Star Wars Already Has The Perfect Solution For Amazing New Movies

Star Wars continues to expand its narratives around the Skywalker Saga, but the best next stories for the franchise have already appeared on screen.

As the Star Wars franchise moves forward, one of the best places for it to draw inspiration from for new shows and movies is content that it has already created but brushed over. With the completion of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars has increasingly been exploring events that occurred in between those films. For example, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett both took place after Return of the Jedi but before The Force Awakens. Most recently, Obi-Wan Kenobi depicted the former Jedi Master’s activities while in exile between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Star Wars’ animated series began exploring periods like these even earlier and have covered greater expanses of time. Star Wars: The Clone Wars primarily took place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, covering the entirety of the Clone Wars. In addition, Star Wars Rebels followed the early days of the Rebellion before A New Hope.

In contrast, Star Wars’ most successful standalone film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, focused on a single major event. Taking place directly before the beginning of A New Hope, Rogue One told the story of the rebels who stole the plans for the Death Star, ultimately saving the Rebellion by sacrificing themselves. Notably, Rogue One was based on A New Hope’s opening crawl. A single sentence inspired the entire movie, which has now even sparked an upcoming spinoff series, Andor, about the rebel Cassian Andor.

Based on Rogue One’s success, Star Wars already has the perfect place to find the next stories it should tell: the movies’ famous opening crawls. Throughout the Skywalker Saga, each film began with an opening crawl, or several short paragraphs to establish the story’s premise over a background of stars. The events referenced in these opening crawls could inspire more movies for major events or even a television show about many of the minor events. This would allow Star Wars to continue to expand its universe and further explore popular characters.

The Best Next Star Wars Stories Have Already Been On-Screen

One of the best stories that Star Wars could expand upon is Emperor Palpatine’s return before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Unbeknownst to many Star Wars fans, Fortnite X Star Wars, an online event within the Fortnite video game, featured a broadcast by Palpatine, announcing his return. In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, this became canon with rebel leader Poe Dameron’s remarkably simple line, “Somehow Palpatine returned.” Although Palpatine’s survival was explained through clones in various Star Wars books and blog posts, this was never described in the Skywalker Saga. To redeem Palpatine’s sudden return, Star Wars could create a movie based on The Rise of Skywalker’s opening crawl. This could better explain how Palpatine survived after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and bring his broadcast to the screen for Star Wars viewers who do not play Fortnite.

In addition, the opening crawl for Star Wars: The Force Awakens references many major events that could be made into a film or series. After the destruction of his Jedi Academy, Luke Skywalker vanished, leaving behind pieces of a map to find him. In his absence, the First Order rose to power and began establishing a new empire. To protect the Republic, Leia Organa became a rebel again, founding the Resistance. Although all of these events are vital to the Star Wars sequel trilogy, none of them were ever fully shown on screen. Depicting these events would give Star Wars the opportunity to better set up The Force Awakens and explore how these events affected the relationships between major characters like Luke, Leia, Han Solo, and Kylo Ren. Many of the opening crawls within the Skywalker Saga reference battles and changes in power like these, which could be adapted into new Star Wars shows and movies without disrupting the canon.