I (Almost) Blindly Predict the Reception to the Upcoming Star Wars Films

Solo: A Star Wars Story- Right off the bat we must acknowledge there will be a certain segment of the audience that is going to write this movie off simply because it’s a portrayal of the iconic Han Solo not being done by Harrison Ford. I get why that feels wrong to some people, but this movie is happening and someone other than Harrison Ford has to play a younger Han Solo so as a fan base we have to find other parts of this production to hang our hats on besides the lack of Ford. Now with room in our hearts to accept new actors’ portrayals of classic characters, it will be up to them to win us over. Joonas Suotamo’s Chewbacca shouldn’t feel all that new as he took over for Peter Mayhew after sharing the role in The Force Awakens before taking over the role full time in The Last Jedi and because that this should feel like Chewbacca. Donald Glover of Community, Atlanta, and rap fame as well as being all around the coolest guy on the planet will bring the young Lando Calrissian to life and will steal the freaking show. Glover’s Lando will ease the sting of not seeing Billy Dee Williams fight along the Resistance in Episodes 7-9; in the original trilogy we are told he’s a scoundrel and gambler, he makes a deal with the Empire off-screen, and his most important accomplishments with the Rebellion happen during the third wheel of the Battle of Endor. In Solo, Glover will give the most complete portrayal of Lando the scoundrel, the gambler, the man whose betrayal would result in Han Solo's carbonite freezing, and the man who would return to the rebellion to help blow up the second Death Star. As far as Alden Ehrenreich’s of the titular Han Solo, I think when it’s all said and done he will make us believe we’re watching Han Solo. He’ll get the right tone, humor, speech, and other traits down enough to make sure the character fits with the Han Solo we know; I don’t think Disney would release anything else and took steps during production to makes sure it happened (We’ll get to that). Ultimately our emotions will get the best of us and we will see Alden Ehrenreich’s performance as a slight disappointment.

As fans we’ll have to deal with a potential tone discrepancy as directors Chris Lord and Phil Miller were fired pretty far into production and Ron Howard was brought in to finish the production and oversee reshoots. Lord and Miller are known for their work in comedy films and television but are also known for turning less than anticipated projects into hits. They were reportedly fired for their reliance on improvisation as well as not getting a satisfactory performance from star Alden Ehrenreich. If we end up seeing any of Lord and Miller’s work it will probably be early in the film during the character relationship introduction. As with most of Disney’s use of humor in Star Wars, this will be hit or miss. Ron Howard has a knack for understanding how to bring out heart and quirk in situations and characters you might not expect to find it (Apollo 13, The Grinch, Cocoon) as a result at times we’ll say it’s the most “Disney” a Star Wars film has ever felt but it won’t be the insult some fans believe it to be. Another important factor to the tone of the film is the announcement that John William’s

Hot Take: Disney will end the tradition of C3PO and R2-D2 appearing in every Star Wars films. They won’t shoehorn in a cameo from the droid duo and will prepare fans for Star Wars films that take place far away from them.

Why We’ll Love It: It’ll answer questions about Han Solo’s lore (How he won the Falcon, The Kessel Run) without trying to tie too many connections to where the Rebellion is at that point in time

Why We’ll Hate It: A disjointed production will result in an over-reliance of fan service and name drops making a good portion of the film unneeded

Projected IMDB Score: 7.9/10

Star Wars Episode IX- Coming off The Last Jedi I have no idea what the Star Wars community is thinking going into episode 9, this is perhaps the most divided the fans have ever been. Sure some like the prequels (I’m at times a prequel sympathizer) but at the end of the day they were a disappointment, and sure some felt The Force Awakens was a retread but most would agree it was ultimately a success. But The Last Jedi, my God, some call it the best Star Wars film ever while others say it’s time to burn down Lucasfilm for good and neither side is budging on their opinion. So let’s look at the specific opinions of Episode 9 that will be in the majority, the first being Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren will be one of the highlights of the film. Also, no matter how General Leia’s exit is handled it’s not going to be a perfect situation; if they find a way to get her in the film with recycled footage and CGI it will be choppy and unnatural but if they kill her off in the opening crawl people will complain that we didn’t get her death on screen when the opportunity was there in The Last Jedi. Finally, when the next character that is created just to sell toys we’ll realize our love of Porgs.

This time around when it’s all over we’ll appreciate JJ Abrams more than we did last time. After a few occurrences in The Last Jedi of feeling certain things certainly “didn’t feel like Star Wars” Abrams will make sure his film feels like Star Wars as he did for the most part with The Force Awakens. Abrams will also work well with Lucasfilm to bring this story to an end, even if it does feel like it is borrowing from past Star Wars films, he won’t get caught up on world building or getting too experimental. Star Wars Episode IX won’t be as daring as its predecessor, but it won’t be a divisive either.

Hot Take: As with Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith, Episode IX will retain the “of the” tradition of third installments. Something along the lines of “Rise of the Resistance” but better.

Why We’ll Love It: The sequel trilogy will come to a definitive conclusion and Kylo Ren will take his place among the most popular Star Wars characters ever. Why We’ll Hate It: Too much time will be spent backtracking on the mistakes of The Last Jedi. Too many plot threads introduced since The Force Awakens will have to be trimmed Projected IMDB Score: 8.1/10

The New Trilogy- This one is the absolute wildcard, we have no idea who, where, or even when this trilogy is going to focus. All we’ve been told is that we are getting a new story from Rian Johnson about a different part of the Star Wars lore from a different corner of the galaxy. Could it be a Knights of the Old Republic trilogy? A story centering around an already known side character? New planets and characters all together? I don’t think we’re going to get many answers until late 2019 mainly because I don’t think a lot of questions have actually been answered. We can still, however, predict how this trilogy will look, remember when I said JJ Abrams wouldn’t get caught up with world building, well Rian Johnson is a world builder. In The Last Jedi, Johnson gave us new planets (Crait and Canto Bight), new creatures (Porgs and Fatheirs), and even care-taking alien nuns. While Rian Johnson ‘s world building was a detriment at times in The Last Jedi, creating moments that felt un-Star Wars like, it will be better received in a new trilogy where Johnson will make the Star Wars universe feel more like a lived-in atmosphere than ever before. Ultimately, Johnson risk-taking paired with the knowledge that this will be an unfamiliar Star Wars story will create the trilogies biggest fault of not always fitting in with the Star Wars that we know. Johnson, however, knows and respects the Star Wars lore enough to make sure at its core it is a Star Wars film. This new trilogy will fail to live up to the Skywalker Saga but will find it’s own special place in our hearts.

Hot Take: I wouldn't be all that surprised if this becomes a great Hollywood "what if", with the polarizing response to The Last Jedi this project could be on less solid footing than when it was announced. One or two bad breaks for Lucasfilm or Johnson and I could see this new trilogy being shelved

Why We’ll Love It: It’ll be more Star Wars without being chained to the Skywalker family story.

Why We’ll Hate It: It’ll be a good space opera but it won’t be Star Wars

Projected IMDB Score: 7.7/10

Bonus! The Rumored Obi-Wan Film- This is the one, this is going to be the Star Wars film we want, the one we need, and the one that makes all the anthology films worth it. Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan would be welcomed back to the big screen as one of the bright spots to come from the prequel and now in his late 40’s he’s at the right age to leave behind Obi-Wan and become Old Ben. Ewan McGregor is too good, the timing is too good, the story potential is too good; we would get the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi as the aging samurai on one last mission before he finally realizes it’s time to become Old Ben and wait for Luke to be ready to train. Goosebumps, absolute goosebumps; Obi-Wan has lost it all but has never given up on the force and has never given up on the rebellion, and now we’ll get to see how the Obi-Wan that never gave up the fight helped save the rebellion by giving in and letting Darth Vader strike him down. The only people that won’t like this film are those who feed off being contrarians.

Hot Take: We won’t see Luke, probably won’t see Vader, Bail Organa, or Yoda but there has to be established Star Wars characters to help connect the film to the Star Wars lore, I’m guessing we could see Jubba The Hut, Boba Fett, a Qui-Gon Jinn force ghost, and of course a covert spy Jar-Jar Binks (just kidding). The dark horse would be a live action, Ahsoka Tano.

Why We’ll Love It: An old western meets a samurai film where the aging master relives his youth one last time but it’s also set in the Star Wars universe and the lead is of the most beloved characters.

Why We’ll Hate It: It turns out Obi-Wan was on the frontlines of the rebellion all these years fighting side by side with Bail Organa, Chewbacca, C3PO, and R2-D2 creating massive plot holes in the original trilogy just for the sake of an easy script.

Projected IMDB Score: 8.2/10