Star Wars: Can J.J. Abrams course correct with Episode IX?
LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 09: Director, producer and writer J.J. Abrams (L) and his wife, public relations executive Katie McGrath, attend the premiere of Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” at The Shrine Auditorium on December 9, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
With the impending Star Wars: Episode IX, director J.J. Abrams is faced with the task of a course correction that might be impossible to achieve.
Director J.J. Abrams’s return to the Star Wars universe is not without controversy. Abrams is expected to ‘course correct’ Star Wars after the disappointing box office of Solo: A Star Wars Story. And this course correction could even be in reference to issues with The Last Jedi, which did well both critically and commercially, but has been a disappointment for many old-school Star Wars fans.
What started with Star Wars in 1977 will finally come to a close next December with Star Wars: Episode IX, which is the culmination of the Skywalker saga. This, of course, is the third of the Skywalker trilogies: original trilogy (1977-83), prequel trilogy (1999-2005), and sequel trilogy (2015-19).
In each of those trilogies, the first one makes the most, the second one less, and then the third one makes more than the second (but less than the first): (Source: Box Office Mojo)
- Original Trilogy: (Gross, not including reissues)
- Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope, 1977, ‘SW’) – $307 million
- The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V, 1980, ‘Empire’) – $209 million
- Return of the Jedi (Episode VI, 1983, ‘Jedi’) – $252 million
- Prequel Trilogy: (Gross, not including reissues)
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999, ‘Ep1’) – $431 million
- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002, ‘Ep2’) – $302 million
- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005, ‘Ep3’) – $380 million
- Sequel Trilogy: (Gross, not including reissues)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII, 2015, ‘TFA’) – $936 million
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Episode VIII, 2017, ‘TLJ’) – $620 million
So, by the numbers, 2019’s Episode IX should outdo its predecessor. But can it surpass its first leg of the trilogy – The Force Awakens – and truly break the mold?