Top 5 New Star Wars Stories!

The New Star Wars Hope

One of the aspects of Rogue One: A Star Wars story, that has interested me since I first heard about it's premise would be the potential for a new expansive universe within Star Wars. While many a deeply ingrained Star Wars fans who have read the comics, books or played the various forms of Star Wars media can tell you about the adventures of hundreds of characters outside the films. Those stories have yet to see the light of day on the cinematic theater screens across the world. Those days however, may be behind us if Rogue One has anything to say about it. 

Not only this, but with Bob Igor's push to expand the Star Wars property with the upcoming untitled Han Solo film, we're set to have a new and riveting Star Wars cinematic universe, on par with Marvel's theatrical ambitions, if not even more ambitious as all the lessons of building a cinematic universe will be pushed into Star Wars from the start.

Looking to the Future

We see a few new paths for Disney to take the Star Wars franchise based on the evidence we now have of Rogue One, Han Solo and the episodic films. Here's our list of potential spin offs, sequels and prequels and our reasoning behind them!

A New Sith Empire

Looking at evidence from Episode 7 and some of the canon tie in novels we are beginning to see the shadow like organization of the First Order take shape, but we're left unsure of exactly who runs this military organization. For one, we know the First Order was formed from remnants of the Galactic Empire run by the former Emperor fleeing into 'Unknown Space', the real wild west of the Star Wars galaxy. Then, with support from splinter political groups within the New Republic (formerly known as the Rebel Alliance) we see the First Order take shape. But there's a few red flags we're missing important elements of this process.

For one, every military organization requires supplies to feed, cloth and otherwise organize a massive military force. Not only this, but we see clear evidence of Imperial progression in weapons and technology, showing that not only have these fringe elements fled the known Galaxy, but they've profited greatly from doing so- driving the question, who or what has managed to feed into the military R&D department of the New Order?

One of these answers may come in the form of Disney XD's Star wars: Rebels tv series, which as of season 3 has introduced the character Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn, was not human but Chiss. Humoniod and considered to be extremely intelligent. Not only this, but as as old canon goes- the Chiss provided a number of technological advances for the Empire and resided in the 'Unknown Regions' of space. Choosing to not make official contact with the greater galaxy. Though no mention of this has been made yet, there's a lot of room for expanding this idea as you may imagine. Perhaps the First Order recognized this advantage and capitalized on it upon returning to the Unknown Regions?

While the clear leadership of Supreme Leader Snoke is an obvious indicator that a Dark Side user has once again reclaimed leadership over the Empire, we have yet again a list of questions as to who Snoke is and where he came from. A powerful Sith would not simply exist undetected in a universe like Star Wars unless perhaps because he existed for a time in the unknown regions.

This really leads to our theory, that Episodes 8 and 9 may lead to the reveal that the New Order has been hijacked if you will- by the formerly hidden Sith Empire that has laid in wait for thousands of years

So while jumping into all this former lore may be a bit bulky for Episodes 8 and 9, introducing the idea that a slumbering Empire or failed state of Sith (or likely their offspring) energized and capitalized on their encounter with the also failed remnants of the Galactic Empire to combine their forces, power, supplies to produce the resurgence known as the First Order. Even the name itself, would hearken back in this sense, as a reclamation of the Galactic Empire back into the 'original sith' if you will.

And to be frank: It's not even that original of an idea. As fans of the series 'Knights of the Old Republic' can tell you, something very similar to this happened when Jedi Revan and his followers went searching for 'a dark force' in the unknown regions. When they returned they were Sith and had a Sith Armada with them. This wasn't even the full force of the Sith Empire either- rather an elaborate test of strength against the Republic, but the parallels between Revan's Sith Armada and the New Order's Navel Fleet is worth taking note to.

The Old Republic

Jumping off from Episodes 7, 8 and 9 this would be a great opportunity for Disney to jump into the Old Republic, in particular if they've introduced the idea of the former Sith Empire and are looking to create another profitable saga of films. While the Old Republic is a vast, sprawling time period with hundreds of former Legends stories already populating its past, now Disney would have the opportunity to selectively tell its own story.

The largest challenge with an Old Republic style film (much less series) would be the connective tissue to Star Wars as we know it today. Though they may have lightsabers, locations and mythology in common, much of what makes up the Old Republic as we see in Legends is still distinctly different in artistic approach. This could lead to issues of convincing your average movie goer that this is still Star Wars and not just a cheap trick to get people into theater seats by slapping a Star Wars logo on a sci fi adventure film. 

Worse yet, there would be the challenge of bringing in brand new characters and building this time period's lore from essentially scratch. Though I wouldn't call it impossible, considering a film like Guardian's of the Galaxy did just fine, despite average theater goers not having read any of the previous comics, or Guardian's having a direct relation to any of the former superhero films. The key to this you may note was Guardian's nemesis. By keeping Thanos the overarching bad guy in Guardian's as he is in the rest of the Marval universe this kept the film afloat with the understanding that these characters would later have a role in the larger MCU.

How Disney chooses to go about the Old Republic is still up for debate- if they choose to go down that path. But considering the amount of lore in this time period, it's hard to imagine they'd outright ignore it.

Boba Fett

Though not officially announced as a film lined up by Disney it has been hotly suggested from rumors swirling from within Disney itself. A Boba Fett film would likely fit into the classification of a character piece, as Boba Fett as far as we know, has not had a notable role in the Star Wars universe (such as stealing the death star plans). Not only this, but Boba Fett is arguably a villein which leads to the issues of making his character likable on screen. Though we may love to root for the bad guys in a film because of simply how freakin' cool they are. Putting them on the screen for two hours may prove too much. As we know, Fett isn't one to talk a lot on film and even the younger Fett we see in shows such as The Clone Wars provides evidence of an angry, lustful for revenge youth, who only is in it for himself (mostly).

One method that could be used to tell Boba Fett's story would be to have a sort of Suicide Squad type story. In which all the characters are on the same side, yet possibly pitted against one another. A Boba Fett film will be a difficult challenge for whomever pens this story, as the iconic character is at a great threat of becoming boring, dumbed down, or unappealing if not written into the story correctly. Not only this, but due to Boba Fett being a clone of a previously cast actor- this does limit Disney to having to use that actor unless they simply recast. Which by no means am I suggesting that Temuera Morrison did a poor job as Jango Fett- simply that this may deter Disney as their options for this character now become limited due to being previously cast some years ago.

The next challenge for Boba Fett would be time period. An early Boba Fett during the height of the Empire might be appealing to some, but personally I would love to see Boba Fett crawl from the jaws of the sarlacc that was intended to kill him- and essentially be forced to start over in a galaxy that was also about to change with the destruction of the second death star- and death of the Emperor.

On the flip side, Star Wars Rebels mid season 3 trailer has suggested that the Mandalorians may fight with the Rebel Alliance, now Boba Fett himself is no Mandalorian, but wears the armor none the less. Providing an interesting story regarding Boba Fett defending himself and the people he chooses to be apart of.

Rogue Squadron

If you haven't seen Rogue One you should But regardless you can expect this: The Rebels go on to fight another day. So what's this say about a sequel to Rogue One? Outside of the laughs that have been made that 'A New Hope' is a sequel to Rogue One we have another thought. I wouldn't call it a direct sequel, but a film that focus' on the infamous Rogue Squadron may be a proper spiritual sequel to Rogue One. With a recent marathon of Star War's films, it became very clear to us one thing in particular: the in universe 'Rogue Squadron' certainly must have been created in honor of the in universe 'Rogue One' crew who's daring mission stole the death star plans.

For those who don't know, Rogue Squadron was promoted to near stardom within Star Wars thanks to writers such as Michael A. Stackpole who wrote half of the Rogue Squadron book series. Made up of elite pilots taking on daring top secret missions for the Rebel Alliance, Rogue Squadron was as much about ace combat pilots as it was these soldiers pulled into entanglements on the ground. So essentially, as Rogue One is about Rebel spies on the ground, this is akin to the same but in space. It's hard to really pinpoint what story a Rogue Squadron centered story could take, but seeings as they provided a backdrop to many of the larger operations in the original trilogy, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Rogue Squadron setting up the events of Return of the Jedi or aiding in the recovery of the plans to the Second Death Star- in which many Bothans died as a result of.

Obiwan's Lost Years

This theory has gained some traction since the popular Rey is Obiwan's granddaughter theory started to spread online. For the record, there is no concrete proof Rey is Obiwan's granddaughter until we learn something new in Episode 8. But, assuming this is true for even a moment, there's an opportunity to bring back Ewan Mcgregor as Obiwan sometime between the events of Episode 3 and 4. 

As many will remember, Obiwan devoted his life to watching over Luke Skywalker in this time and while many assumed this was a pretty boring job in the desert, new canon comics however show that wasn't entirely true and Obiwan found himself on a number of mini adventures even while keeping an eye on Luke. While this isn't any kind of proof that Obiwan found love on the desert, this isn't to say it couldn't be true either.

This is certainly an interesting idea, even if Obiwan and Rey aren't related, it still would be a fascinating character piece to understand Obiwan's role over Luke, his struggle to cope with a changing galaxy, learning new aspects of the force and possibly additional motives to his character removing himself from such a central position as member of the Jedi council. One would imagine that if Yoda's last words were to go separate ways until the time was right- after a few years Obiwan might start to get an itch to find a way to help the Rebellion. Especially with Bale Organa knowing where he was and was available for use (remember it was Bale who sought out Obiwan to bring the death star plans to Alderaan)

But at this rate, we may learn new evidence of Obiwan's early involvement within the Rebel Alliance from the likes of Rogue One.