Kylo Ren's memorable The Last Jedi line changed Star Wars, upending the Skywalker legacy and how fans would engage with the franchise moving forward. Read more!
Kylo Ren uttered a line in 2017 that still makes the fan community go berserk: “Let the past die. Hide it under a rock, if that’s what you need to do. That’s the only way to become what you are meant to be.” We thought he was just a broody dark-sider having a mid-thirties crisis. Looking back on how the Star Wars sequels flailed their way to solid footing, it turns out Ben Solo wasn’t just a villain — he was a saving grace for the franchise.
For nearly half a century, the Star Wars “Skywalker Saga” has been the gravity well of Star Wars. But if it’s going to survive for another half-century, the franchise will need to get away from this Earth. We’re finally coming into an age where movies and games aren’t just ‘side stories’ to Luke’s lineage — they’re a statement of independence.
The sequel trilogy needed to push the continuity forward; yet it found itself anchored all too firmly to the Original Trilogy (OT). This isn’t to say legacy characters are bad; instead, narratives can’t lean on them as a primary structural crutch.
Reaction to Luke Skywalker showing up in the Mandalorian wasn’t universally positive, among fans. A lot of people embraced it, while others dismissed it as “nostalgia bait” — a digital mask to hide an absence of narrative risk. Box office sales wise, playing it safe by making movies about known IP is a guaranteed winner for studios: 100% of the 10 highest grossing Star Wars films have a Skywalker, or a tie to the 1977-1983 era. But the critical exhaustion is tangible. For Star Wars to expand, it has to show it can be without a Skywalker on the credits.
The new film slate marks the most significant departure in franchise history. While The Mandalorian & Grogu will certainly placate the “Filoni-verse” fans with some familiar faces, the real meat is in the unknown:
It’s been five years since the chapter (Rise of Skywalker) ends, and now here we are. Rumors are that there is no legacy character. If it gets that lived-in feel just right — without a single lightsaber ignite or a “hello there” — it could very well shift what the industry thinks Star Wars is.
Mangold is skipping ahead 25,000 years, so by doing so he’s not only stepping around legacy characters, he’s stepping around the entire notion of the Force as we understand it. No Sith, no Jedi Council—just the raw excavation of the galaxy’s mystic energy. This is the “Godfather of the Force” story we’ve been waiting for.
This is the precarious balancing act. Rey may have assumed the Skywalker name, but in order for the franchise to grow, she needs to construct something that isn’t just a mirror image of the failed Academy of the past. If she’s for the entire film talking to Luke’s Force Ghost, we haven’t gotten anywhere, we’ve just switched out the window dressing.
Waititi has said he wants to “broaden out” the world. If his film evokes the cheerful, “used-future” style of the OT without relying on a single legacy cameo, it will demonstrate that the feeling of Star Wars is more powerful than the names in Star Wars.
The films have been wary, but Star Wars games have long been the point of experimental narrative storytelling. The future roadmap indicates a full separation from the “Vader-era” crutch:
| Project | Era | Legacy Risk |
| Star Wars: Zero Company | Late Clone Wars | Moderate. Anakin and Rex are still active here. |
| Star Wars: Galactic Racer | Post-OT | Low. Focused on the underworld and speed. |
| Star Wars: Eclipse | High Republic | Low. Set 200 years before The Phantom Menace. |
| Fate of the Old Republic | Old Republic | Zero. More than a millennium before the films. |
Star Wars Jedi Fallen is the offender right now for taking “Vader-as-a-boogeyman.” For the third game to really connect, Cal Kestis needs to stop being a footnote in the Rebellion’s shadow. He needs a destiny that doesn’t finish with him being “too busy” to give Luke a hand in Episode IV.
If there is one thing the new age should learn, it is the Andor Lesson. Andor showed you can have legacy characters (Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera, K-2SO) without them feeling like cameos. They didn’t exist because the marketing department wanted a trailer clip, they existed because the plot needed them there.
Star Wars, to its credit, has sometimes been skewered for having precisely no diversity of viewpoint, concerned consistently with a fantasy 1% of the galaxy (the Jedi and the High Command).
In fact the Star Wars audience is diverse: roughly 40% of the active fanbase is female, and international audiences now represent more than half of the box office. Stepping away from the Skywalkers, the saga can tell stories that speak more to this broad, modern audience: tales about smugglers and soldiers and civilians who just happen to not have magic coursing through their veins.
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Kylo Ren was right, but with a caveat: we don’t owe the past “killing,” we just have to stop residing in its basement. As it jets to the High Republic, the distant future, and the distant past, Lucasfilm is at last giving the galaxy some room to breathe. Star Wars’ Future Begins Where the Skywalkers (Masterpiece) End.
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Marvel shocks fans by firing Jonathan Majors and replacing Kang with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. MCU Phase 6 reimagined!
The MCU underwent one of its biggest back-end shakeups in recent memory, with massive ramifications for not only the direction of Phase 6 but the entire Multiverse Saga. What started as a grand design revolving around Kang the Conqueror has shifted into an entirely different story, with Doctor Doom emerging as the main Villain.
The change began with dire legal problems for Jonathan Majors, who was set to be the MCU’s next big villain after Thanos. In March 2023, Majors was taken into custody on charges of assault and harassment against his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. The matter intensified when in December 2023 he was convicted by a New York jury of reckless assault and second-degree harassment, The Guardians stated.
Marvel Studios fired Jonathan Majors just hours after his conviction to be charged with assault and harassment in his ex-girlfriend’s case associated their charges Jonathan Majors was facing a similar hammer blow to his career as the next MCU big bad villain after Thanos. The actor had already played multiple Kang variants in Loki seasons 1 and 2, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. His termination presented a monumental storytelling issue for Marvel, as Kang was supposed to be the overarching menace throughout Phases 4, 5 and 6.
The consequences of Majors’ termination were much more than the removal of a single actor. Marvel entirely dropped the Kang-centric plotline which had been developing since 2021. The fifth Avengers movie, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, was renamed Avengers: Doomsday. This was a radical departure from multiversal villainy centered on Kang to dealing with a more “realistic” but just as threatening antagonist.
Marvel had originally centered the entire Multiverse Saga on Kang after being impressed with Majors’ turn as He Who Remains in Loki. The time-traveling, reality-altering villain’s age made him a perfect choice for a story that would take place across multiple timelines and dimensions. However, it has been reported that Marvel Studios had reservations about Kang and the Multiverse Saga even prior to Majors’ legal troubles, suggesting there were some doubts internally as to the direction.
In one of the most surprising MCU news of all time, Robert Downey Jr. was confirmed to be returning to the franchise as Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Downey’s dramatic unmasking of himself onstage during the announcement sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry.
The casting decision is a “daring creative pivot” as the former Iron Man actor now embodies one of Marvel’s most iconic villains. Iron Man 3 director Shane Black predicts this casting will “singlehandedly reignite the entire comic book movie industry”. Black said, “I think he’s going to singlehandedly reinvigorate the entire comic book movie industry with that. At first, it seemed like a cynical move, you know, like “Oh, let’s just go back to the well of the one guy that seems to always save us.” But it’s going to be. It’s going to be great.
The entertainment industry has been cautiously optimistic about these seismic shifts. Marvel waited until Majors was convicted to fire him, an act of restraint compared to the industry norm of immediately dismissing actors on the basis of accusations as shared.
A number of MCU alumni have voiced their enthusiasm at Downey’s return, although many were surprised by the news. Jeremy Renner disclosed that he had “no idea” about the casting, and that Downey “said nothing” to his MCU colleagues. Tom Hiddleston described the casting as “remarkable” and “absolutely extraordinary”.
Some fans have complained about the casting, fearful of Doom being given a revised origin that includes Tony Stark.Still, the bar is set extremely high, with a lot of people seeing this as Marvel’s shot at recapturing the magic of the Infinity Saga.
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Doctor Doom will be the main villain of Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027). The Russo Brothers, who helmed Infinity War and Endgame, are back to direct both movies. This is a massive deviation from the original Kang-centric narrative, however there are rumors that Marvel might still find a way to finish off the story for Kang via a potential recast.
The changes are not just about swapping out the villain. Marvel is slashing its content output drastically`, with as few as two films a year, rather than up to four in recent years shared by Screenrant. The change is part of a larger Disney strategy to prioritize quality over quantity after some mixed feelings about recent MCU offerings.
The Phase 6 overhaul is arguably the most significant plot twist the MCU has ever seen. What was meant to be a multiverse story focused on Kang has now become something else entirely, with Doctor Doom seemingly going to end the Multiverse Saga. Early reviews from the cast are that Downey’s performance as Doom is outstanding, with Vanessa Kirby calling it “some of the most amazing work I’ve seen” in. The success of this recalibration will ultimately dictate the MCU’s future path. With Marvel now proceeding with Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026, the entertainment world wonders if the breathtaking turn of events behind the scenes is going to lead to a resurgence of creativity or become a cautionary tale about the perils of planning franchise far ahead in a volatile world.
The Marvel Phase 6 storyline changes entirely and gives everyone a big shock with its new plot. The decision of changing the biggest villain of the Multiverse Saga is tough for Russo Brother but they came back with a surprise casting after Jonathan Majors got fired, Robert Downey Jr. is returned as a villain in Avengers next film Avengers: Doomsday. Marvel entirely dropped the Kang-centric plotline that was supposed to be the overarching menace throughout Phases 4, 5 and 6 and adopt renamed it with Doomsday.
Explore Blue Moon (2025), Linklater's poignant film on art, loss, and time, featuring Ethan Hawke's career-defining portrayal of Lorenz Hart.
Richard Linklater is known for his temporal distortions, which he often varies over the course of decades, as in the Before trilogy or Boyhood. But in his 2025 magnum opus, Blue Moon, he does something radically different. He condenses the crushing burden of an entire career going down the tubes into a single confining night in the bowels of Sardi’s restaurant.
This movie is not simply a biopic, it’s a chamber piece on the brutal architecture of artistic mourning. It is March 31, 1943, and with these words the film memorializes the end of the Jazz Age, which was immediately supplanted by the “golden age” of the musical theater.
The setup is ruinously straightforward. Lorenz “Larry” Hart (an electric Ethan Hawke), the brilliant, jaded lyricist half of the legendary Rodgers and Hart team, is holding up the bar at Sardi’s.
Just across the street, his one-time soul mate and partner, Richard Rodgers, is debuting Oklahoma! with another partner, Oscar Hammerstein II. Hart must wait in the limbo of the restaurant, the muted applause he can hear is the sound of him being made redundant.
Linklater has said the film “Deals with a trauma that is, in a way, two-fold.”
This is not just a business split, it’s an artistic divorce between two men who defined an era together. Rodgers, the practical puppet master, had to change in order to live, to detach himself from Hart’s chaotic alcoholism and revue-style wit to something more formal and honest. Hart, the poetic soul of the roaring twenties, was just abandoned.
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The brilliance of Blue Moon is that it knows how to wait. According to The Guardian, Linklater and Hawke had been thinking about this film for more than ten years. Linklater famously told Hawke years ago,
“I’ll wait 10 years,”
Knowing the actor had to age into the role. To play the battered, gnome-like figure of the 47-year-old Hart, a guy worn down by drink and depression, he had to lose his youthful boyishness.
That prolonged timeline gives the film a deep, lived-in sadness. We see Hart desperately go through the motions of his old self — flirting, quipping, drinking trying to drown out the scary fact that the society he helped shape has no use for him anymore. He derides the “corny” nostalgia of Oklahoma! and cannot understand why the audience’s preference has moved away from his urbane sophistication to simple country sweetness.
“We all think we’re gonna run the table forever but tastes can change,” Linklater says in the production notes.
That is the film’s haunting thesis. Blue Moon is a monument to the “loser” of historical change. It’s a beautiful, sad recognition that sometimes even the most brilliant cultural architects find themselves trapped in the past, watching the future being built just down the street without them.
Blue Moon isn’t merely a movie — it’s an elegy. Linklater creates a haunting reflection on change, mourning and the slow brutality of time. The film, anchored by Ethan Hawke’s brilliant performance, reminds us that even the most brilliant creative minds can quickly become relics. It’s a masterwork of stillness, sorrow and storytelling: a paean to those who made the past even as they watched the future speed by.
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