Star Wars: Can J.J. Abrams course correct with Episode IX?

HOLLYWOOD, CA – DECEMBER 14: Director, producer and writer J.J. Abrams attends the premiere of Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at the Dolby Theatre on December 14, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

J.J., where were you?

The original trilogy was completely overseen by Star Wars creator George Lucas. He did not direct all three films, but he did lay down the stories and the path of the protagonist (Luke Skywalker). This worked well in some cases (Vader being Luke’s father), and not so well in other cases (Luke and Leia being twins). We will get back to that second one, but for now, the point is that Lucas was along for the ride every step of the way.

Of course, this is also true for the prequels, but that ride was much bumpier.

So, why did J.J. Abrams, who was the executive producer on The Last Jedi, not oversee the writing of the second leg of this sequel trilogy? It is the most frustrating thing to think about as a Star Wars fan. Abrams set up the new world for this trilogy in Episode VII, and then he has nothing to do with the writing of Episode VIII. This created an uneven story between VII and VIII, and this may be Abrams greatest challenge in bringing the trilogy to a close with IX.

This is not an attack on director/writer Rian Johnson. ‘The Last Jedi’ is a decent film, although it is not one of my favorites. But would a co-written script by Abrams and Johnson have resulted in a less jarring experience for Star Wars fans?

Even to this day, there are still stories trying to confirm Luke’s path of being ‘anti-Jedi’ in The Last Jedi – by looking at the concept art for Episode VII. The funny thing is that Luke’s refusal to fight isn’t even the biggest problem with the film, but it is the first thing that gets brought up when criticizing The Last Jedi.

Look, Star Wars fans – especially at my age: I was about 6 months old when Star Wars: A New Hope was first released, so my age always coincides with the film’s age – love Luke Skywalker. My favorite figure from the original Kenner toy line is by far and away the “Luke Skywalker – Jedi Knight” on the Return of the Jedi card. Luke is one of the great protagonists of my childhood, and it was hard to watch him turn his back on being the hero in ‘TLJ.’

But, I get it. Johnson took Luke to his lowest point, so that he could resurrect him back to the hero at the end of the film. The entire reason that Luke only gets a cameo at the end of ‘TFA’ is that Luke would take over the story, as screenwriter Michael Arndt explained with his interview by the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) back in 2015:

"“It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over. Suddenly, you didn’t care about your main character anymore because like, “Oh f***, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’s going to do.” This was like a huge thing. I feel so bad for J.J. because it was like, “The good news is you get to make a Star Wars movie, but the bad news is…” We had long conversations about this, and J.J. so much wanted to have Luke Skywalker in his movie. But to finally say, again, any time Luke showed up, it suddenly became his movie.”"

Johnson made a choice, and while I’m not a fan of it, it did create drama for the film. And it did attempt to keep the investment of the audience with the new protagonist of this trilogy (Rey). While this choice was not equal to Vader telling Luke, “I am your father” in Empire, it certainly was something new. And Johnson deserves credit for that.

But then all these burning questions about Rey’s parentage (and if she has some Skywalker in her blood), and Snoke’s origins (which have had some pretty crazy theories that range from the Emperor to Mace Windu all the way to Jar Jar Binks) are just sort of skipped over by Johnson. Rey is no one special (if that is the truth via villain Kylo Ren), and Snoke’s origin matters very little because he is killed off so quickly.

This is where Johnson starts to get into trouble. Star Wars fans love the interconnected nature of this universe. And it is a place that Abrams could have provided answers (at least for what he saw in writing The Force Awakens), and maybe a better story could have been born. The other troubling thing is that Abrams would have liked to make a movie about Luke, but as soon as he arrived at that point, he handed off the baton.

Now, Abrams gets a chance to work with the Luke character a bit more, but only as a Force ghost (most likely). Abrams probably isn’t looking to change anything about The Last Jedi, but the movie may not fully fit with his vision for these characters. And the bigger problem with The Last Jedi – and what makes a course correction so daunting – is the handling of General Leia (or Princess Leia: “to me, she’s royalty”).