Been Lying to ‘Star Wars’ Fans for Years, Relieved To Stop
In fact, fan backlash seems to be the defining quality of the Star Wars fandom these days. The Acolyte, Lucasfilm’s most recent live-action series, has been hit by an unusual (even by the standard of modern pop culture) amount of vitriol, in large part due to the centering of women and POC as protagonists in the narrative.
The series currently has the lowest score of any Star Wars project to date, even worse than the legendarily misguided Star Wars Holiday Special (1978).
Disney has one response for this: go back to basics and bring back Luke Skywalker.
At least, that is what Star Wars scooper WDW Pro claims in a recent video, citing anonymous industry sources.
According to the report, the recent controversy around The Acolyte has caused such a disturbance in the Force (read: money problems) that Disney is getting directly involved: “What I’m hearing is that Dave Filoni may be getting visits … these days from folks from Burbank at least with virtual conferences. And the reason might be that The Acolyte was the final nail in the coffin. They’re spooked over at Disney.”
WDW Pro continues, claiming:
“They’ve seen enough. They’ve heard enough. They’ve watched enough. They’re ready for people to watch Star Wars again. And so there may be an effort to move this franchise back to Luke Skywalker.”
“And what I’m being told is that while you probably will see Luke Skywalker in Season 2 of Ahsoka, you’re really going to see Luke Skywalker in some other stuff. And that they may be preparing for a heavy push of Luke Skywalker even if Kathleen Kennedy doesn’t like it. It doesn’t matter anymore. This is a franchise that’s going to go back to Luke.”
This report is, needless to say, not confirmed by Disney, Lucasfilm, or even Mark Hamill, the iconic actor behind Luke Skywalker. In many ways, it feels like wishful thinking from the faction of Star Wars fandom that has pushed back against portrayals of different kinds of characters who are not named “Skywalker” or “Darth,” but it might not actually be as far-fetched as it seems.
For one thing, Lucasfilm has already brought back Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in episodes of both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. The disconcertingly de-aged digital version of the character was used as a link between the original trilogy and The Clone Wars, interacting with both the Mandoverse and Filoni characters, so it is clear that the studio has no problem trotting Luke out when necessary.
Related: Disney Confirms ‘The Acolyte’ Replacement, New ‘Star Wars’ Show Will Air on Disney+
On the other hand, an entire series or film based around Luke Skywalker has some logistical problems; namely, Mark Hamill is 72 years old, and the amount of CGI needed to de-age him and deepfake his face on a younger actor is almost certainly extremely cost-prohibitive. When Bob Iger will not shell out the money for a Hulk solo film because of the dollar cost of digital effects, would he do it for a Jedi Knight?
That said, Disney has also shown its willingness to scrap entire projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to brute force its way back to profitability. It is entirely possible that the Mouse will push Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy to take it back to the original protagonist of the series.
Do you think Star Wars will bring back Luke Skywalker as a main character?