Is Dave Filoni the sizzle that will save Star Wars?

Dan and Eric Finally Have a Podcast

For the most part, Star Wars fans are in two camps.

• Camp 1 believe that the main focal point is about Luke Skywalker’s journey and don’t really care what happened in the movies outside of New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of Jedi. These same fans followed a lot of the “Legends” material that came after ROTJ (before Disney bought LucasFilm). These fans have a great respect for George Lucas, BUT they aren’t crazy about his prequels.
• Camp 2 are those that have an affinity for the prequels, AND the animated shows that tied into those movies. These fans have a respect for George Lucas, but really like what Dave Filoni has added to Star Wars.

Just looking at a New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, these movies were all about Luke’s journey and how he was the hero.

At no point in watching those 3 movies did I ever think that Anakin was the hero. If you remember, Obi-Wan says in Empire, “that boy is our last hope” and Yoda responds, “No there is another.” In Jedi, you get the sense that “the other” is Leia who is becoming force sensitive.

“Last hope” doesn’t mean “chosen one” and in fact the prophesy of the chosen one was not mentioned until The Phantom Menace.

Now, when Lucas expanded the movie franchise by making the prequels, and included the chosen one prophesy, the focus turned to Anakin and diminished Luke’s prevalence as the ultimate hero. Anakin, not Luke, was the chosen one, and in turn the story is all about Anakin’s journey.

Looking just at episodes 1-6, how did Anakin full-fill the chosen one prophesy, and bring balance to the force? Ultimately, balance was returned when Anakin threw Palpatine down the reactor shaft in Jedi.

NOW, something to think about:

The Skywalker Saga (mainly the Last Jedi, and Rise of Skywalker) UNDID a lot of the important aspects of episodes 4-6. Luke was turned into a failure that was ready to MURDER Ben Solo in his sleep (mind you, this is the same guy that threw his lightsaber away when facing Anakin and the Emperor), AND Anakin’s chosen one prophesy became unfulfilled when Palpatine returned (this happened in Legends lore as well so I can’t be too critical of this fact, but Luke and other legacy characters were able to finally defeat him. Following the logic that Luke was the hero laid out in episode 4-6.).

Looking at the Ashoka streaming series, Ashoka (created by Dave Filoni) is the main hero/protagonist and is going up against Thrawn. Something that never occurred in the Legends Thrawn series because Ahsoka wasn’t created until Filoni’s Clone Wars movie. So basically, Ahsoka is replacing Luke as it relates to the Thrawn storyline, which upset fans.

It’s no surprise that Last Jedi really upset a lot of longtime fans too, and even Mark Hamill. It’s also no secret that the Skywalker saga hasn’t mustered a lot of revenue for Disney either.

Now, here is where a conspiracy theory starts to come into play. It’s alleged that Kathleen Kennedy and others weren’t happy that The Mandalorian was becoming more successful than their Skywalker Saga, which positioned Rey as a “Skywalker” even though she never was one.

The conspiracy theory starts to play out because…

In episode 6 of Book of Boba Fett we see Grogu leave Luke Skywalker’s tutelage. Interestingly, this episode was written by Favrea and Filoni. Filoni was not credited for any other writing on the series except for that episode. This episode leads conspiracy theorists to speculate that Kennedy began pushing Filoni to get involved because she did not like Luke becoming popular again because it overshadowed Rey Skywalker.

I think fans need to move past the Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker tropes. It's time to move forward with a fresh take on Star Wars, but can Filoni pull it off?

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