Star Wars Movies Could Be Fixed By Dark Side-Focused Film, Says Fan

Highlights

Star Wars franchise needs a new direction, away from underdog stories and the Clone Wars era, to regain public enthusiasm and save itself from a downturn.
A dark side movie centered around a youngling embracing negative emotions and staying on the path of the Dark Side could bring back the allure and potency of the Dark Side.
Newer Star Wars media has failed to showcase the weight and temptation of the Dark Side, unlike previous video games and Legends, leaving fans wanting more.

With the Star Wars franchise seemingly suffering from the same general downturn affecting the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one fan has taken to an online forum to share what he believes is one way the franchise can bounce back.

Star Wars singlehandedly crafted the modern conceptualization of the space opera subgenre in science fiction with its original trilogy of films, which would be followed up with a prequel trilogy and a period of expanded lore before the entire property was acquired by Disney in 2012. While excitement for the new content from Disney was initially high, the franchise has seen a drop in public enthusiasm that has only been exacerbated recently.

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While some thought that Jon Favreu’s love of the originals would save Star Wars, an online fan has a more practical idea to revitalize it amidst the biggest drop in attention it’s ever received from fans. Taking to Reddit’s r/StarWars, user wennblomman revealed his plan for saving the franchise in a post succinctly titled “Could a dark side movie save this franchise?” In the multi-paragraph post, they explain that the franchise has overused the underdog story and Clone Wars era trappings, a problem that seems to have crested with the reception to Ahsoka, which did nowhere near the numbers it could’ve considering the sheer amount of fan service that went into it. According to the user, the solution would be a new Star Wars project focused entirely on a youngling who awakens their powers through negative emotions, with the twist being that this protagonist stays on that path in what the original poster calls a “reverse Anakin.”

This idea highlights the path several Force users have gone down in Star Wars games, often to great effect. Elaborating further, they outline a plot that sees the protagonist constantly plagued by guilt at their outbursts of power and contact with good people that tempt them back towards the light, but to no avail as the protagonist eventually succumbs fully to the Dark Side. According to the poster, this would help to give some weight and credence back to the allure and potency of the Dark Side, which they point out has come across less clearly to newer viewers of Star Wars due to Rey’s irreverent use of it in the sequel trilogy. Finally, the post ends with a complaint about newer characters being able to easily exist in a grey area with the Force, a claim that also holds up on a viewing of Ahsoka.

While viewers will always have ideas on how a franchise can branch out and improve, such as a fan’s high-octane idea for a Star Wars show, this suggestion digs down to the root of an issue rather than just taking on a divergent path. The idea that there is some actual heft and temptation from the Dark Side is something that newer Star Wars media hasn’t showcased well, despite some stellar work in other regards. This is a shame, as Star Wars fans have always loved these sorts of stories, whether they were played out themselves in a video game or written out from Rise to Fall in Legends.

While it’s unlikely to happen in any of the already-announced Star Wars projects, it’s an interesting idea. Fans must wait and see if they ever get a character with an arc on par with Palpatine’s journey to the Dark Side.

The Star Wars franchise is available for streaming on Disney Plus.

Star Wars

Star Wars is a multimedia franchise created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd with the 1977 motion picture. The science fiction franchise follows the adventures of characters (both humanoid and alien) in outer space, including those who can wield a mystical power known as the Force. Since the release of the original trilogy movies, the franchise has expanded to include multiple films and branched out to other mediums like comics, video games, TV shows, theme park attractions, and more. The IP and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney in 2012.