7 Years After The Rise Of Skywalker, Star Wars' New Era Is Unsustainable
Credit: Disney+ via MovieStillsDB
Published Aug 31, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT
El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel.
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Seven years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars' new era has become unsustainable. Though the Star Wars sequel trilogy was a massive financial success — even if every installment earned significantly less than the one before — its divisive reception forced Lucasfilm to re-evaluate its storytelling approach. With the launch of Disney+, the solution basically presented itself on a silver platter, and The Mandalorian was the result: a new, standalone Star Wars story set in a relatively unexplored era of the Star Wars timeline, roughly five years after the events of Return of the Jedi.
The Mandalorian season 1 felt like a genuinely fresh beginning for Star Wars. A new medium and a new corner of the galaxy, incorporating a different genre and tone while honoring the worldbuilding that makes Star Wars so special. And yet, it soon became clear that, even after the connective issues that plagued the sequel trilogy, Star Wars was determined to develop The Mandalorian and, more specifically, the New Republic era, into something almost as grand and galaxy-defining as the Skywalker saga.
From The Mandalorian season 2 came post-Return of the Jedi Luke Skywalker, live-action Star Wars: The Clone Wars characters Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano, the return of Boba Fett, and the eventual live-action adaptations of the entire Star Wars Rebels Ghost Crew in Ahsoka season 1. Suddenly, the New Republic was no longer just an era in the Star Wars timeline but an independent sub-franchise. Unfortunately, with each new installment since The Mandalorian season 2 (aside from Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), Star Wars' Disney+ issues have only grown.
Now, with The Mandalorian and Grogu's underwhelming theatrical performance and the impending release of Ahsoka season 2, it's clear the New Republic era has become a tragically unsustainable and contradictory part of Star Wars' narrative, failing to hold on to what made The Mandalorian so exciting in the first place.
Ahsoka Season 2's Story Is Too Big For The New Republic Era
The recently released trailer for Ahsoka season 2 teases an epic, all-out war between the returned Grand Admiral Thrawn — another character brought over from Star Wars Rebels and, by extension, Star Wars Legends — and the New Republic. This presents multiple issues, though. Not only does it risk making Ahsoka Tano a secondary character in her own show, especially since she's currently stuck in a different galaxy far, far away, but it also risks undoing the New Republic's previously established history.
During the release of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Star Wars published multiple books and comics to explain the First Order's rise to power and, crucially, the New Republic's lacking response. This included Leia Organa's role in the New Republic and her ousting from the Senate after it became public knowledge that she was Darth Vader's daughter. In response to her departure and a bombing in the Senate Chambers, Leia built the Resistance, following the New Republic's ultimately fatal decision to demilitarize its forces in the wake of the Empire's final defeat.
When Disney de-canonized the entirety of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and rebranded it as Legends, the studio promised that every book, comic, and video game published from 2014 onwards would be equally canon, on the same level as the Star Wars movies and TV shows. Now, however, the inclusion of an all-out war years before the First Order's rise to power contradicts almost everything established through Star Wars publishing.
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”
🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians
⚡The SithRule of two
⚙️The RebellionA new hope
🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way
👑The EmpireOrder 66
PUNCH IT! →
01
The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?
A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980
✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.
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02
A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.
ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner
✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.
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03
In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?
AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father
✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.
✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.
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04
Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.
AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson
✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.
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05
In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?
A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014
✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.
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06
The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?
ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze
✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.
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07
Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?
AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One
✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.
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08
Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.
ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni
✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).
✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.
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The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing
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/ 8
Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?
⤴ ANOTHER GO
If Thrawn does indeed engage the New Republic in a full-blown war, why would the government decide to demilitarize after such a major, sudden conflict? Surely, they'd understand that it needs to maintain a proper defensive strategy, which would undermine Leia's whole story.
Additionally, Thrawn's attack on the New Republic needs to involve Leia, at the very least, if not also Luke Skywalker. The Ahsoka season 2 trailer shows the Ghost Crew's involvement; Leia personally knows them from her one-episode cameo in Star Wars Rebels. It's all well and good to mention her name in passing during a New Republic council meeting in Ahsoka season 1. It's another thing entirely to have her miss out on what seems to be such a monumental moment in the galaxy's history. If Star Wars is still fearful of recasting, however, it won't work.
While this is clearly Dave Filoni's canon version of Timothy Zahn's original Legends-era Heir to the Empire storyline, it's harder to make an event like this fit into the current status quo without alienating an audience who has never watched either Star Wars Rebels or The Clone Wars, both of which are vital to understanding Ahsoka Tano's story and the show's wider conflict. It also unnecessarily complicates the Star Wars timeline. It feels like the New Republic era is needlessly rehashing the past, when The Mandalorian was originally meant to be something entirely new for Star Wars instead.
The New Republic Era Is Stifling Star Wars' Creativity
Of course, Ahsoka season 2 may prove to be an incredibly fun, insightful, and wild ride, but it's still impossible to extricate from the surrounding context. The New Republic has pushed Lucasfilm into a corner, one that has stifled its creativity and its narrative opportunities. Take The Mandalorian and Grogu, for example. The Mandalorian season 3 was widely criticized for shifting the focus from Din Djarin and his foundling, Grogu, to a plot concerning Bo-Katan Kryze and the Mandalorians' reclamation of Mandalore.
Now, the future of The Mandalorian season 4 is still in limbo, while The Mandalorian and Grogu didn't revitalize the franchise as Disney undoubtedly hoped. Despite focusing on a solitary Din and Grogu adventure, it failed to recapture the magic of The Mandalorian season 1. Neither could it push the New Republic storyline forward in any meaningful way without treading on Ahsoka season 2's toes. The result was a fun, if superfluous, Star Wars adventure, as proven by the movie's performance. It's the lowest-grossing Star Wars movie, earning roughly $50 million less than Solo: A Star Wars Story for a total of $345 million.
What else could it do, though? Every new connection, every new installment makes it that much harder to keep the New Republic era and Star Wars' canon intact. Star Wars' insistence on revisiting and expanding The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels while connecting The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka — Star Wars Jedi's Cal Kestis could just as easily have been the one to connect with Grogu, rather than Ahsoka or Luke — has made the New Republic era unsustainable.
The more it needs to adhere to already established character arcs and canon history, the less the writers and directors can actually experiment in Star Wars' playground. The result is stories like The Mandalorian and Grogu and the upcoming second season of Ahsoka. The New Republic culmination movie first teased at Star Wars Celebration 2023 will run into the same problems. At this point, it might be best for Star Wars to focus on a new era altogether.
Star Wars Will Launch A New Era Next Year
Luckily, Star Wars already has a new era in the works. The franchise's next upcoming theatrical release, Star Wars: Starfighter, will be the first official Star Wars story set after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, approximately five years after Rey first ignited her yellow lightsaber on Tatooine. The standalone movie, which stars Ryan Gosling as pilot Kade Auberon, will follow Kade as he escorts a (potentially Force-sensitive) youngling, played by Flynn Gray, across the galaxy while being chased by terrifying dark forces.
Star Wars: Starfighter arrives in cinemas on May 28, 2027.
While there are some expectations for this era, namely the development of Rey's new Jedi Order, Star Wars creatives will have a clean slate to work with. New heroes, new villains, new planets, new conflicts; the galaxy is their oyster. Any stories set in this era won't need to fit into decades of established history or deal with the constant looming shadow of legacy characters like Luke and Leia. As loved as they are, their potential appearance at any time will always have an influence.
It's arguably even more exciting a prospect than The Mandalorian and the New Republic era were when the show first premiered on Disney+ all those years ago. It will need to apply Star Wars' worldbuilding rules and respect the franchise's history, of course, but crucially, it won't be building towards anything in particular. Aside from the original trilogy and, to an extent, Star Wars: The High Republic, no other Star Wars story has really ever had that kind of narrative freedom. While Star Wars hasn't always handled the New Republic well, this new era could be exactly what the franchise needs to reset itself.
Ahsoka season 2 premieres January 20, 2027, only on Disney+.
Movie(s) Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order
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