5 ideas for stand-alone Star Wars films
By Barlow Adams
“It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”–Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Force has become synonymous with the Jedi, but the mystical energy that binds all things is far bigger and more varied than even that well-known order. So diverse as to be nearly indistinguishable from magic, the Force has been codified by the Jedi into a number of prescribed abilities and powers, but that does not mean these manifestations are the limits of its uses.
As illustrated by Chirrut Îmwe, the blind warrior from Rogue One, and the Nightsisters, who reside on the planet Dathomir in The Clone Wars series, The Force can take many forms, light and dark.
It would be interesting then to see a movie where those possible permutations were more fully explored, a film about force-users in some of their lesser-known guises, about The Force itself–its potential and limits, its manifest will. In short, a more philosophical Star Wars film.
While much of the Star Wars universe is filled with bustling city-planets like the impossibly metropolitan Coruscant, there are other planets that are decidedly primitive. What kind of obscure force-practices exist in the furthest reaches of the Outer Rim, what magick might live-on, and in what forms? What other orders might there be to rival the Jedi, or serve as unlikely allies? What is their relationship to this mystical energy?
Despite its central place in most Star Wars stories, little is known of The Force, and even those who claim mastery over it are either tight-lipped or limited in their ultimate understanding of the semi-divine force in the galaxy.
A movie about The Force would be a quest for God, for understanding, purpose, truth. It would be a religious pilgrimage as much as anything, something that could, if done well, illuminate our own doubts and beliefs, or own desire for meaning. It would be a film about normal people living in a world where elements of inconceivably powerful technology battle some measurable spiritual entity for supremacy on a daily basis.
In a universe where elite peacekeepers perform miracles and the cosmos seems to have a will of its own, what is the place of faith? Who seeks answers in a galaxy where magic is–at least in some way, shape, and form–very real?