How I'd fix Star Wars

[Yora]

IMO, Star Wars hasn't had a great movie since 1980. There hasn't been a film in the series where the ending wasn't a forgone conclusion since 1983.
Since 1999 it's been "filling in the gaps" of unnecessary and tired retreads.
Let's see Han Solo become Han Solo. Let's see Darth Vader and Boba Fett be little kids. Maybe we can see how the Rebels got the Death Star plans? Maybe we can watch a decade long animated series about unimportant battles between Episodes 2 and 3 that change nothing about the world or core characters?
I was a pretty big Star Wars fan until 1998. Ever since the prequels started coming out, the entire brand has become an embarrassment.

Well, there was plenty of junk before that. But mostly it was still very much in the original spirit.

I think if you'd make Star Wars movies today, they still should be shot like a movie from 1980. Use modern digital cameras if you want to, do all the digital touch ups to hide the wires and guide rods that control the droid and vehicle models, and digitally composite away so you can safely have characters right next to explosions or take terrifying falls.
But you have to light it, film it, and edit it in the same style as it was done back in the day.

And avoid any moments where you can mentally hear the silent laugh track in the background as the action pauses to wait for the audience to stop laughing.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Just make a series based on the Old Republic, the Mandalorian War and the Jedi Civil war.

 

[MarkB]

Things that are broken for me in Star Wars:

1. The good guys condone slavery (droids and clones).

2. The good guys condone taking children from their families and teaching them that any form of emotional connection leads to evil (the Jedi order).

3. Over-emphasis on family lineage as a key to heroism (Skywalker family).

I'm not holding out much hope of these being fixed in the near term, but maybe we'll get there.

 

[trappedslider]

And then we sit down to rethink what we actually want from the new upcoming prequel movies and how it will affect the established Expanded Universe continuity.

and then nothing happens because no one can agree unless THAT was your plan all along

 

[Morrus]

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a Star Wars fan

Probably all we need to know.

 

[ReshiIRE]

Things that are broken for me in Star Wars:

1. The good guys condone slavery (droids and clones).

2. The good guys condone taking children from their families and teaching them that any form of emotional connection leads to evil (the Jedi order).

3. Over-emphasis on family lineage as a key to heroism (Skywalker family).

I'm not holding out much hope of these being fixed in the near term, but maybe we'll get there.

I have ideas for a TTRPG game (not sure what system) set in an alternative Star Wars universe, splitting off from the middle of the Clone Wars and coming in many years later, that would try to address all those points. Granted, I don't have a word on a page, but if I ever got a timeline and idea set out, I do wonder if I could ever find people to play it.

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I think those points are why as well I generally prefer KoTOR, though it still has problems with the whole droid thing.

So my 'fix' would be to reimagine KOTOR and KOTOR 2, get ballsy with the changes, and see if there's space to go even further from there. But of course, KOTOR really belongs to Bioware, and I wouldn't be surprised if that is part of the reluctant Disney has to touch it.

But honestly? Star Wars is so old now, that it really belongs to the fandom; I think on some level, it's up to us to create our own Star Wars universe and write and fill it with what we want to see, on some level. Those won't be lavish series or films, but I think they can provide cool spins on the universe, and keep a tradition alive that people seem to feel died when Disney took over.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

What is "broken" with Star Wars is that it had too much time lying fallow during which fans' ideas of what Star Wars is "supposed to be" crystalized around an amazing trilogy of movies that, whatever their flaws, stood so far beyond anything else at the time in scope and achieved ambition within their genre that no movie as movies are today can possibly live in their shadow. The way to make more Star Wars was to continuously make more Star Wars since the 80's, but then again the original trilogy would not have had the same mystique if that had happened (certainly the anti-Return of the Jedi crowd would have held a lot more ongoing sway if there were further diminishing returns 80s Star Wars to group it with, rather than it being part of The Trilogy).

Star Wars is now caught in an inescapable dilemma, along with many other old franchises. We live in a culture that both puts originality on a pedestal and at the same time is awash in nostalgia. Fans want new entries to be new but also exactly the same. You do something actually original and its not really what people want. You deliver people pure nostalgia and they complain that it lacks originality. There is no winning move. Star Wars fans won't like the things they think they want.

OP's "solution" immediately went into "not my Star Wars" territory for me, and presumably most fans. No I don't want some additional race of super jedi showing up. It's decades too late for that.

 

[Parmandur]

Star Wars is now caught in an inescapable dilemma, along with many other old franchises. We live in a culture that both puts originality on a pedestal and at the same time is awash in nostalgia. Fans want new entries to be new but also exactly the same. You do something actually original and its not really what people want. You deliver people pure nostalgia and they complain that it lacks originality. There is no winning move. Star Wars fans won't like the things they think they want.

This puts the whole Sequel trilogy situation in a nutshell

 

[BookTenTiger]

I really liked the beginning of your idea. A group of "supreme force-users" who maybe inspired or trained the first Jedi come from a distant part of the galaxy and want to clean house.

The rest, though, has the same problem (in my opinion) as a lot of Star Wars... It's too mired in the original trilogy. We got to see the Skywalker story, the Solo story already. We don't need to keep repeating it.

One of the things I like about the original trilogy and the first 30 minutes of Episode 7 is that the Jedi and all that fighting between good and evil is basically a myth for most of the galaxy. I think that's where it belongs. It's really epic and grand to have these intense, universe-shaking battles between good and evil... And then have it retreat into legend. It's very King Arthur, Beowulf, Journey to the West.

If I were to win the Star Wars Lottery and be put in charge, I'd have the next saga take place "long ago in a galaxy far far away" but not specify the time, only that enough time has passed that Skywalker is a myth. Tell a new space fantasy. Follow George Lucas's instinct and smash together a bunch of sci fi and adventure tropes.

One fun thing about the OP's idea for a villain is that it reframes the original dichotomy between Jedi and Sith. What if they have to work together to face this new threat, showing that there is no one true way to use the force?

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

First off I'd have a new power race of true Jedi Masters