Ever sincethe unprecedented box office failureofSolo: A Star Wars Story, there’s been a lot of talk about “Star Warsfatigue.” Supposedly, if Disney bombards audiences withStar Warsmovies and TV shows every couple of months, then fans will eventually become disillusioned with a galaxy far, far away and stop bothering to tune in to keep up with the saga.
The fact that a movie as mindless and incoherent asThe Rise of Skywalkercanmake more than $1 billionseems to prove that these fears are unwarranted, butStar Wars’ big-screen output could be doing a lot better than it currently is. One way to shake up the franchise and keep these movies fresh would be to lean into genres outside space opera.
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This vast fictional universe can be used to tell all kinds of stories.The Mandalorianhas become a huge hit asa revisionist western about a lone gunslinger, which deconstructs theStar Warsmyths in the same way films likeMcCabe & Mrs. Millerbroke down the western genre’s own myths. From Mando’s ice-cool Man with No Name characterization to theWild Bunch-esque shootout between the bounty hunters and the other Mandalorians, the moreThe Mandalorianleans into its western influences, the better it becomes.
Han Solo’s origin story,Solo: A Star Wars Story, was primed to be a great space western in this vein, but the filmmakers fell short on this promise. Beyond a futuristic train robbery sequence and a climactic shootout in which Han mercifully “shoots first,”Solodidn’t do too much to capture western tropes. After the original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired, Ron HowardfinishedSoloas a generic sci-fi blockbuster.Star Warsneeds to lean more into its cinematic influences.
Disney executives might be worried about alienating modern audiences with obscure old genres, butStar Warsfans come to these movies to see Lucas’ curious worlds. The exact way that the stories are told is up in the air. AStar Warsnoir isn’t the same as a regular noir – it’sa noir set in a galaxy far, far away, so it’s much more likely to attract audiences. And aStar Warsmovie that does something new is more likely to be praised by fans than a supposedly safe bet that tries to please everybody (which is a one-way ticket to pleasing nobody).
When George Lucas first createdStar Wars, he drew from all kinds of genres. The lightsaber duels wereinspired by Akira Kurosawa’s samurai movies, Han Solo’s gunslinging antics were ripped straight from classic westerns, and the shots of Imperial forces assembling to rule the galaxy with an iron fist were taken from Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda films. There’s no mistaking the pulpy aesthetic of theStar Warsuniverse, so directors can draw from all kinds of films in telling their stories.
Trying out different genres has been doing wonders for Marvel.Captain America: The Winter Soldieris a ‘70s-style paranoid political thriller;Spider-Man: Homecomingis a John Hughes-style high school comedy;Guardians of the Galaxyis a space opera;Ant-Manis a heist movie; andDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnesspromises to be the MCU’s first full-on horror movie(with the perfect director for the job: Sam Raimi of theSpider-ManandEvil Deadtrilogies). All of its movies are about superheroes, obviously, and follow more or less the same three-act structure, but incorporating elements of other genres has helped these movies feel fresh – and it could do the same forStar Wars.
If Lucasfilm opens up the genres it explores withStar Warsmovies, then the franchise will be able to have the kind of longevity it risks losing if it keeps turning out movies likeSolo. AllStar Warsmovies are war movies, but the series could benefit froma visceral war movie in the vein ofDunkirkthat captures the conflict from the ground level. Humor has always been a big part of theStar Warssaga, but the franchise has never veered into full-on comedy. Scenes like Luke’s cave vision and the Emperor’s Force lightning attack have been terrifying, but there’s never been a straightStar Warshorror movie.
Guillermo del Toro haspitched aGodfather-style gangster epicchronicling Jabba the Hutt’s rise to the top of Tatooine’s criminal underworld that Lucasfilm should seriously consider.Star Warscould even deliver a political thriller likeAll the President’s Menrevolving around a scandal in the Galactic Senate, or aHouse of Cards-style epic charting Palpatine’s rise through the ranks as a young politician. TheStar Warsuniverse even has its own musical instruments that could be used to create a unique space-bound musical. There’s an infinite number of genres that theStar Warsfranchise could incorporate in the future. The upcoming Disney Plus showThe Acolytepromises to be a martial arts series, so it seems likeStar Warsis already leaning into this angle. With any luck, that trajectory will continue.
