By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 19 seconds ago

Previously, we hadn’t had a new Star Wars movie in theaters since 2019, when The Rise of Skywalker redefined just how stupid a galaxy far, far away could really be. Disney wanted The Mandalorian and Grogu to be the big comeback film for the franchise, but that didn’t work. Not only did it earn less money than any live-action Star Wars movie before it, but it has been hailed by some critics as a new low for the Disney era. For both the haters and the fanboys, this leaves one very provocative question: can anything actually save Star Wars?

Amazingly, the answer to that question may involve one of the franchise’s most controversial characters. Rey was the popular protagonist of the Sequel Trilogy, but some fans really hated her because of how she was written (she was basically a Mary Sue from the beginning) and her creepy connection to Emperor Palpatine (who did the monster mash with her grandmother). However, Emmy-winning writer Damon Lindelof was hired to write a new Rey movie that would use the character to do the impossible: bring the fractured fandom back together again. Unfortunately, Disney killed this film, and in doing so, they may have doomed Star Wars altogether.

A Rey Of Hope

Over half a decade ago, Damon Lindelof began working on a solo Rey movie for Disney. This was exciting because Lindelof was famously the co-creator and showrunner of Lost, one of the most engrossing shows from the Golden Age of Television. Later, he became co-creator and showrunner of Watchmen, one of the best superhero shows ever made. After two years of writing for a galaxy far, far away, however, he was fired, and his movie joined the growing pile of canceled Star Wars films. Until recently, fans could only speculate on the deeper details of what his Rey/New Jedi Order movie would have been about. But in a recent interview with the House of R podcast, he spoke candidly about the movie’s plot.

During the interview, Lindelof described the Rey movie in the most fascinating way. “What we were attempting to do was to have this conversation in the movie,” he said, “Which is to say there is a force of nostalgia and there is a force of revision and they are at odds with one another. And let’s do the Protestant Reformation inside ‘Star Wars.’” These statements are both cryptic and compelling, as befits the creator of Lost. But like a bunch of fans seeing the Smoke Monster for the first time, we have to figure out what the heck Damon Lindelof is saying with this mystery box mambo jumbo.

Our Only Hope?

The first part seems clear enough. He wants to take the metatextual discourse over franchise direction and somehow make it textual. What would that look like? We know that Rey was going to rebuild a new Jedi Order. If so, she might be torn between following the traditions of the Prequel Trilogy Jedi Masters and kickstarting her own, brand-new traditions. What’s up with the Protestant Reformation bit? This is likely an indicator that Rey would forge a new path for the Jedi, effectively splintering this ancient religion between the old guard and the new guard. This would presumably sway the fandom to support Rey doing what Star Wars heroes always do: rebel.                            

Why did the project die? After first noting simply that “it didn’t work,” Damon Lindelof later admitted that Disney may have fired him because “the writing was really hard. It was slow. Like the tone, getting it right, where it was inside of the canon, what its relationship was with to episode nine,” he said. “Is it starting a new trilogy? Is it like all of those things? They’re so massive. They’re so big.” He regrets getting fired because “the conversation that the fandom is having without winking and looking at the audience … that didn’t necessarily feel that risky.” 

There Is Another (Skywalker)

In other words, it wouldn’t hurt for Disney to acknowledge (to borrow Lindelof’s adorable phrasing) “the bantha in the room.” The Star Wars fandom is divided, and the franchise is delivering diminishing returns. Lindelof wanted his movie to fix the fan schism, effectively winning over fans who were driven away by The Rise of Skywalker. To counter that film’s simplicity, Lindelof wanted a smart, metatextual film that pushed the boundaries of the franchise, but Disney wanted to play it safe. That’s why The Mandalorian and Grogu (our first Star Wars film since TROS) is just a collection of fight scenes and explosions, with nothing (including character development or coherent plotting) that might offend the audience.

However, it seems that Disney backed the wrong horse. The Mandalorian and Grogu had the weakest opening weekend of any live-action Star Wars film. Furthermore, its middling quality disappointed critics and large swathes of the fandom. Given this film’s failure, it won’t be surprising if the studio later cribs from Damon Lindelof and makes a film intended to unify the fandom. However, that effort may be too little, too late because the last two Star Wars movies have been messy commercial and critical disappointments. When the smoke clears on this latest theatrical disaster, Disney may discover a bitter truth: there’s no fandom left to unify.