It’s safe to say that, given the state of current Star Wars discourse, the saga that began a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away couldn’t feel further away from its humble beginnings. The more Star Wars projects come out, the harder it is to remember the three originals that defined sci-fi for a generation. To make matters worse, the toxicity that has come to be associated with Star Wars has made talking about it annoying, not even in an ironically fun Jar-Jar-Binks kind of way.
Following a *checks notes*, less than positive reception to The Rise of Skywalker and The Acolyte‘s premature cancelation, Star Wars is adrift in the galaxy now more than ever, with few viable directions left to travel in. Now, Mark Hamill is making another return to the character that made him a household name in a LEGO Star Wars movie titled Rebuild the Galaxy.
In said trailer, he slyly pokes fun at his controversial arc in The Last Jedi, pointing to the franchise in a snake-eating-its-own-tail direction. Not that it’s much fun to discuss these days, but Star Wars‘ meta-referential humor seems out of the blue and unaware of the current state of the franchise, given that many fans feel Disney is still incredibly out of touch with what fans want. What does this say about the Star Wars legacy today? How does it undercut Rian Johnson’s controversial The Last Jedi? Should Hamill have said these things about Star Wars? Here’s what you need to know.
The Fading Legacy of Star Wars
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment Star Wars took on the image it did, an image of untouchability that divorced it from pretty much everything else ever. Sometimes you can’t criticize it because it’s Star Wars, more and more it’s this dead horse that keeps being brought out for online flogging. Either way, Star Wars has lost a lot of the golden image that it once had. This isn’t necessarily a recent thing; you’ll get different answers depending on who you ask. However, very few pop culture icons live long enough to make fun of themselves so blatantly.
This usually happens to a whole genre, let alone a singular franchise, but with this trailer, Star Wars may have passed the point of no return. Maybe it has doomed itself to the Twitter trolls and naysayers, preferring to please their haters rather than give enough credibility to the projects it has on right now.
It’s no one person’s job to declare the death of a franchise as large as Star Wars, but this sarcastic nod to its recent past through its original hero Luke Skywalker seems like a mistake. There is the argument that it’s just a LEGO movie; it’s meant to be self-aware and fun. This is true, but given the hate Star Wars has drawn, any drop of the mask like this opens them up to even more scrutiny.
Does Star Wars Know Where It Went Wrong?
In the recent trailer for LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, an alternate version of Luke discusses the events of the sequel trilogy. “Let me see if I have this right. In your galaxy, my dad is mostly evil until he turns good for like five minutes and then dies, my own nephew betrays me and kills most of my best friends, and I spend decades alone until I use the force so hard that it kills me?” While it’s a great line that sums up Luke’s journey in a sarcastic manner, it may be a bad look for Disney coming off of the sequel trilogy and arguably their most divisive project, The Acolyte.
Say what you will about The Last Jedi, but the creative freedom that Rian Johnson was given is enough reason to value its existence, even its novelty, to a certain extent. Johnson, for better and worse, threw out the playbook. Therefore, he split audiences right down the middle, and with anything like that, the angry side is the loudest.
The Last Jedi should not be laughed at by the very franchise it exists in just because internet culture tells them it’s OK. That’s not just because it’s Star Wars and Star Wars is precious, it feels like a slap in the face to the creative freedom Disney were brave to give. It might not have worked for some, but Johnson’s guts to try something new should be applauded. Sure, there is a time and place for creative risks, but he was trusted to do the job, and now he’s being thrown under the bus for doing it.
If Star Wars knows now that the direction in which The Last Jedi went was wrong, why did they let it happen, and why are they making fun of it six years later? The answer is they didn’t know the direction was wrong; they want you to think they knew. This is a way of salvaging the credibility of a franchise that, while too powerful to die, isn’t immune to a fall. Gambling and losing on a creative bet is one thing, but to then turn around and act like you don’t mean it is another.
Mark Hamill’s Relationship with Star Wars
Mark Hamill has been vocal about his character disagreements with Johnson, even during the press tour for the movie. The trend of actors belittling their films, like Jacob Elordi with The Kissing Booth movies, isn’t a good look. This is where it gets tricky with something like Star Wars. You can’t say Star Wars shouldn’t be put on a pedestal and then complain when Hamill does something other actors have done.
It comes down to how much you value Star Wars. Its legacy isn’t going anywhere, and nor should it. It’s beloved for a reason and has delivered some of the best moments in American film history. Hamill isn’t tied to it, so he can say whatever he wants. The issue comes with how Star Wars navigates this late-stage turn in its discourse. Star Wars needs to be careful with how it weathers the storm because, in today’s fickle attention economy, things fade.
So Hamill should be wise, too. His reputation as an icon is forever. That doesn’t mean that the term can’t come to mean something less fun to discuss in the future. Star Wars is swallowing its tail, and given how beloved and fragile it is, it could just bring the world crashing down. Or, maybe it’s just LEGO, and we should all carry on with our days. Who’s to say? After all, we aren’t the ones with force powers. LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy is streaming on Disney+.
