Are More Star Wars Prequels Really Necessary?

[Jack-Hammer]

J.J. Abrams is credited with breaching new life into the 40 year old franchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens in very late 2015. The film broke all kinds of box office records, fans & critics alike heaped praise upon it and it wound up being the 3rd highest grossing film of all time.

Next month, another Star Wars prequel, Rogue One, hits theaters and the overall premise is that it's about the team that ultimately delivered the plans for the first Death Star to the Rebel Alliance in A New Hope. The film itself is redundant because we ultimately know what happened: the team recruited by the Rebels were able to get the plans to the Death Star into the Alliance's hands. This movie is essentially just filling in details that, to me, aren't especially important.

As of right now, another Star Wars prequel of sorts is set to hit theaters in May of 2018 with this one being a spin-off film detailing Han Solo's life. Now this one I'm mildly interested in because, as I'm not a mega fan, I know nothing about the guy's life prior to A New Hope. I know that there have been oodles of Star Wars & comics released over the years in which Solo's past has been explored in detail but as far as I know, none of it is canon. It wouldn't really matter to me as I haven't read any of those books to begin with. Unlike Rogue One, this prequel seems like it's more than just a thinly veiled attempt to fleece even more money from the mega fans of the Star Wars franchise. It's a canonical origin story of one of the central characters of the original trilogy, which strikes me as a story that's worth telling.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

No. There are no good prequels ever. It's a fact. The Godfather Part 2? Pfft, a sequel with flashbacks.

I'm sure Rogue One will be good. It'll be a few years before they make a duff new Star Wars film (Episode 9 at a guess). But did anybody particular you care about a film where the plans for the Death Star are stolen? Do we need a film focusing on the adventures of Han and Chewie? And is Boba and Fett more interesting when you know more about him? These are all rhetorical. I know the answers.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Does anybody care about Transformers? How about that dreadfull Fast and Furious franchise? How about Marvel and Ant Man or new Doctor Strange? Or how about DC and all terriblle movies they make for their fans? Yes, makes sense, crazy acrobat with a baseball bat against demigod. Book it Vince. Aw, you allready booked Alexa Bliss vs Nikki Bella. Oh, OK then.

Point is, it doesnt mather. As much as you can make a case against Michael Bay, Disney, DC Warner or whoever is responsible that we will watch Fast and Furious 20, it makes money. A lot of money acctually. So, Disney will continue to milk Star Wars for every prequel or sequel they could. For one thing I am really sorry for them not using Extended Universe. There are great stories there, for example Kyle Katarn instead of that chick in Rogue One. For other thing, Lucas became a complete goon. All that things you saw in new Indiana Jones with infamous Fridge to aliens at the end are Lucas fault. So, as much as I enjoyed episodes 4,5 and 6, I am glad that goon is away from Star Wars.

 

[Alex]

I guess if they've got the Star Wars brand attached people will go see them.

But to the question at hand not really. a Han Solo prequel maybe as we don't really know much about his life before A New Hope. Can have some interesting character moments in there.

As for Rogue One I don't see the point. You know what's going to happen. They all die or fake their deaths and live on. I mean one of the first lines from A New Hope is how the spies died to get the plans. You know what's going to happen. Sure it'll probably be fun to look at and you might get some good character moments but will it ultimately add anything to Star Wars that you desperately needed?

Maybe a prequel about the old republic (like the games) might be interesting but as of now no.

 

[enviousdominous]

I've never felt "fleeced" when I spent my hard earned money to watch a new Star Wars film.

I'm right in-between casual and superfan status, mainly because I grew up on that whole space-samurai-cowboy-opera. The original Star Wars is the only necessary film of the entire series, but I'll gladly invest in more movies because they're a fun distraction from everyday life.

I'm really not a fan of Han, so I'll probably sit that one out. One thing I'm really not liking about Rogue One is an apparent absence of Wedge Antilles. The best explanation I've found for that is that Rogue One takes place before A New Hope, and thus Wedge was still just a low ranking pilot during this time. I won't go speculating as to why Wedge isn't in the movie, because for all I know he was just never as interesting a character to the rest of Star Wars fandom as he is to me. Plus; I'll likely go watch the movie anyway.

Just for fun, here's a fitting tribute to my favorite Star Wars character:

[youtube]oxi3Sy4TY40[/youtube]

 

[SPX]

Frankly, Star Wars is overrated as a franchise. Even the original trilogy only had one truly great movie, Empire Strikes Back. While I recognize that the series was groundbreaking in many ways, particularly in terms of effects, I have never fully understood how it became such a huge phenomenon. Maybe if I had been alive and old enough in 1977 to experience the first films release I'd feel differently, but as it stands, I feel like it's nothing more than a "pretty good" sci-fi series that is occasionally a bit of a slog to get through.

With all that said I've seen every entry in the theater--even the original trilogy when they were re-released in the 90s--and I'm sure I'll go see Rogue One, too.

 

[ztwhite]

Considering I dropped $35 on a pair of IMAX tickets for opening night, just after they went on sale at Midnight, I'd say yes, prequels are necessary. Or at least Star Wars prequels are necessary.

It's a total geek out thing for SW fans -- nothing more. Rogue One is going to make a ton of box office money and even more merchandise money. Same with the Han Solo prequel and the rumored Boba Fett prequel that's in the works.

When Episode 8 drops in 2017, same thing -- even though that's not a prequel.

 

[ヒュー　G.　レックション]

While I did prefer Force Awakens (perhaps because of nostalgia) I still enjoyed Rogue One a lot. Just because we know what happens next I don't think it really invalidates a film. I can still enjoy a World War 2 movie or a wrestling match where the outcome is obvious.

 

[jacdnwarrior]

Necessary ? No. Profitable ? Absolutely. THere's a ton of money to be made and for that reason, we will continue to see more Star War films (which I don't mind) Transformer films (which I can't stand) , Pirates of the Caribbean films, Fast and Furious films (see Transformer films) etc.