Decades after its inception, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and countless others. More recently, characters like Rey, Finn, Poe, and Din Djarin have emerged into the spotlight, but, as evidenced by its current and future projects, Star Wars has shown that it is not ready to completely move on from the figures that made it one of the world's most popular works of fiction.
The fantasy sci-fi universe created by George Lucas dates back to 1977 with the release of Star Wars—later titled A New Hope. 1980 and 1983 added Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Star Wars’ refusal to separate from its most eminent original characters undermines its more recently inducted names in films and TV series. The franchise’s reliance on older faces comes off as a weakness and displays a lack of confidence in its newer characters’ ability to resonate with viewers. Several instances of old characters returning seem to merely function as fan service.
The three sequel films seemingly reduced the roles and sacrificed the development of promising new characters like Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron for the sake of keeping original trilogy characters at the forefront. Luke, Leia, and Han Solo still served as the impetus behind The Force Awakens' narrative despite the introductions of Rey, Finn, and Poe. Rise of Skywalker featured a bizarre twist in resurrecting Palpatine's consciousness in a clone of himself after the Sith emperor's apparent death in Return of the Jedi. Palpatine's restoration in the Star Wars franchise through his familial ties to Rey felt entirely forced, as a continuation of his arc was never really needed.
In 2019, Star Wars navigated to the streaming world, as it debuted its original series original trilogy's Boba Fett—who comes to the aid of Din in season 2. Even though Boba Fett was vastly underused in the films, his presence in The Mandalorian came off as an attempt to please longtime fans of the original films. The Mandalorian's season 2 finale provided the most blatant example of Star Wars' excessive attachment to its old characters. In the episode's final moments, an electronically de-aged Luke Skywalker stole the spotlight in one of the series’ most pivotal moments, picking up Grogu in the midst of Din and Bo-Katan's dispute over the dark saber.
The troubling aspect of these mistakes lies in that Star Wars does not need to keep bringing back old characters. Its fresh faces are brilliant enough on their own and should be entrusted with leading The Book of Boba Fett on the near horizon, Star Wars indicates that it has no plans to abandon legacy characters in its future content. In addition to focusing on its title character, Obi-Wan is set to reintroduce Darth Vader in a story taking place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, while Star Wars' Boba Fett solo project further expands on the bounty hunter's endeavors in The Mandalorian's timeline. All in all, Star Wars' old legacy character mistakes need to end if the franchise wants to maintain its prominence for decades to come.
