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“If this mission fails, it was all for nothing. What we’ve done. All this time.”

This may just be another inspirational line of dialogue from “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” but I couldn’t help thinking it defined the production of the film, too. After the divisive response to “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and the firing of original director Colin Trevorrow , J.J. Abrams swooped back in to make sure the “mission” of this franchise was for something. And you can feel that weight of history and obligation, especially in the first hour of “Skywalker,” as Abrams delivers a movie that practically lifts off directly from “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens,” using that film’s combination of action and fan service as a storytelling template way more than the previous movie. However, the inherent rush that came in revisiting this world four years ago is naturally lessened, replaced by something closer to desperation. Whatever one thinks of “The Last Jedi,” if that film was trying to build a new house on familiar land, this one tears it down and goes back to an old blueprint. Some of the action is well-executed, there are strong performances throughout, and one almost has to admire the brazenness of the weaponized nostalgia for the original trilogy, but feelings like joy and wonder are smothered by a movie that so desperately wants to please a fractured fanbase that it doesn’t bother with an identity of its own.

“The dead speak!” This is the opening line of the crawl of the last “ Star Wars ” movie in the new trilogy, and such an appropriate overture to a film that relies on your knowledge of dead characters to appreciate it. The “dead” in this case is Emperor Palpatine ( Ian McDiarmid ), who is revealed in the prologue to still be alive, planning a return of the Sith and the Empire. He’s been underground on a distant, untrackable planet, where he reportedly created Snoke, waiting for the heir to his throne to lead the resurrection of the Sith in the form of something new called the Final Order. Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver ) finds Palpatine, who instructs him to go find Rey ( Daisy Ridley ). A lot of “Rise of Skywalker” is about finding things or people, especially for the first half.

Rey is with the Resistance, still led by General Leia Organa ( Carrie Fisher ), and including Poe ( Oscar Isaac ), Finn ( John Boyega ), Rose ( Kelly Marie Tran ), Chewbacca ( Joonas Suotamo ), C-3PO ( Anthony Daniels ), and more, but their numbers and hopes are dwindling. The news that Palpatine is back and leading a fleet of ships strong enough to destroy planets means that they need to act quickly or risk total annihilation. Rey learns that she must find something called a Sith Wayfinder to get to Palpatine’s location, and the gang sets off on an adventure to find it.

The midsection of the movie is its most effective. After a clunky first act that’s filled with way too many scenes of people talking about who they are, where they need to go, and what they need to do when they get there, the film finally settles into a groove with an excellent chase scene that somehow both echoes “ Return of the Jedi ” and “ Mad Max: Fury Road .” There is a nice subplot with an old acquaintance of Poe’s named Zorii Bliss ( Keri Russell ), and a fantastic, water-soaked lightsaber battle between Rey and Kylo. These scenes don’t have the weight of course-correcting that drags the first hour or the desperate need to please of the final half-hour. When “Rise of Skywalker” can just be its own fun, sci-fi adventure, it succeeds.

And, to be fair, the craft of “Skywalker” is incredibly high. Abrams knows how to design a major blockbuster like this one, and there are some remarkable set-pieces. He also is an underrated director when it comes to performers and gets the best one that Ridley has delivered to date. She’s the center of this film in many ways, and arguably the best thing about it. (Driver is very good too, for the record. Don't @ me, Kylo fans.) There are sequences and character beats in “Rise of the Skywalker” that truly work, especially when it doesn’t feel like it’s trying so hard to complete its “mission.” One just wishes they were embedded in a better film overall.

What’s telling about “The Rise of Skywalker” is how much I would have rather just learned more about Poe’s background, or the story behind Zorii, than experience the numbing overkill of the final act of this trilogy. For those who get a chill down their spine at a familiar John Williams composition in just the right place or even locations that this film returns to that you probably never thought you’d see again, “The Rise of Skywalker” offers just enough to make them happy. It’s not unlike a rollercoaster ride in that it has just enough thrills to satisfy fans, but you can also see exactly where the ride begins and ends before you strap in. Real movie magic comes with surprises and risk-taking, and those are undeniably absent here—I believe for the reason that people thought there was too much of both in the last film. I wanted more of Zorii because she’s one of the few characters or plot threads here that feels like it has potential to surprise. Almost everything else has been workshopped, focus-grouped, and even twitter hive-minded to a fine paste. It’s easy to digest, but not that filling or memorable.

Perhaps the best in-movie self-criticism is in the fact that Kylo Ren rebuilds his destroyed mask. Some fans of the series believe that “The Last Jedi” destroyed their favorite franchise, and here’s J.J. Abrams literally picking up the broken pieces and putting them back together. And yet, as he's told, you can still see the cracks, meant as a criticism of Kylo's uncertainty but reflective of the movie too. Sometimes you can’t just put things back together, and revisit history in a way that doesn’t feel craven and desperate. People will see the cracks. 

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action.

141 minutes

Daisy Ridley as Rey

Adam Driver as Kylo Ren

John Boyega as Finn

Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron

Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker

Anthony Daniels as C-3PO

Naomi Ackie as Jannah

Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux

Richard E. Grant as Allegiant General Pryde

Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata

Keri Russell as Zorii Bliss

Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca

Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico

Ian McDiarmid as Darth Sidious / Palpatine

Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian

• J.J. Abrams

Writer (based on characters created by)

• George Lucas

Writer (story by)

• Derek Connolly
• Colin Trevorrow
• Chris Terrio

Cinematographer

• Maryann Brandon
• Stefan Grube
• John Williams

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Here’s the official slate of upcoming Star Wars movies and TV

The future of a galaxy far, far away

by Pete Volk and Michael McWhertor

Star Wars is in an interesting place. Multiple movies have been delayed or canceled after the mixed response to Rise of Skywalker in 2019 and Solo: A Star Wars Story the year before. Since then, most new Star Wars projects have been of TV shows on Disney Plus, ranging from the high highs of Andor to the low lows of The Book of Boba Fett , with plenty of Mandalorian , Obi-Wan Kenobi , and others in between.

At 2023’s Star Wars Celebration , Lucasfilm and Disney outlined their plans for the future of the Star Wars universe, including updating fans on upcoming projects and confirming a few release dates. And as of January 2024, there was another significant update with the announcement of a Mandalorian-led movie .

Below, you can find the full calendar of upcoming Star Wars releases — what they are, where you’ll be able to watch them, and when they come out. And while you’re in the mood for more Star Wars, you might be tempted to catch up on the whole universe. Here’s the best order to watch it all in.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Coming to Disney Plus on Dec. 3, 2024

Jon Watts, the director of the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, helms this show starring Jude Law and a group of kids set around the same time as The Mandalorian . Watts has described it as a throwback to ’80s Amblin movies like The Goonies , and Everything Everywhere All at Once directors Daniel Kwan and Scheinert directed an episode .

Law will play Jod Na Nawood, a mysterious figure whom the actor describes as “someone who uses quick thinking, charm and conversation to get out of all sorts of scenarios.” He’ll be joined by actors Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Wim, Kyriana Kratter as KB, Robert Timothy Smith as Neel, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Fern, the four kids who find themselves lost in a strange part of the Star Wars galaxy. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew will also feature new droid named SM 33, who will be voiced by Nick Frost ( Shaun of the Dead , Hot Fuzz ).

Andor season 2

Coming to Disney Plus in 2025

The best Star Wars property of all time? I think so, and I’m not alone . Andor was a game-changer for Star Wars, and while details are light on the timing and scope of the second season, we know it will be 12 episodes and the end of the show’s run. Season 2 of Andor was originally slated to premiere in summer 2024, but the follow-up to the best Star Wars TV show to date has slipped to 2025.

The Mandalorian & Grogu

Coming to movie theaters on May 22, 2026

The Mandalorian and his furry green friend are headed to the big screen , in a movie directed by Jon Favreau and produced by Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, and Dave Filoni. No word on what this means for the future of the show, which does not technically have a season 4 announcement, but production on the film, titled The Mandalorian & Grogu , is slated to start in 2024.

Ahsoka season 2

Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni are also currently developing a second season of Ahsoka , which may lead up to the events of the Mando and Grogu movie. Here’s everything we know about season 2 of Ahsoka so far.

Untitled Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Star Wars movie

This was previously “Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars movie”, but news broke in March 2023 that he was replaced by screenwriter Steven Knight ( Peaky Blinders, Locke, Serenity ). Obaid-Chinoy ( Ms. Marvel ) is directing. The new Star Wars movie will be set in a new era called the New Jedi Order and will be set more than a decade after the events of Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker .

Actor Daisy Ridley will reprise her role as Rey (uh, Rey Skywalker) in the movie as she tries to rebuild the Jedi order.

Untitled Dave Filoni Star Wars movie

The force behind much of Star Wars’ televised content, Dave Filoni, will direct a new movie that plans to focus on the New Republic , the government body that comes into power in the wake of the Empire’s implosion. Lucasfilm says Filoni’s movie will “close out the interconnected stories told in The Mandalorian , The Book of Boba Fett , Ahsoka , and other Disney Plus series.” Given how much the third season of The Mandalorian has focused on cloning technology and post-Imperial power struggles, Filoni may be looking to fill in lore gaps about the return of Emperor Palpatine and the rise of Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy era.

Untitled James Mangold Star Wars movie

Director James Mangold ( Logan , Ford v Ferrari , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ) will helm a Star Wars movie set in the distant past — some 25,000 years before the original trilogy Star Wars era — that goes back to the dawn of the Jedi (literally). Mangold’s take on the earliest stages of Star Wars will be “a Biblical epic, like [ The ] Ten Commandments , about the dawning of the Force,” the director said at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

Mangold will explore questions like “Where did the Force come from, when did we discover it, [and] when did we learn how to use it?” he said.

Untitled Taika Waititi Star Wars movie

Not much is known about this project, first announced in 2020 , besides writer-director Taika Waititi’s involvement. It was not included in the January 2024 announcement of Disney’s upcoming Star Wars slate, and the latest word from Waititi and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is that it’s still being developed , though it doesn’t sound anywhere near close to completion. “My thing is I want to take my time with that and get it right,” Waititi told Entertainment Tonight in 2023. “I don’t want to rush this movie.”

Disney first announced this spinoff show about Lando Calrissian in December 2020, and hasn’t said a word about it since. On the one hand, that means it’s not officially canceled — Disney’s been pretty open about cancelling Star Wars projects recently. On the other hand, there’s been no official confirmation that the show is still happening, or that Donald Glover will return to reprise his role from Solo — but at least we know he’s interested in it.

Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie

Frequent Ryan Reynolds collaborator Shawn Levy ( Free Guy , Deadpool & Wolverine ) is making a Star Wars movie. Not much is known about it, other than he hopes it will have a “big heart.” But there are questions of whether it’ll happen; Levy was not included in the January 2024 announcement of Disney’s upcoming Star Wars slate.

But there is movement on the project. In July, Deadline reported that writer Jonathan Tropper, creator of TV shows Banshee and Warrior , was attached to write the untitled Star Wars film. Tropper and Levy previously teamed up on The Adam Project , Netflix’s time-traveling sci-fi movie that starred Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, and Zoe Saldaña.

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‘star wars: the rise of skywalker’: film review.

Director J.J. Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio close the book on the core origin story of George Lucas' space saga as the torch of intergalactic control is passed from one generation to the next in 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.'

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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How many film franchises have lasted for 42 years? Who will be surprised if Disney, the adoptive parent of George Lucas ‘ remarkable baby, doesn’t keep siring new offspring for the seemingly inexhaustible intergalactic mother ship known as  Star Wars  for longer than anyone connected with the original series is still alive? Will movie theaters still exist when the children, biological or otherwise, of Rey or Poe or Finn are old enough to fly? Has the property now become too Disneyfied? Will even more of the core fan base that angrily turned on  The Last Jedi continue and amplify their vendetta in the wake of the new entry?

These are some of the questions swirling around  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ,  which eventfully, if not exactly satisfactorily, closes the book on the core origin story of this indelible world. On a popular level, it succeeds in a way that good escapist fiction always has, by transporting you completely to a fabulous foreign realm unvisitable by any other means. No one who has seen the preceding VIII chapters will dare miss this concluding installment, which means that the vast majority of the known moviegoing world will turn up. And in theaters, no less. But there are nagging problems that, while evident in the previous two entries, have become more pronounced now.

Release date: Dec 20, 2019

With J.J. Abrams back at the helm after having efficiently relaunched the franchise four years ago with  The Force Awakens ,  there was little doubt that the serious business of keeping Disney’s most valuable acquisition well-tended would be responsibly managed by the man who previously relaunched  Star Trek  on the big screen. If anything, the director has overcompensated, practically tripping over himself in a mad-dash effort to deliver the expected goods and then some. It’s easy to conjure up the image of him as a beleaguered chef in a large kitchen preparing a huge banquet, trying to satisfy lots of customers in the ways that count and not goof up anything too important.

In the most obvious ways he has largely succeeded, even if the more-is-more approach ultimately leaves one both bloated from too many courses and uncertain about some of the ingredients. To switch metaphors, he’s also a traffic cop; there’s more travel here than in  Around the World in 80 Days,  and it sure moves a lot faster, but half the time you don’t know either where the characters are or why they’re going somewhere else, which is virtually all the time. The dramatic structure owes more to a pinball machine than to a logically planned trip, but this doesn’t matter all that much, as most viewers will just be on board for a great ride and more than willing to go wherever the film takes them.

The core dynamic at play in the script by Chris Terrio ( Argo, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League ) and Abrams, from a story by Derek Connolly ( Safety Not Guaranteed ,  Jurassic World, Monster Trucks ), is, appropriately enough given the franchise’s jump from Fox to Disney, the passing of the torch of intergalactic control from one generation to the next. Courtesy of a rather significant amount of previously unused footage, the late Carrie Fisher ‘s Leia Organa is on hand to participate in the transfer of power. The sense of continuity is furthered by the liberation from self-imposed hermitude of Mark Hamill ‘s Luke Skywalker and the big-screen re-emergence, after 34 years and numerous gigs as the character on TV and in video games, of Billy Dee Williams’ Lando Calrissian. 

At the outset, the universe is at a point where domination by the First Order once again seems a possibility. You would think that the utter and repeated obliteration suffered by the dark side in the past would be enough for peace and quiet to prevail at least for a few lifetimes. But, no, somehow old Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is still hanging in there and a massive generation of young stormtroopers is at the ready to attack once heir presumptive Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver ) sheds his Hamlet-like indecision and decides to seize his opportunity to rule the world.

The main thing giving him pause is his keen attraction to Rey ( Daisy Ridley ). Despite his predilection for wearing his own, red-veined version of a Darth Vader mask, for the longest time he remains hung up on a fantasy that he and Rey can become the ruling couple of the universe. But she’s no more prone to entertain this notion than she’s ever been, preferring to hone her skills as a badass warrior, a vocation furthered when Leia bestows her personal lightsaber on the intensely focused younger woman.

For quite a long time, the film jumps all over the place, making as many stops as a local subway train. Rey and ace pilot Poe Dameron ( Oscar Isaac ) remain at odds about most things, but the main demand on the latter’s time is jerry-rigging his rickety used spacecrafts and otherwise wrestling with physical jeopardy, which happens all the time as the small band of Resistance fighters fly hither and yon looking for the Emperor’s gathering forces. Never does a mechanical problem remain unsolved by Poe for more than a minute or two.

So agreeable are most of the performers and so busy are the characters tending to urgent matters that the why and wherefore of what’s happening onscreen becomes increasingly obscure: Where does everyone stand in relation to one another? Where is so-and-so going and why? What’s at stake in this particular confrontation? (Of course, there has to be at least a mini-crisis every few minutes.) Not everything can represent the same urgent importance, nor should the fate of the universe be at stake every 10 minutes. Yes, it was so in 1930s serials like  Flash Gordon,  which is what inspired Lucas to create  Star Wars  in the first place, and very occasionally, such as in  Raiders of the Lost Ark,  a modern director has been able to pull off a highly episodic adventure like this. 

Here, though, the massive jumble of standoffs, near-misses, tense confrontations, narrow escapes and slick victories, while momentarily exciting, can lack plausible motivation and credibility. More often than not, one wonders not so much what just happened but why, and what was at stake. A plot like this, featuring so many characters, locations and story dynamics, can by nature be confusing; so relentless is the pileup of incident that, at a certain point, one can be excused for checking out on the particulars of what’s going on at a given moment and why in favor of just going along for the amusement park ride.

There are directors who are content with such ambitions, just as there are large audiences for same. Abrams has a foot in one camp and the other foot in another, hoping to have it both ways, which he manages for the reason that  The Rise of Skywalker  has a good sense of forward movement that keeps the pic, and the viewer, keyed up for well over two hours. It might not be easy to confidently say what’s actually going on at any given moment and why, but the filmmakers’ practiced hands, along with the deep investment on the part of fans, will likely keep the majority of viewers happily on board despite the checkered nature of the storytelling.

Still, an increasingly vexing issue that serves to hold one’s enthusiasm in check are the main characters and cast of episodes VII to IX. The simultaneous onscreen presence here of Fisher, Hamill, Williams and a fun, unbilled appearance by another franchise favorite creates a wave of sentimental affection and goodwill that the younger leads have never generated across three films. Isaac has loosened up a bit to become more engaging as the series has progressed, but the same can’t be said for Ridley, whose portrait of Rey runs the gamut between determined and grim. As Kylo Ren, Driver is, for the most part, broodingly recessive in a not particularly intriguing way; his character an uninterestingly conflicted, not to mention inarticulate, Hamlet.

It almost goes without saying that, from a physical production point of view, The Rise of Skywalker  is stupendous, enough reason by itself to see and even enjoy the film. Clearly no expense has been spared in making almost every scene spectacular, and cinematographer Dan Mindel has here surpassed his work on  The Force Awakens  and numerous other special effects extravaganzas with his often striking images (some eye-popping settings, particularly in Jordan and along a stormy seacoast that makes the one in  Ryan’s Daughter  look like a wading pool, don’t hurt). Production designers Rick Carter and Kevin Jenkins and costume designer Michael Kaplan aced their jobs as well, as have, in spades, the visual and special effects teams.

John Williams, 87 years young, has composed yet another rambunctious, melodious, propulsive score for a very big film; you wouldn’t want anyone else on the job. 

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'star wars': thr's 1977 review.

Production companies: Lucasfilm, Bad Robot Distributor: Disney Cast: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega , Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson , Richard E. Grant , Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell , Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams Director: J.J. Abrams Screenwriters: Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams, story by Derek Connoly, Colin Trevorrow, Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams, based on characters created by George Lucas Producers: J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy , Michelle Rejwau Executive producers: Tommy Gormley, Callum Greene, Jason D. McGatlin Director of photography: Dan Mindel Production designers: Rick Carter, Kevin Jenkins Costume designer: Michael Kaplan Editors: Maryann Brandon, Stefan Grube Music: John Williams Casting: Nina Gold, April Webster, Alyssa Weisberg

Rated  PG-13,  141 minutes

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‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’: Film Review

No "Star Wars" film can fully recapture the thrill of 40 years ago, but as directed by J.J. Abrams, the ninth and final chapter in the saga that George Lucas created may come closer than any "Star Wars" movie since.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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In “ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ,” there’s a lightsaber duel that’s pretty fantastic — not because of any unprecedented whirling-action whoa! factor (we have, after all, been through one or two of these my-sword-of-electric-fire-is-mightier-than-your-sword-of-electric-fire duels in our “Star Wars” lifetimes), but because of the emotions it channels. Visually, it’s a splendid fight. Rey ( Daisy Ridley ), the Jedi Knight who’s in the midst of trying to figure out, you know, who she is , and Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver ), the First Order commander who’s certain that he’s figured out the Dark Side badass he is, face off outdoors, standing atop the ruins of the Death Star, a wasteland of corroded metal that looks like the aftermath of some intergalactic 9/11.

As stormy black ocean waves crash and churn around them, like something out of “Wuthering Heights,” Ren uses his red Sith lightsaber, with the cross-handle that makes it look like a pulsating version of Excalibur; Rey uses her trusty blue Jedi lightsaber. After much fateful combat, a saber is plunged, and there’s a clear victor — but then something quite unexpected happens. It’s game-changing, it’s powerful and moving, and at that moment it’s everything you want from a “Star Wars” film.

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In 1977 and 1980, “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” were two movies that the whole wide world agreed on (to put it in fanboy terms: that they were the greatest things ever). And that’s part of why they changed the world. The universality of the adoration for “Star Wars” became one of the cornerstones of its aesthetic. In the 40 years since, there has been less to agree on about “Star Wars,” which may be one reason why this distended-through-the-decades space-opera odyssey now feels, by turns, inspiring and dispiriting. Most agree, at least, that the George Lucas prequels were an eye-popping but empty experiment in technologically driven brand enhancement. Yet that isn’t exactly a consensus to take heart in.

And the last two films? Fans fell hard for “The Force Awakens,” until they woke up and realized that they’d been seduced by a kind of painstakingly well-traced “Star Wars” simulacrum. “The Last Jedi” was admired by some and disliked by many, with the divide often carrying an ugly subtext: a resentment at the film’s diversity casting, while others leapt to its defense for that very reason, turning what was supposed to be a piece of escapism into an ideological turf war as messy and overblown as some of us thought the movie itself was.

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” might just brush the bad-faith squabbling away. It’s the ninth and final chapter of the saga that Lucas started, and though it’s likely to be a record-shattering hit, I can’t predict for sure if “the fans” will embrace it. (The very notion that “Star Wars” fans are a definable demographic is, in a way, outmoded.) What I can say is that “The Rise of Skywalker” is, to me, the most elegant, emotionally rounded, and gratifying “Star Wars” adventure since the glory days of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” (I mean that, but given the last eight films, the bar isn’t that high.)

It’s a puckish and engrossing movie, fulsome but light on its rocket feet. At two hours and 28 minutes, is it too long? Yes. Does it feature several dead characters coming all too conveniently back to life? Yes. (Actual dialogue: “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” “Wait, do we believe this?” And no, that’s not a spoiler. It’s revealed in the opening 20 minutes.) If you look past its foibles, though, “The Rise of Skywalker” has been directed, by J.J. Abrams (the script is by Abrams and Chris Terrio), with much the same neo-classic-Lucas precision and crispness and verve that he brought to “The Force Awakens,” though in this case with less of the lockstep nostalgia that made that film such a direct clone of the first “Star Wars” that the thrill of going back to 1977 was mitigated by the fact that the entire thing had been transparently engineered to give you that feeling. It was like a pharmaceutical drug called Starzac.

That said, maybe there’s no escaping that the final entry of this series, coming 42 years after the original “Star Wars,” is — at best — going to be less a brilliant piece of stand-alone escapism than a kind of exquisitely executed self-referential package. “The Rise of Skywalker” has rousingly edited battles, like the opening dogfight, with Poe (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) trading quips as they race the Millennium Falcon back from an intel mission. It has the irresistible presence of old friends, like Gen. Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher ), still guiding the Resistance and mentoring Rey, and an older and wiser but feisty-as-ever Gen. Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams, in his first part in the series since “Return of the Jedi,” wrapping his velvet baritone around lines like “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”), plus one or two other returning icons you might not expect.

The story, abetted by trademark John Williams music cues that always manage to drop in at the perfect moment, is a digressive but satisfyingly forward-hurtling MacGuffin that stays on course. It follows Rey and her team as they bop from one planet to the next, all in order to locate the wayfinder crystal that will lead them to Exogol, the hidden land of the Siths where Palpatine, bent on domination of the galaxy, has set up his stone-throned, dark-shadowed supervillain hell cave. They find a dagger inscripted with the information they need — except that it’s written in the forbidden runes of the Sith, which C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) is programmed not to translate. So they have to travel to a renegade planet to find a black-market droid tech, who has to erase C-3PO’s memory.

This may sound like a fancy form of time-killing, except that Isaac’s Han-lite renegade Poe, Boyega’s loyal cut-up Finn, and the usual nattering gang of rubbery cute beasts have now gotten into enough of a groove to evoke the “Guardians of the Galaxy” crew (who, of course, were a knockoff of the “Star Wars” team). “The Rise of Skywalker” also features what is far and away Daisy Ridley’s most accomplished performance as Rey. After all her Jedi training, Rey now has powers so advanced they’re dangerous (she detonates a spaceship with her grasping hand — and, it appears, blows up one of her comrades). Ridley wears Rey’s mission with furious charisma, bringing a possessed quality to the character, never more so than when she learns who she is . What makes her performance so much more than “diversity” casting is that “The Rise of Skywalker” pointedly completes the “Star Wars” saga as a myth embracing the rise of women.

What no contemporary “Star Wars” movie can have, no matter how slavishly it imitates the template that Lucas invented, is the primal awe of the original films’ space battles. At the time, the gritty-yet-frictionless, zipping-through-the-canyons joystick stuff was miraculous. It anticipated the digital era, and the only place you could see it — could live it — was at a “Star Wars” film. But “Star Wars” turned Hollywood into an industry devoted to space-race fantasy and action candy. So the only real dimension of “Star Wars” that’s defining anymore is…the cosmology. No wonder the thrill isn’t there the way it was.

“The Rise of Skywalker” has to deal some of with the anti-Lucas curveballs that director Rian Johnson introduced into “The Last Jedi,” and it may actually be a better movie for it. Rey and Ren, locked in mortal combat, commune through the cosmos, as if both were linked up to some advanced communication system called ForceTime. Ren’s murky moral ambivalence has been clarified — he now presides over the First Order in a mask modeled on his grandfather Darth Vader’s, though this one has glowing red cracks and a chrome grill that make it look like something off a ’70s album cover. And where, in “The Last Jedi,” Mark Hamill’s Luke was practically a doomsday nihilist, inviting the eradication of the Jedi (which was a bit loopy), Abrams draws his movie back from that ledge.

He also does not send his characters on too many disparate missions, the way “The Last Jedi” did. For all its sprawl, “The Rise of Skywalker” is all of a piece. Palpatine is indeed alive, with Ian McDiarmid returning to play him, looking more like a rotting monk than ever. His desire to squash what’s left of the Resistance, and to establish a reign of total terror, may seem standard issue, but now, for the first time, it has a jolting topical resonance. The villainous forces of “Star Wars” were always a sci-fi variation on 20th-century fascism, and that made them, at the time, seem ominous but historically distant. But in “The Rise of Skywalker,” the fascism looms, for the first time, as something more real; it’s what we’re now facing. The film keeps repeating that though the forces of the First Order are actually outnumbered, those forces work to make the Resistance fighters feel isolated and alone, as if they had no power. And you’d better believe that’s a pointed and timely statement. In its way, it’s also a tip of the hat to George Lucas, who in the “Star Wars” saga drew on the pop culture of the past to create a revolutionary new pop culture, and in doing so foresaw the future. Maybe more than he knew.

Reviewed at SVA Theater, New York, Dec. 17, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 142 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Bad Robot, Lucasfilm Ltd. production. Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Michelle Rejwan. Executive producers: Tommy Gormley, Callum Greene, Jason D. McGatlin.  
• Crew: Director: J.J. Abrams. Screenplay: Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams. Camera (color, widescreen): Dan Mindel. Editors: Maryann Brandon, Stefan Grube. Music: John Williams.
• With: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams , Ian McDiarmid, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Anthony Daniels, Jimmy Vee, David Chapman, Brian Herring, Joonas Suotamo, Domhnall Gleason, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Ackie, Kelly Marie Tran, Keri Russell.

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THE ACOLYTE: New Details On Why Series Was Cancelled Revealed Along With A-List Actor Who Almost Played Sol

Some new details on Lucasfilm's reasons for deciding not to move forward with a second season of The Acolyte have come to light...

Earlier this week, we got word that Lucasfilm/Disney will not be moving forward with a second season of The Acolyte despite several major storylines and character arcs being left unresolved by the end of the season 1 finale.

The decision was met with a mixture of indifference and disappointment, but it's very clear that a lot of Star Wars fans - and some of the actors involved with the show - were surprised by this development.

Showrunner Leslye Headland was hoping to be able to continue her High Republic era-set tale, and rumor has it that the studio was planning a second season up until fairly recently.

So, what happened?

Despite speculation that the negative backlash from many  Star Wars fans contributed to the decision, Jeff Sneider  (via SFFGazette.com ) is reporting that The Acolyte was cancelled because it didn't get enough viewers, plain and simple.

"Insiders explain that The Acolyte was canceled because viewership was bad, and that there’s really nothing more to it than that even though at least one cast member said they were surprised by the decision. I’m told that The Acolyte’s viewership collapsed following the first two episodes, whereas with Andor, viewership steadily climbed throughout the season, so the show was renewed for Season 2. Andor also drew exceptional reviews, whereas The Acolyte’s reviews were more mixed.

Like all shows, The Acolyte was subject to an extensive notes process, but at the end of the day, it was very much the show that Headland wanted to make."

Sneider also commented on a recent rumor that Keanu Reeves was originally up for a role in the series, and believes he was indeed Headland's first choice to play Jedi Master Sol. Apparently, a scheduling conflict prevented him from signing on, and the part went to  Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae.

Don't be surprised if we see Reeves take a trip to the Galaxy Far, Far Away at some point though, as "Lucasfilm remains high on the actor, whose interest has been noted internally."

Finally, Sneider claims that persistent rumors about Kathleen Kennedy's exit are just that, and the Lucasfilm head's "job is safe through at least Q2 of next year."

How do you feel about The Acolyte 's cancellation? Drop us a comment down below.

In The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.

 The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.

Leslye Headland created the series, based on Star Wars by George Lucas, and serves as an executive producer along with Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGraté and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers. Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim and Rob Bredow are the producers.

Headland also directed the premiere episodes (Eps. 101 & 102). Directors Kogonada (Eps. 103 & 107), Alex Garcia Lopez (Eps. 104 & 105) and Hanelle Culpepper (Eps. 106 & 108) round out the directing duties on the series.

"I really wanted to tell a story about the Sith," Headland told EW in a recent interview. "That was kind of my dream Star Wars idea. But it felt like the time period to do that in would be something pre-Phantom Menace. That seemed to be the most interesting trajectory for the Sith: How did the Sith go from the Rule of Two and being quote-unquote 'extinct' to Palpatine coming into power without the Jedi knowing about it?"

Award-winning composer Michael Abels, known for his work on Get Out  and Us, scored The Acolyte .

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Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker

The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again in the conclusion of the Skywalker saga. The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again in the conclusion of the Skywalker saga. The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again in the conclusion of the Skywalker saga.

• J.J. Abrams
• Chris Terrio
• Derek Connolly
• Daisy Ridley
• John Boyega
• Oscar Isaac
• 7.8K User reviews
• 543 Critic reviews
• 53 Metascore
• 21 wins & 55 nominations total

Top cast 99+

• Poe Dameron

• Leia Organa
• (archive footage)

• Luke Skywalker
• (as Patrick Williams)

• General Hux

• General Pryde

• Zorii Bliss

• Emperor Palpatine

• Lando Calrissian

• Snap Wexley

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

John Boyega Shares His Proudest 'Star Wars' Moment

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• Trivia Unused footage of Carrie Fisher shot for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) was incorporated by digitally removing the background and superimposing it elsewhere. Visual effects were used to change her wardrobe and add gray to her hair so the footage would match her appearance in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) .
• Goofs On Kef Bir, the Millennium Falcon is landed by sideways ramming it into a hill, leaving a trail of destruction, due to the landing gear being defective. The Falcon however always had vertical take-off and landing capabilities, so this harsh landing is unnecessary.

Obi Wan Kenobi : These are you final steps, Rey. Rise and take them.

Anakin Skywalker : Rey.

Ahsoka Tano : Rey.

Kanan Jarrus : Rey.

Anakin Skywalker : Bring back the balance, Rey, as I did.

Luminara Unduli : In the night, find the light, Rey.

Mace Windu : You're not alone, Rey.

Yoda : Alone, never have you been.

Qui-Gon Jinn : Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in you.

Anakin Skywalker : The force surrounds you, Rey.

Aayla Secura : Let it guide you.

Ahsoka Tano : As it guided us.

Mace Windu : Feel the force feeling through you, Rey.

Anakin Skywalker : Let it lift you.

Adi Gallia : Rise, Rey.

Qui-Gon Jinn : We stand behind you, Rey.

• Connections Edited into Randy Loves Movies!!1!: THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT FULL BREAKDOWN! EASTER EGGS! THINGS YOU MISSED! (2022)
• Soundtracks Lido Hey Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and J.J. Abrams Produced and Performed by Shag F. Kava

User reviews 7.8K

• balazs-gergely-szilagyi
• Dec 21, 2019
• How long is Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker? Powered by Alexa
• How did Palpatine build thousands and thousands of giant battleships, and recruit millions of soldiers without a single person knowing?
• How can the team fall through quicksand and end up falling into a cave? Shouldn't the sand fall through the cave as well?
• How can Rey suddenly learn how to force heal while Darth Vader, being strong in the force and with many years of training, can't do it?
• December 20, 2019 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official Facebook
• Official Hotstar
• Star Wars: El ascenso de Skywalker
• Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan (planet Pasaana)
• Walt Disney Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $275,000,000 (estimated)
• $515,202,542
• $177,383,864
• Dec 22, 2019
• $1,077,022,372

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 21 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Digital
• IMAX 6-Track
• Dolby Surround 7.1
• 12-Track Digital Sound

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Stress Positions’ on Hulu, Theda Hammel’s Highly Unconventional LGBTQ+ COVID Satire Starring John Early

Where to stream:.

• Stress Positions

‘The View’s Joy Behar Vows To Have A Lesbian Experience After Being Grilled By Guest Sandra Bernhard: “Some Day I Will”

‘the acolyte’s cancellation begs the question: what do audiences even want out of a star wars show, elliot page says that emotional ‘umbrella academy’ ending “made sense:”“i wasn’t shocked”, elliot page says he felt pressure to get trans representation right in his new movie, ‘close to you:’ “as one should”.

If depictions of early COVID shenanigans haven’t worn you down to a nub, the satire Stress Positions ( now streaming on Hulu ) may be your tip-the-Uber-Eats-guy-generously, wipe-down-the-groceries-with-Clorox-wipes comedy jam. The feature debut of writer-director Theda Hammel, the film zooms in on a handful of Brooklynites as they try to figure out what to do with their egos in the context of a global pandemic. It wavers from viciously, flippantly funny to unfocused in a heavily artsy manner – almost certainly by design, leaving us to either just go with the smeary craziness or try to suss out an interpretive meaning. Either way, it might be rewarding.

STRESS POSITIONS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Terry (John Early) rolls a disco ball down the front steps of a Brooklyn brownstone. It’s massive. Unwieldy. It’s not an exaggeration to say he’s really wrestling with it. Symbolism alert: The giant glittering orb belonged to his ex-husband, Leo. Leo did the dumping. The divorce papers are inside and Terry hasn’t signed them. The brownstone belongs to Leo, who used it as a “party house.” It’s a beat-up but livable shithole. And Terry is stuck there. It’s 2020, early in the COVID pandemic. Terry is long unemployed and has the disheveled look – like the rudderless partying suddenly stopped and the hangover has yet to cease – and fractured demeanor of someone who thinks he’s unemploy able . On top of that, stashed in the basement in a bed in his care is his nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), who broke his leg in a scooter accident and had nobody but his loser uncle to help him. 

All of Terry’s variously queer friends want to come over to see Bahlul, since he’s 19 and a model and of exotic origin – he’s Muslim; his father is Moroccan – and seems pretty innocently nubile. But of everyone in the movie, Terry takes COVID so seriously he douses a $20 with Lysol and dons a chemical-warfare gas mask before greeting the Grubhub guy, who starts off as a peripheral character, but frequency of his food deliveries necessitates making him, like, sixth- or seventh-billed. His name is Ronald (Faheem Ali). So visitors are verboten . Sometimes Terry lets their upstairs neighbor, Coco (Rebecca F. Wright) come down to fix the internet and smoke a cig with Bahlul, but Terry badgers everyone to mask up. Until the cigs come out, of course. Terry has no control around here. Let’s be real.

Terry does all the COVID stuff like trying his hand at recipes and banging on pots and pans in solidarity with first responders and wallowing in existential despair. He drops an uncooked chicken tender and slips on it, throwing out his back, and that’s the in for Karla (Hammel) to come over after weeks of badgering. She’ll give him a massage, she says, but instead she steals a bottle of vodka and lays out Bahlul on the picnic table and helps him stretch out his hips. Literally – it’s not overtly sexual, or come to think of it, maybe it is. Conversations with Karla are wild – everyone says stupid shit about Muslims (“Buhlal isn’t gay, he’s religious ”) and the Middle East, even though nobody really knows what countries constitute “the Middle East.” Notably, Bahlul narrates some of this film for a book he’s writing, and it ties to flashbacks of his mother, Terry’s sister. Karla narrates some of it too, apparently because her S.O. Vanessa (Amy Zimmer) wrote a book all about Karla, The Trans Person and Karla needs to wrest back some control of her story. But control is an illusion, and don’t you forget it!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?:   Stress Positions combines the COVIDisms of Locked Down with the queer flavor of Fire Island and the offbeat indie sensibilities of Shiva Baby .

Performance Worth Watching: Hammel plays a kind of offhanded agent of chaos, and her delivery of lashing comic dialogue draws the biggest laughs in the film.

Memorable Dialogue: Karla pithily sums up her transition, gesturing at her body: “I wanted to kill myself – this sort of helped.”

Sex and Skin: Nothing obvious, although there’s an out-of-frame implication of a heavy-duty battery-powered tool stuck in a specific bodily orifice – a battery-powered tool that isn’t designed to be stuck in a specific bodily orifice, mind you. 

Our Take: Stress Positions is a difficult film to like: Its characters are unknowable and frequently unlikeable, surely by design; Hammel’s screenplay has no use for conventional points-of-view; and her direction can be manic, handheld cameras thrashing about in tight spaces, showing no interest in establishing contextual visual boundaries beyond a prevailing sense of discomforting claustrophobia. Sometimes, Bahlul narrates over images of Terry’s pointless bustling in the apartment, and Hammel keeps us off-kilter with a variety of odd angles and distorted images. 

But it doesn’t fade from memory. In fact, it slowly becomes more than the sum of its rather disparate parts. Sure, Hammel satirizes the two extremes of COVID personalities in Terry’s hyper-paranoia and rote posturing (he really half-asses the pots-and-pans thing), and Karla’s unspoken whatevs approach to protocol, as extensions of their various forms of personal desperation. But beyond that, the characters’ inability to get the f— over themselves , even for a minute or two, to contemplate the rest of the world or consider the ignorance of their widely varied political views, puts a key idea in microcosm: This global pandemic didn’t bring us together, suffering as one. Rather, it was a splintering, an expose of people for who they really were. The crisis was an abstraction for many – and that’s the difference between the proliferation of a deadly virus we can’t see and, say, an earthquake where people are trapped under rubble, inspiring passersby to jump in and dig. 

Hammel makes sure everyone catches strays here – her depiction of trans and gay people surpasses their implied social and psychological suffering, insisting that queer folk can be self-centered assholes just like everyone else. Stress Positions consistently challenges us with its skewed, messy perspectives. It’s a hard movie to love, but one whose methodology and frame of reference are consistently fascinating.

Our Call: Stress Positions isn’t for everyone, but it’ll reward those who are up for the challenge. So STREAM IT, and look forward to Hammel’s future projects. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Every Star Wars film ranked from worst to best

What happens when you throw canon out the window and decide what are the best Star Wars films.

It's been a long time since EW last ranked the films of the Star Wars universe, and now that there has been enough time even a Sarlacc could digest the sequels and anthologies , we're revisiting and assessing every entry in the beloved franchise. The results? Time has been kind to the prequels, the sequels continue to be polarizing, and at least one project outside of the main theatrical releases has been elevated. (No, it's not Ewoks: The Battle for Endor . No one is that irony-poisoned.) The biggest debates were not over what were the best or worst films of the saga — they were over the meaty middle and what elements could be forgiven if they served the better parts of the overall story. And what exactly counts as a Star Wars movie? For this list, it's not all canon. It's what's best, no matter the format or how it was released.

Unranked: Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)/Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)/Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985)

Sometimes, fandom can morph into a certain type of gatekeeping that insists one must be a completist in order to be a true fan, a real OG of the genre. In this case, it's okay to not bother with made-for-TV movies Star Wars Holiday Special , Ewok Adventure , and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor . They also cannot fairly be compared to the big-budget, big-screen endeavors of their contemporaries A New Hope , Empire Strikes Back , and Return of the Jedi . The craftwork just does not compare due to their pared-down budgets, effects cheats, and cut-to-commercial television pacing. If you're a Boba Fett completist, you can now catch just the animated segment from Holiday Special as a standalone on Disney+ under the title Star Wars Vintage: The Story of the Faithful Wookiee. No need to see Chewie's child, Lumpy, be scared of Stormtroopers, or worry if little blond moppet Cindel Towani (Aubree Miller) will make it off Endor. (Nothing but respect to Warwick Davis , though, who gives his all as Wicket in both Ewok films.) We honor them for existing, but we do not rank them.

The good: Warwick Davis, Boba Fett, and Bea Arthur wondering about her life decisions.

The bad: In a franchise where Luke and Anakin's whining is legendary, shipwrecked teen Mace Towani's (Eric Walker) whinging is somehow worse. — Sarah Sprague

13. Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

It was an impossible task to end the Skywalker saga without Carrie Fisher 's Leia, but the void her death created can't be blamed for this misbegotten mess. What Rise of Skywalker made clear is the creative team never really knew what the sequel trilogy was about, and while Last Jedi made some bold feints in a new direction, Lucasfilm lost its nerve in the end. Nothing was more gutless than turning Rey ( Daisy Ridley ), a galactic nobody with great Force power, into Emperor Palpatine's ( Ian McDiarmid ) granddaughter. If having to contemplate the image of Palpatine getting down wasn't bad enough, the film's migraine-inducing plot foils the work of the entire cast, including the previously undefeated McDiarmid. The film treats Rey, Finn ( John Boyega ), and Poe Dameron ( Oscar Isaac ) like they had the same camaraderie as Han, Luke, and Leia without putting in the work, while pointedly keeping Kelly Marie Tran 's Rose Tico out of the fun (a truly unforgivable decision). Meanwhile, Adam Driver does all he can to make Kylo's redemption work but he's throttled by the reappearance of his character's ridiculous face-blocking helmet. The newly reformed Ben Solo gets one quick kiss before he dies and is quickly forgotten for the rest of the film, not even getting a Force ghost for his trouble. The last aggravating kick is not Rey learning to be proud of herself on her own mettle but declaring herself a Skywalker and being stuck alone on another arid planet that all the biological Skywalkers hated. And she buries Anakin's lightsaber in sand of all things. Sand!

The good: Lando! Wedge! Anthony Daniels getting an actual role again!

The bad: The dead speak! Chewie's death fake-out, C-3PO recovering his memory, Rey Palpatine, the dagger, the wayfinder…the list goes on and on. — Lauren Morgan

12. Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999)

Hating Phantom Menace has been an internet pastime for a generation now. Of course, this means there's a conventional revisionist pose, popular among twentysomethings and post-ironists: No, oldsters, you're wrong, Episode I is a good (if flawed) launchpad for the second trilogy! In fairness, the whole prequel era has gotten much better with age, but George Lucas ' return to the director's chair remains a horrid squash of failed tones. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor are both wasted in bland monk-hero parts, while Natalie Portman ended her fireball teen years blankly modeling regal drapery. Between the Trade Federation and the ever-questionable Jar-Jar Binks ( Ahmed Best ), this remains the most purely offensive Star Wars , reheating '50s pulp stereotypes for the brink of a new millennium. Pod racing is not cool, and pod racing will never be cool.

The good: John Williams ' "Duel of the Fates" score is one of the best pieces of film music ever , with a culture-clashing grandeur that vividly conjures in audio form what the movie is desperately going for visually. Also, Darth Maul ( Ray Park ) is sort of fun, though that's mainly because of his lightsaber .

The bad: Structuring a whole movie around an endless detour to Tatooine is almost as bad as structuring a whole movie around a pointless detour of Coruscant senatorial politics. Most digital effects age poorly, but Phantom Menace 's biggest set pieces are especially DOA today. Just compare the plastic-y new Jabba to Return of the Jedi 's magnificently corpulent puppet. Poor Jake Lloyd can't make "Ani" happen, though, in fairness, no one could make "Ani" happen. — Darren Franich

11. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

It's impossible to watch the forgettable Solo without wondering what might have been. Han Solo's ( Alden Ehrenreich ) much-hyped origin story was muddled by behind-the-scenes drama, with Ron Howard stepping in after original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller departed the project. The result is a perplexing and wholly unnecessary slog, unable to decide whether it wants to be a quippy space adventure or a self-serious rumination on galactic politics. (Didn't we leave that dynamic behind with the prequels?) Either way, no director could've changed the fact that a Han Solo origin story was, at its most basic level, unnecessary: Harrison Ford 's suave smuggler was fully formed from the moment he first swaggered into the Mos Eisley cantina, a self-absorbed rake who would eventually learn that maybe he did care about something other than himself. Did we really need a film to meticulously over-explain every detail about him, illustrating how he got his blaster, the Falcon , joining up with Chewie, and... his name ?

The good: Phoebe Waller-Bridge 's snarky L3-37 and Donald Glover 's charming Lando Calrissian. Give us a movie about those two! (Though we'll take a TV series — Glover and his brother are writing Lando for Disney+ .)

The bad: L3's uncomfortable ending, and the misuse of some otherwise charming actors. Thandiwe Newton , Paul Bettany , and Woody Harrelson deserved better! — Devan Coggan

10. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

We acknowledge that this Clone Wars movie is not great, to put it kindly, but we are grading on a bit of a curve because it led to the excellent Clone Wars animated series. It's very much made for kids, but, even by that standard, its story about the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt's son Rotta as part of a Palpatine plot is rather silly. But the film does have some positive elements that make it worth recommending. The voice cast is uniformly excellent, including newbie Matt Lanter 's turn as Anakin, James Arnold Taylor 's eerily good Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dee Bradley Baker 's clone Captain Rex in his character debut, and returning cast members Samuel L. Jackson , Christopher Lee , and Anthony Daniels. But its most important contribution to the Star Wars canon is the introduction of Anakin Skywalker's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano (voiced by the wonderful Ashley Eckstein ), who would become such a fan favorite that she's soon to have a live-action series of her own starring Rosario Dawson .

The good: Ahsoka! Captain Rex!

The bad: Stinky the Hutt. The stiff animation. — Lauren Morgan

9: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

For an intergalactic space opera, Star Wars can sometimes feel a little claustrophobic, so the amount of time Rogue One spends on giant honking space battles feels refreshingly like a callback to ROTJ. This first Star Wars Story anthology film includes a ticking clock and attempts to break through a shield on multiple fronts, and few things are as fun onscreen as two Star Destroyers going full NASCAR, bumping paint. It's also one of the few times audiences see some of the rebels as true fanatics, including Saw Gerrera ( Forest Whitaker ) and his band of violent Partisans, pilot Bodhi Rook ( Riz Ahmed ) who defected from the Imperial army, Chirrut Îmwe ( Donnie Yen ) as a Guardian of the Whills following the Force with Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), and rebellion lifer Cassian Andor ( Diego Luna ) who doesn't spare much sympathy for those outside of politics. Felicity Jones ' Jyn Erso does an admirable job of centering the heart of the story with hope, which plays into its bridge for the next film in the timeline — even if we know there is none for her or the rest of the crew.

The good: Bad guy Director Orson Krennic ( Ben Mendelsohn ) is the perfect middle management of evil, worried his boss will take all the credit for his Death Star; K-2SO ( Alan Tudyk ) is one of the better droid personalities in the galaxy.

The bad: Not enough time with Galen Erso ( Mads Mikkelsen ), Saw Gerrera, or members of the Rebellion ready to give up when faced with the Death Star. — Sarah Sprague

8. Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones (2002)

Attack of the Clones has long taken criticism for its horrible romantic dialogue ("I hate sand"), though emotionally stunted messianic figures who are tortured by visions of their mother and belong to an order which forbids outside attachments tend not to make for great dates. As such, it's unsurprising that the basis of Padmé and Anakin's relationship boils down to their shared rebellious and impulsive natures. Outside of the central love story, though, Clones soars throughout Obi-Wan's (McGregor) dogfight with Jango Fett ( Temuera Morrison ) above Geonosis, while Christopher Lee's Count Dooku is a delicious slice of pulp villainy that doesn't forget the humor. Not all the set pieces on Geonosis work — the assembly line escape attempt resembles a bad game of Frogger , and the arena "monsters of the week" battle drags. But Yoda ( Frank Oz ) showing up with the recently discovered secret clone army and commanding troops demonstrate how dire the crisis has become in the Republic, and how even those with the best intentions can make horrible decisions in times of confusion.

The good: Yoda with a lightsaber. Dooku mocking Obi-Wan. A lovely day for a secret wedding. Boba Fett's ( Daniel Logan ) sad farewell to his father.

The bad : Finding out Anakin's mother had been freed from slavery to get married is supposed to be uplifting? Darth Vader foreshadowing in Anakin's literal shadows. Misdirections on when Anakin would start his journey to being more machine than man. Sand. — Sarah Sprague

7. Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens (2015)

Audiences greeted J.J. Abrams ' sequel like a full-fledged religious revival in 2015, celebrating the cast of heroic newcomers and reveling in the return of old faces/X-wings. Time and trilogy storytelling have not been kind to Force Awakens , and the all-too-obvious striving to Make Star Wars Great Again reflects a painful lack of new ideas: Another cantina scene; another orphan on another desert planet; another Emperor-type on another throne; a weapon so obviously Death Star-ish that someone has to explain that Starkiller Base is actually the Death Star on steroids. Still, Abrams deserves credit for bringing a fun new cast into the old universe. Boyega's Finn has a compelling stormtrooper-gone-good backstory, and Ridley's palpable exuberance vanquishes a generation of dreary prequel protagonists. As Kylo Ren, Adam Driver makes the Dark Side look complex, mournful, and sexy. The plot fails these characters somewhere around the 90-minute mark — but surely sequels would resolve all Force Awakens ' incongruities? (They did not.)

The good: The first half-hour briskly introduces Finn and Rey as the new series stars and...shockingly kills off Isaac's chipper Poe Dameron at the 25-minute mark? That shot of Rey sledding down the sand away from a crashed Star Destroyer is one of the loveliest images in the whole saga. BB-8 is cute!

The bad: Oh, never mind, Poe is still alive: fun for Isaac's charisma, worrisome for any hope of narrative consequences. It's a kick to see Ford back as Han Solo, but his prominence in the film pushes aside the younger characters. The whole Resistance-First Order dynamic never quite makes sense; it's obvious that Abrams and his collaborators just wanted to give the Rebellion and the Empire new names. — Darren Franich

6. Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Whatever the flaws of the prequel trilogy, Lucas always knew what story he was telling, and the last 45 minutes of Revenge of the Sith make it clear. The fall of Anakin Skywalker comes to a devastating conclusion on the lava fields of Mustafar as the fallen Jedi Force chokes his pregnant wife, Padmé, and battles his former master Obi-Wan in one of the most dazzling lightsaber battles of the saga. Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman help carry the film to the finish line through their heart-wrenching performances, and while the cause of Padmé's death is a bit cringeworthy, it's hard not to tear up as she names Luke and Leia before she dies. The wisdom of Obi-Wan delivering Luke back to Anakin's home planet with the same last name seems a little baffling, but as Owen Lars ( Joel Edgerton ) and Beru Lars (Bonnie Piesse) hold the small bundle during the first of Luke's many binary sunsets to come, the often bumpy prequel trilogy builds to a stirring end.

The good: Obi-Wan finally gets a good haircut. The Mustafar lightsaber battle. Ian McDiarmid's opera scene performance.

The bad: Darth Vader's "NO!" Anakin's hair. Padmé's death from, um, what did she die of? — Lauren Morgan

5. Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)

Originally broadcast as short "minisodes" on Cartoon Network, this prequel-bridging animated spin-off now lives on Disney+ as Star Wars Vintage: Clone Wars 2D Micro-Series — Volume 1 and Volume 2 . It's an ugly title for a gorgeous visual feast. Director Genndy Tartakovsky came to Lucasfilm fresh off his classic genre mash Samurai Jack , and his take on the prequels' unique Imperial-skyloft aesthetic is a stunning collision of intense action set pieces. Clone Wars skips freely between a main character story (with Asajj Ventress making for an instantly memorable baddie) and individual battles across the galaxy, many of them wordless stunners of sheer imagination. Tartakovsky is a legitimate genius (as seen in his prehistoric saga, Primal ) and he's uniquely capable of balancing awe-inflected stillness with goofy beads-of-sweat excitement.

The good: Where to begin? Underwater scuba-troopers. Mace Windu vs. the earthquake tank. A wuxia -inflected lightsaber duel through a jungle. The moment when Master Yoda Force-pulls a mountain into a robot-crushing avalanche. Still, it's hard to beat the doom-inducing arrival of General Grievous, his footsteps echoing through a crash site while his anxious Jedi hide out in fear. It's not even the only moment in Clone Wars that feels like Predator for fifth-graders.

The bad: "But is this really a movie?" you're probably asking. "What even is a movie, really?" is our fragile response. The two volumes of Clone Wars run a little over two hours in their collected edition. There's not necessarily a single full-fledged story , per se, but the tangential structure is its own playful experience, capturing the eternal-sandbox possibilities of the Star Wars galaxy better than most of the theatrical releases. — Darren Franich

4. Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (1983)

Does the gang's plan to free Han Solo from Jabba's palace make any sense? No! Does Ford seem mildly bored? Yes! Is the second Death Star kinda lame? Yes! Does it matter? No! The conclusion of the original trilogy replays some of the same beats as A New Hope and doesn't reach the heights of Empire Strikes Back but it's still a good dose of comfort food all the way through. Though the Special Edition changes rankle (give us the original Ewok song, dammit!), scenes like the Endor speeder chase and the reveal that Princess Leia is Luke's ( Mark Hamill ) long-lost twin have made this one a fan favorite since we were Ewok-loving children. The heart of the movie belongs to the surprising redemption of Darth Vader ( David Prowse and James Earl Jones ) as some spark of fatherly love for Luke causes him to chuck Emperor Palpatine into the reactor core. Having returned to the light, Anakin doesn't last long but finally gets to glimpse his brave, impulsive son with his own eyes. The happy ending might verge on corniness, but seeing the Skywalker twins finally reunited while a trio of ghostly Jedi looks on conjures a power that was sorely lacking in Rise of Skywalker 's similar conclusion. Heartache awaits all our heroes, but, for one brief moment, hope across the galaxy has been restored.

The good: Both Skywalker twins look hot as hell. Leia killing Jabba. Luke and Vader's final fight.

The bad: A second Death Star? The Special Edition changes. — Lauren Morgan

3. Star Wars Episode VIII — The Last Jedi (2017)

Star Wars' most controversial movie is also one of its best. If Force Awakens was the sequel trilogy's New Hope, setting the stage and introducing our new heroes and villains, then Last Jedi is its Empire Strikes Back, boldly shattering audience expectations and delivering the franchise's biggest emotional gut-punch since 1980. Director Rian Johnson weaves a nimble tale of good and evil, as Kylo the tortured princeling and Rey the nameless scavenger struggle with the legacy of the past — bold territory for a franchise that so often seems slavishly tied to the original trilogy. Last Jedi is also the best Hamill has ever been, as Grouchy Old Man Luke grapples with his past triumphs and failures. Not everything here works (you're forgiven if you tune out during the Canto Bight scenes), but it's always ambitious, thrilling, and hopeful. And isn't that what Star Wars is all about?

The good: The throne room fight!Porgs! The gasp-inducing thrill of the Holdo maneuver! Did we mention the throne room fight?!

The bad: The filmmakers couldn't have known this would be one of Fisher's last onscreen appearances, but it's still disappointing that they kept Leia unconscious for most of the movie. And again, the Canto Bight stuff could've been 50 percent shorter. — Devan Coggan

2. Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)

Even if it didn't spark the biggest film franchise of all time, or reshape 20th-century pop culture, or expand the galaxy any further, Lucas' original Star Wars would still be a masterpiece. There's an almost quaint simplicity to A New Hope's structure, inspired by the samurai stories and pulpy serials Lucas loved: A farm boy meets a space wizard, who sends him on an epic quest to rescue a princess. But what set Star Wars apart from its predecessors (and the many copy-cats that followed) was its heart and sense of wonder, from the first moment Darth Vader came strutting aboard the Tantive IV to Luke wistfully staring out at the twin sunsets of Tatooine. It's no surprise we've spent the last 40-plus years revisiting that galaxy far, far away.

The good: There's so much here to love: R2-D2! Fisher's brave, I'll-rescue-my-own-damn-self princess! Ford's jawline! But let's give a special shoutout to John Williams' score for elevating every moment, from the glorious opening fanfare to that catchy cantina soundtrack.

The bad: More than four decades later, the lightsaber duels and effects can seem a little rough in places. And man, people in this movie sure bounce back quickly from tragedy, whether it's Leia watching Alderaan explode and then immediately moving on, or Luke collapsing at the sight of Aunt Beru (Shelagh Fraser) and Uncle Owen's (Phil Brown) charred bodies — and then never mentioning them ever again. — Devan Coggan

1. Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

A sequel that's also the ultimate cinematic expansion pack, the second Star Wars movie pushes the first film's retro-junk space opera style into cosmic glory, even as it layers in transformative new notes of romantic comedy and haunted-bloodline Greek tragedy. The first act on frozen Hoth sets the standard for visceral science-fiction thrills, with Luke brought low by a monstrous wampa and the whole Rebellion running scared from clanking AT-ATs. The screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan splits the heroes between two journeys. It's a brilliant schism, freeing Han and Leia to engage in love-on-the-run banter while Luke learns swampland zen from Master Yoda. Director Irvin Kershner brings a fluidity to the visual storytelling that makes the Lucas-helmed entries look comparatively flat. Empire built its legacy on narrative darkness: the cruel Vader twist, the sight of Han in carbonite. But it belongs on top of this list because of how deftly it blends out-of-this-world fantasias with witty heart and sensitive soul.

The good: Every scene is a classic, every location an eye-popping one. "The Imperial March" is an apex sound-and-fury combination of swaggering John Williams score and gorgeous pre-digital special effects. Yoda is funny , which makes his life coaching uniquely quotable. Fisher saying "I'd rather kiss a wookie" is exactly as awesome as Ford saying "I know." Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian is so groovy that he practically restarts the movie. Also, always: Boba Fett ( Jeremy Bulloch ).

The bad: Is Luke's screechy "Noooooooo!!!!!" accidentally funny or purposefully embarrassing? Viewers will debate this mystery until the end of time. — Darren Franich

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Commentary: ‘The Acolyte’ broke new ground. Why its cancellation is bad news for the future of ‘Star Wars’

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“ The Acolyte ” was among “ Star Wars ’” most ambitious on-screen stories.

The Disney+ series was set during an era even “longer ago” in a galaxy far, far away that had yet to be explored in live action. A crime thriller that portrayed the Jedi in a new light, it introduced characters and lore that challenged preconceptions about the Force and its users. The show even teased a connection to a legendary dark side figure who had never previously appeared in film or television. And its first season, which concluded in July, ended on a cliffhanger.

Unfortunately, Lucasfilm will not be moving forward with “The Acolyte” Season 2, The Times has confirmed. The cancellation — though not quite unexpected — is still a blow for “Star Wars” that dampens hopes for the franchise’s future.

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June 5, 2024

Created by Leslye Headland, “The Acolyte” followed Osha and Mae Aniseya, twins (both played by Amandla Stenberg) with a mysterious connection to the Force and a complicated history with the Jedi. It’s set roughly 100 years before the events of “ Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace ” (1999) during the waning days of the High Republic era.

The show was the first live-action “Star Wars” project to take place during a completely different time period than the core film series known as the Skywalker Saga (“Episode I” through “IX”). Series like “ The Mandalorian ” and “ Ahsoka ” are set between the events of the original and sequel trilogies, while “ Andor ” and “ Obi-Wan Kenobi ” take place between the events of the prequel and original trilogies.

As much as Lucasfilm seems to have mastered the art of finding pockets within the main film series to tell additional stories, the future of the franchise seems increasingly limited if it is confined to merely mining this familiar (and finite) territory. “The Acolyte” broke new ground, spotlighting a time period that has primarily been built out in “Star Wars” novels and comics over the last few years.

And while it may not have been perfect, the series also infused “Star Wars” with new ideas, introducing a sect of Force users as well as different perspectives and nuance around the Jedi, who are not as infallible as fans want to believe. It also offered a glimpse of a galaxy that is unapologetically diverse and inclusive, with room for non-human Jedi and lesbian space witches alike.

In some ways, it feels like “The Acolyte” was doomed from the start. There has long been a dark side to the “Star Wars” fandom that is vocal in its vitriol toward perceived shortcomings — just look at how “The Phantom Menace” was received when it first premiered.

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Since then, “Star Wars” has become a sort of battlefront in the culture wars where self-proclaimed “superfans” feel emboldened to make racist and sexist remarks veiled as criticism. At times, their campaigns against certain “Star Wars” installments begin even before a trailer is released, so a series like “The Acolyte,” created by a woman and starring actors of color, was already facing an uphill battle in certain online spaces.

And even if the problematic backlash did not directly lead to “The Acolyte’s” cancellation, the news has been met with cheers by the “anti-woke” crowd, including the owner of a certain social media site formerly known as Twitter who is currently funding at least one lawsuit against Disney.

“The Acolyte” received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted to strong ratings that reportedly dropped in later weeks.

Some shows need time to work out kinks and to grow a following, which is difficult in the current crowded media landscape. In addition to there being little room left for nuanced discussion in public forums, TV shows also have shorter runways to be considered a success. Prestige sci-fi and fantasy series are costly and take time, resulting in a longer gap between shorter seasons — which makes building a fanbase that much more difficult.

Not every series can be “The Mandalorian” or “ Andor ” — instant hits with audiences willing to wait years for follow-up installments. “The Mandalorian” has expertly wielded nostalgia and Baby Yoda since its 2019 launch, while “Andor” has leaned into “Star Wars’” political roots. But, for now, Lucasfilm seems to be betting its future on those two properties: “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” a film that picks up after the events of “The Mandalorian” Season 4, and “Andor” Season 2 are among the few “Star Wars” projects with expected release dates in 2026 and 2025, respectively. Plus another series, “Skeleton Crew,” slated for December, shares some creative DNA with “The Mandalorian.”

However, Lucasfilm has signaled it understands that “Star Wars” needs to grow beyond “The Mandalorian” and “Andor” and the roughly 70 years that span the Skywalker Saga. The publishing initiative around the High Republic is meant to open the galaxy to more potential stories. And other announced films like the untitled Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy-directed movie starring Daisy Ridley about the future of the Jedi Order and a James Mangold pic about the origins of the Jedi Order show there will be more onscreen efforts to explore “Star Wars’” past and future.

But “Star Wars” can’t wait too long to take more big swings like “The Acolyte” because the well of nostalgia is only so deep.

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Tracy Brown is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times covering television, film and other pop culture.

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Everthing We Know About Daisy Ridley's New 'Star Wars' Movie

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When and where is the daisy ridley star wars movie coming out, does the new daisy ridley star wars movie have a trailer, what's the latest development update on the rise of skywalker sequel, what's the plot of the new daisy ridley star wars movie, who's making the rise of skywalker sequel, who else is in the cast of the new daisy ridley star wars movie, will the jedi master rey movie be the start of a new trilogy, are rey's previous adventures available to stream on disney+.

Of the three feature films announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023 , easily the biggest surprise was that sequel trilogy star Daisy Ridley would be returning to the Star Wars franchise as Jedi Master Rey. Once the credits rolled in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019), many Star Wars fans assumed that the conclusion of the "Skywalker Saga" marked the end point of the main franchise. That being said, nobody was really expecting that the franchise was out of stories to tell, as shows like The Mandalorian (2019-), The Bad Batch (2021-), The Book of Boba Fett (2021), and more had become the future of the series. The Disney+ content is all well and good, but that itch for more theatrical, feature-length Star Wars stories still remains, and it's a desire that hasn't gone unnoticed by Lucasfilm.

At Star Wars Celebration 2023, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy came on stage to discuss what the future of Star Wars movies looks like by announcing three new feature films, each one coming from a drastically different era of the extensive Star Wars timeline. One comes from the very beginning of the Star Wars timeline, focusing on the supposed "Dawn of the Force" with director James Mangold at the helm. Also in the works is the live-action feature debut of longtime Star Wars television creator Dave Filoni , whose project is set to unite various aspects of The Mandalorian 's New Republic era . Finally, one more project was announced to be in development from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy , and both she and the rest of the directing crew brought out a special guest to debut the project. Fans in attendance got to see Rey herself, Daisy Ridley, make a surprise appearance, where she confirmed that the third Star Wars film in development would be a continuation of Rey's story set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker .

The news is no doubt exciting, but it's also been occasionally difficult to get truly hyped when a new Star Wars film gets announced these days. As of now, Lucasfilm has canceled far more films than they've made, with projects like Patty Jenkins ' Rogue Squadron and Rian Johnson 's planned trilogy seemingly getting shelved. However, it looks as though the return of the sequel trilogy's hero has and is making some big strides in development, enough to suggest that Lucasfilm is seriously pursuing the project. To learn more about the film's cast, director, development status, and more, here is everything we know so far about the new Daisy Ridley Star Wars movie.

Editor's Note: This piece was updated on May 4, 2024.

Bringing Back Daisy Ridley Is the Best Thing Star Wars Could Have Done

The Skywalker has risen.

Disney recently announced that it had scoped out three different release dates for its next three Star Wars movies : May 22, 2026, December 18, 2026, and December 17, 2027. Given that the film seems much farther along in pre-production than Mangold and Filoni's prospective films, it seems likely that it will be released on the May 2026 date.

We don't know for sure, but given we're yet to get a Disney+ exclusive Star Wars film and the desire for another theatrical Star Wars experience seems clear, a release in movie theaters does seem fairly likely. Either way, the film will almost certainly be released on the Star Wars hub on Disney+ at some point.

Since the project is still so early in development, to the point that it doesn't even have an official title yet, you can probably guess that it is going to be a very long time until we get a trailer for the new Rey movie. We'll talk more about where the project is in the development process momentarily, but if you want to see what it was like when the Rey movie and the other projects were announced, you can check out the Star Wars Celebration 2023 Showcase recap here:

With a director and star attached to the film, one would expect that early pre-production on the project is progressing as planned. We first got wind of Obaid-Chinoy's attachment to the project in 2022, shortly after it was revealed that Watchmen (2019) creator Damon Lindelof was writing a top-secret Star Wars project set after The Rise of Skywalker . Unfortunately for fans of Lindelof, both he and his co-writer Justin Britt-Gibson ( Counterpart ) have since departed the project . They have since been replaced by Peaky Blinders (2013-2022) writer Steven Knight .

Shortly after officially announcing the project, Kathleen Kennedy also gave a promising update on Knight's screenplay , saying that it should only be about six weeks until the initial draft is completed. Ridley confirmed to Collider that a script has not yet been finalized :

"I think it could be this year. It could be, but I'm not sure. I think to be honest, the writers' strike has obviously delayed quite a lot of things. So the intention was later this year. Hopefully, it will be. Otherwise, top of next, I would imagine."

Adam Driver Finally Admits Ben Solo's Heroic Turn Was Never Planned

Good story choices are what happens when you're busy making other plans.

The movie is confirmed to pick up after the events of Episode IX , effectively functioning as a sequel to The Rise of Skywalker . Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the film will introduce an all-new era of the Star Wars timeline, officially titled "The New Jedi Order." As such, the film is expecting to follow Rey as she works to rebuild the Jedi Order now that her grandfather Emperor Palpatine ( Ian McDiarmid ) and the sinister First Order have been defeated. In an interview with Collider, Ridley gave a small update on the story, saying :

"I'm very excited. The story is really cool. I'm waiting to read a script because, obviously, I don't have any other updates. It's not what I expected, but I'm very excited. "

Directing the Jedi Master Rey movie is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker who's best known for her documentary work, although she did make her first collaboration with Disney by directing two episodes of Ms. Marvel (2022) . With Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron project now shelved, this means that Obaid-Chinoy will likely be making franchise history as the first female director of a Star Wars feature film. The director spoke about taking on a Star Wars film, saying :

"I'm very thrilled about the project because I think what we're about to create is something very special... We're in 2024 now, and I think it's about time we had a woman come forward to shape the story in a galaxy far, far away."

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is also hard at work on the screenplay for the film following the departure of Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson. Kathleen Kennedy is also expected to be attached to the project as executive producer.

So far, the only confirmed cast member for the new film is Daisy Ridley, who will once again be playing the character she brought to life in The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker . That's not to say there hasn't been rampant speculation on who else may return, namely John Boyega as Finn and Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron. Both actors have been rather vocal about their dissatisfaction with certain elements of the films they starred in, with Boyega being somewhat unsatisfied with his character's sidelining and Isaac stating he felt burnt out from the franchise (though he later said he would be open to returning).

We could also see other minor characters from the sequels like Rose Tico ( Kelly Marie Tran ) and Maz Kanata ( Lupita Nyong'o ) make a return as well. Not to mention, many fans of The Mandalorian have speculated that a movie about the New Jedi Order could be a perfect way to introduce a teenage version of Grogu.

No announcement of sequels to the upcoming Rey movie was revealed at Star Wars Celebration, but given that the film is going to start an entirely new era of Star Wars , we'll probably see more projects that take place in it. We'll likely learn more about the direction of the series once the script is completed.

Do Wookies need to add two coats of conditioner? Well, yes. We think. The answer is yes. Every adventure starring Rey in the sequel trilogy, consisting of The Force Awakens , The Last Jedi , The Rise of Skywalker , and beyond, are available to stream on Disney+, making the streamer your one-stop shop for Star Wars content. Here's your link to the Star Wars hub on Disney+:

Watch on Disney+

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All Star Wars  Movies Ranked By Tomatometer

May the 4th be with you!

Flash Gordon meets Hidden Fortress meets Dune , 1977’s Star Wars was formed by George Lucas as an innocent, serial tribute to the entertainment of his formative past. But for everyone else, it was the future, changing the movie culture landscape on every level: How and what gets made, how they’re released, and, yes, how they’re merchandized. A space opera for all ages, Lucas closed out this original trilogy with the biggest twists ( Empire Strikes Back ) and the cuddliest endgame battle ( Return of the Jedi ).

Over 20 years later, Lucas returned with the prequel trilogy that went deep into Force mechanics and far towards space politics. And nearly another 20 years after that, the so-called sequel trilogy started up, reuniting old friends and plot devices for the nostalgic blockbuster touchstone The Force Awakens . That was followed by the foundation-shaking Last Jedi , and the action-packed fan service machine The Rise of Skywalker , which is now the second-lowest–rated Star Wars film, according to the Tomatometer.

With the 42-year spanning Skywalker Saga now complete, we’re ranking every movie in the franchise! This means all theatrical releases (including spin-offs like Rogue One and The Clone Wars ), but leaving off the TV stuff. Apologies to The Mandalorian . Star Wars Holiday Special , you know what you did. Now, kick back with some blue milk (or green, if you’re watching space carbs) and crank up that holo-phonograph of “Jedi Rocks” because here comes the best Star Wars movies by Tomatometer!

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 95%

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) 93%

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) 93%

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) 91%

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) 84%

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) 82%

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) 79%

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) 69%

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) 65%

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) 51%

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) 52%

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) 19%

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Encore: Tom Shales' 1977 review of the new movie 'Star Wars'

On this May the 4th, now known as Star Wars Day, we listen back to an original NPR review of the now beloved classic. In 1977, Tom Shales reviewed the new film Star Wars for NPR.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Screen Rant

Daisy ridley trades her lightsaber for an ax in first look at new movie.

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Young Woman And The Sea Review: Daisy Ridley Stars In Heartfelt, Genuine Biopic About Daring Swimmer

The mandalorian movie means it's time for one major star wars recast, how mike flanagan's next stephen king adaptation will be different from his past movies.

• Daisy Ridley trades her lightsaber for an ax in a new survival thriller.
• Ridley's recent career resurgence has been marked by strong performances.
• We Bury the Dead may continue Ridley's success, premieres soon.

Star Wars ' Daisy Ridley trades her lightsaber for an ax in the first look at the new survival thriller, We Bury the Dead . Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, the upcoming film follows a woman who, desperate to find her husband after a disastrous military experiment destroys the population of Tasmania, joins a body retrieval unit, but her search takes a chilling turn when the bodies she's burying begin showing signs of life. With Ridley in the lead role , the cast also includes Mark Coles Smith, Brenton Thwaites, Kym Jackson, Matt Whelan, Deanna Cooney, and Holly Hargreaves.

Now, first-look images from Ridley's new survival thriller, We Bury the Dead , have been revealed via Variety . Check them out below:

The first image shows Ridley trading her lightsaber for an ax, and across all three photos, her character appears worn out as she travels to southern Tasmania, hoping to confront her unresolved issues despite an overwhelming sense of futility.

Will We Bury the Dead Continue Daisy Ridley's Recent Resurgence?

She's turned around her career with some strong performances.

Ridley rose from relative obscurity to superstardom when she was cast as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy in 2015. However, after Rise of Skywalker capped off the trilogy in disappointing fashion in 2019, Ridley continued to star in a series of critically panned projects . This includes Chaos Walking , a critical and commercial disaster that quickly killed any chance of a film franchise based on author Patrick Ness' dystopian sci-fi trilogy. In 2023, Ridley starred in the psychological thriller, The Marsh King's Daughter , another critical and commercial failure.

However, Ridley's career saw a turning point when she starred in and produced the independent drama, Sometimes I Think About Dying , which was a hit at Sundance in 2023, with her exceptionally sorrowful performance being the subject of much praise. Ridley's resurgence continued into 2024 with Disney's Young Woman and the Sea, in which her performance as Gertrude Ederl, the first woman to swim across the English Channel, also received much praise.

The film is sincere; it’s not forcing us to feel something as the story unfolds. We do feel, though, thanks to the writing & the actors’ performances.

With We Bury the Dead as her next project, Ridley has a chance to continue her recent resurgence . The film is scheduled to have its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in November, so the critical response will soon become clear. If the positive critical response to Hilditch's past projects, 1922 and These Final Hours , is any indication, We Bury the Dead should be another promising project for Ridley that showcases another strong performance from the actress.

Source: Variety

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Review: ‘Star Wars’ #49 Shows Luke Skywalker as a Badass Jedi

The penultimate issue of the main Star Wars comic run does a great job of keeping up the pace before it all ends next month. With Leia held captive by former-Imperial-commander-turned-pirate-leader Zahra, this issue is all about Luke and the Rebel Alliance coming to her rescue.

The issue does a good job not getting too bogged down explaining just how Zahra survived her encounter with a deadly beast near the beginning of this run and keeps things moving. Everything is kept relatively brief with plenty of cool action, showing us that not only is Luke Skywalker finally the badass Jedi that we’ve been waiting for, but his personality also matches what we know of him from Return of the Jedi . He’s always trying to see the best in people.

The issue is a classic example of how good will always win out over evil. It also teaches us that it’s never too late to turn back towards the light, and if you don’t then you’ll only have yourself to blame for the consequences. Overall, it’s a light and fun final mission before the Rebel Alliance heads off to rescue Han Solo.

Spoilers ahead…

The issue kicks off right where we left it last month, with Leia at the mercy of Zahra, who swiftly explains how she escaped her execution at the cost of her leg and hand. The flashback does a great job of showing just how dangerous and determined Zahra is; she was already a formidable warrior and strategist, but this is something else.

As formidable as she is though, she’s still guilty of one big mistake; never underestimate a Jedi. She pulls Luke’s escape pod close to the hangar bay, but leaves it in outer space, believing Luke to be trapped. In true Jedi fashion, he carves his way out of the pod and propels himself into the hangar bay. It’s the most badass thing Luke has done in the main Star Wars comic for a long time, made cooler as he bats away a swarm of blaster bolts while calmly planning his next move with Leia. He looks every bit the swashbuckling hero.

Leia gets her own licks in but is wounded by Zahra. It’s safe to say that Luke steals the show in terms of the action, doing enough damage to the ship to prevent it from going to lightspeed before the Rebel Alliance can arrive. Zahra had earlier bragged that the pirates were loyal to her as long as she kept the money coming in, but she was wrong; their self-preservation instincts came in as soon as they realized they wouldn’t be able to escape the rebels.

Luke’s decision to let Zahra flee in the hope that she learns a lesson is ridiculously optimistic, and though she tries to make him regret it, his calmness as the rebel fleet shoots her ship down shows a reassuring level of confidence. He looks wise beyond his years while Zahra looks insane as she turns her ship around to divebomb the hangar. Ultimately, Luke and Leia were rewarded for taking the high road while Zahra was unable to turn away from her path of vengeance. That darkness got her killed and Luke and Leia pity her as her ship explodes.

The issue ends on an appropriately optimistic note. Leia discovers that the majority of the Alderaanian refugees survived and intend to go their separate ways so they can live their own lives without a target on their backs. She delivers a great motivational speech to the rest of our core heroes, though I’m not sure of the purpose of it as she’s basically preaching to the converted. It ends in an exciting moment though, as Leia announces that they’re off to save Han.

Seeing as that doesn’t happen until Return of the Jedi , I’m not sure what will actually happen in the final issue of the Star Wars comic next month. Presumably we’ll see Luke build his green lightsaber, but other than that I’m not sure. I have every confidence that it will end strongly.

Rating: 8/10

Josh Atkins

Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.

• Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins Aurra Sing - 'Star Wars' Character Spotlight
• Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins Update: Temuera Morrison Claims He Was Originally in 'The Mandalorian' Season 4, Hasn't Been Called for Movie
• Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins Review: 'Darth Vader' #49 - Action Packed Issue Sets Up Tense Finale
• Josh Atkins https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/author/josh-atkins Luminara Unduli - 'Star Wars' Character Spotlight
• ← Review: ‘The High Republic Adventures’ #9 Shines a Political Spotlight on the Tarkin Family
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Star Wars Outlaws Launch Trailer Sends Kay Vess on a Tour of the Galaxy

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A universe full of scum and villainy awaits players in Star Wars Outlaws .

Ubisoft dropped an official launch trailer for its upcoming open-world Star Wars game, teasing a story full of chaos and opportunity within the franchise's criminal underworld. In the trailer, protagonist Kay Vess -- dubbed "the underworld's favorite new scoundrel" -- can be seen engaging in bar fights, speeder bike chases, and espionage activity as she fights to make a name for herself as an outlaw. While its story teases Kay participating in a heist for 157 million credits, gameplay sequences showed off Outlaw 's bike traversal mechanics, diverse worlds, and various syndicates ranging from the Hutts to Crimson Dawn. The last syndicate even featured a brief glimpse of Solo: A Star Wars Story 's Qi'ra, marking the Crimson Dawn leader's first major appearance in Star Wars media since her Marvel comic return.

Star Wars Outlaws Releases New Season Pass Trailer

Ubisoft unveils a new Star Wars Outlaws Season Pass trailer, showcasing the upcoming open-world adventure game's wealth of content.

Other confirmed characters in Outlaws include Kay's animal companion Nix, droid commando associate ND-5, and outlaw Jaylen Vrax, who propositions Kay with the aforementioned heist. Her underworld adventures will be further explored in Outlaws ' season pass , featuring two stories -- titled Wild Card and A Pirate's Fortune -- that'll see her cross paths with rebel Lando Calrissian and famed pirate Hondo Ohnaka. In an interview with CBR , Gameplay Designer Frederik Thylander talked about designing Outlaws ' gameplay mechanics around a Star Wars scoundrel mindset, noting "Sometimes you're in odds that clearly favor you playing in one way instead of another. Sometimes, maybe you really can't trigger the alarm because they have a friend of yours somewhere else that would get in trouble if they notice you. And sometimes we just develop really open-ended scenarios that allow you to sneak or shoot or somewhere in between, right? One of the starting points we had was really, how do you get in and out of trouble? That's the theme of a scoundrel, to fall in and out of trouble."

Along with familiar species and criminals, Star Wars Outlaws will also allow gamers to play Star Wars ' signature card game Sabacc across the story. Unlike Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor , which took place in between the prequel and original trilogies, Outlaws will be set during the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , with Kay interacting as much with the Galactic Empire's officers as other syndicate leaders.

Star Wars: Luke Skywalker is in Over His Head in New Series

Star Wars' upcoming storytelling era will feature the Battle of Jakku arc across three limited series, including November's Republic Under Siege.

Outlaws ' release follows up Star Wars: Hunters for the Nintendo Switch, as well as a remastering of the classic Jango Fett video game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter . Game developer Quantic Dream is also working on the High Republic-era game Star Wars Eclipse , though a release date hasn't been announced yet.

Star Wars Outlaws releases on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on August 30.

Source: YouTube

Pocket-lint

How star wars outlaws introduces a new cast while honoring classic characters.

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Key Takeaways

• Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws explores Kay Vess in the criminal underworld post-Empire.
• The game recontextualizes existing planets like Kijimi and Canto Bight.
• Collaborating with Disney, the team aims to balance lore and fresh storytelling in the game.

Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws takes players into a rarely explored corner of the universe. Rather than focusing on the escalating battle between Jedi and Sith, the upcoming open-world action game focuses on Kay Vess and her journey through the criminal underworld––a concept that undoubtedly has fans intrigued.

For Ubisoft Toronto Narrative Director Navid Khavari, this was an exciting venture to embark on. Khavari and his team set out to craft a story uniquely set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. As we know from the films, this is an era when crime lords like Jabba the Hutt, who is prominently featured in the game, still operate. Star Wars Outlaws also explores the inner workings of the Pyke syndicate, Crimson Dawn and the Ashiga Clan.

Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws set to give franchise fans a galaxy to explore

With 10 minutes of gameplay shown, Ubisoft Forward gave us a better look at the open world of Star Wars Outlaws.

Establishing the time period for Star Wars Outlaws and introducing Kay Vess

Khavari pieces together an interesting concept set during a rarely explored time period for fans..

In the expanded Star Wars canon, we often explore the periods between the prequels and the original trilogy. Even The Mandalorian peels back a post-Return of the Jedi setting for fans. However, the one year between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is rarely investigated outside of comics. “Everything just sort of started to fall naturally into place,” Khavari says when asked about approaching this era of the franchise. “The fact that the Empire and the rebellion are doing their thing somewhere else, and you have a character like Kay who could care less about it, was really a blessing for us.”

Kay Vess is very much our vessel for exploring the criminal world of Star Wars. Originating from the workers district of Canto Bight, Kay and her pet Nix escape in the Trailblazer ship and set out to get rich in this vast universe. This leads players to cross paths with new and familiar characters along the way.

“With a character like Kay, where we were super focused and excited about is that we can take this character and kind of ping pong back and forth between the syndicates. These syndicates are your gateway to the underworld. You have everybody from the Hutt cartel and Jabba the Hutt. Also, Crimson Dawn and Lady Qi’ra. We were able to fashion the Ashiga Clan, the brand-new syndicate on Kijimi. What's exciting is that there's so much happening under the surface that the underworld is really thriving. It was important for us to have a character who is a rookie who is experiencing it all for the first time.”

Star Wars Outlaws may break Ubisoft out of its open-world funk

The more I play Ubisoft Massive’s open-world Star Wars game, the more I can’t stop thinking about it

Working with Disney to keep Star Wars Outlaws within the canon of the universe

Khavari and his team had a lot of freedom to play in the sandbox that is star wars..

It’s one thing to come up with an interesting concept for a game. But it’s another to be able to execute on it. Since Disney acquired Lucasfilm, all new core Star Wars projects must adhere to the established canon. For a game like Star Wars Outlaws, the creative team is lucky in that they have ample room to play in their corner, dealing with the underbelly of the universe. However, it’s still a collaborative project with Disney.

“They were so generous, both with their time and also with their expertise. I would say openness to what we were trying to do. I think there was really something special about the fact that we have kind of expertise in developing open-world games. They have a rich history of developing games with Lucasfilm for years. They also have this narrative tapestry that they can pull from. There was a perfect merging of minds together. While we were very much in the driver's seat of this, they would always help us with the Star Wars of it all.”

Disney and Lucasfilm have encyclopedias and archival knowledge of everything to do with Star Wars. This is an asset for Ubisoft as it helps maintain synergy from one medium of storytelling to another. “We were talking about the pill box lights within the Imperial compound,” Khavari said, thinking about a meeting he was in.

“They know details about Star Wars that I could never even fathom. The things that they can spot or help us with are things that you subconsciously don't even realize sometimes. It’s what makes Star Wars.”

How to watch all the Star Wars movies and shows in order

Disney+ is expanding the Star Wars Universe. So it's never a bad time to start a rewatch the entire series.

Star Wars Outlaws aims to recontextualize previously explored planets

With locations only explored in the sequel films, outlaws brings new perspectives to these areas..

As mentioned, Kay Vess originates from Canto Bight. Only seen in The Last Jedi, the casino planet is divisive amongst fans. However, Khavari sought to recontextualize Canto Bight by examining a new area of the planet. “We're not going to go to the casinos. We're talking about the worker's district. This is the realm where Kay looks to those casinos and might wish that was a world she could be a part of, but she never will. So, that was always the angle of how we fashion which planets we work with.

This also extends to Kijimi, another planet shown in the sequels. While only explored through the lens of The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars Outlaws adds new lore to Kijimi. “I think is super important if you look at a planet like Kijimi. We saw opportunities where this planet was featured in Rise of Skywalker.” The game sees Kay and Nix explore the planet long before the Derriphan destroys the planet. The game also introduces the new Ashiga Clan as part of its syndicates.

“What happens if we expand the whole thing?” Khavari asks. “What happens if we build a syndicate that's in control of Kijimi, a brand new one? It’s about bringing in the iconic but also, how we can make it our own. How can we bring something new to this? And it's a balance, for sure. There's an authenticity to it that I think players will feel.

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Star Wars Outlaws aims to balance both new and familiar

Khavari aims to include meaningful characters that serve the story..

That balance Khavari refers to is integral to Star Wars. Fans can be cynical when catering too much to fanfare or simply not enough. It’s a fine line but one Star Wars Outlaws approaches. “We were also very, very careful with whether it's iconic characters or people or things you might recognize.” The knee-jerk reaction to hearing Jabba the Hutt is in the game is that we’re once again retreading familiar locations like Tattooine. But Khavari assured me that its inclusion feels authentic.

“For us, the authenticity was crucial... the organic feeling. For Kay's journey, she's going to run in to Jabba. We don't want this to feel like some cameo. She has to learn through this character–– there's a whole storyline around that. When she comes to Jabba, she completely underestimates how powerful he is. And as a rookie scoundrel, she has no idea who Jabba the Hutt is. It's part of that learning curve of you can't go into this world naively, like you have it all figured out.

Star Wars: Outlaws creators share how they captured the spirit of the original trilogy

Ubisoft Toronto lead writer Nikki Foy and lead actor Humberly Gonzalez discuss Kay Vess and the writing in Star Wars Outlaws

• Star Wars: Outlaws

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Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

Where to watch.

Watch Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

A legendarily expansive and ambitious start to the sci-fi saga, George Lucas opened our eyes to the possibilities of blockbuster filmmaking and things have never been the same.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

George Lucas

Mark Hamill

Luke Skywalker

Harrison Ford

Carrie Fisher

Princess Leia Organa

Alec Guinness

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Peter Cushing

Grand Moff Tarkin

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