Star Wars fans are quite worried about the current state of the franchise and what the future may hold, but now that Dave Filoni is the president of Lucasfilm, there are a few steps he needs to take to get the galaxy far, far away back on track, and those steps are pretty simple. Although Star Wars has been around for nearly 50 years now, it is still one of the most popular and beloved worlds in the history of fiction. So, the fact that it is seemingly in a worse position than it has ever been in is rather worrying and also objectively frustrating.
Since the release of The Last Jedi in 2018, Star Wars has been in a tough spot. The Last Jedi was undoubtedly the most polarizing entry in the entire franchise, and since then, things have been different, and it seems as though Star Wars hasn't been able to really find its footing.
Fortunately, everything began to brighten up on the TV side of things when The Mandalorian first debuted. That show was integral for Disney+'s initial success, and helped keep Star Wars afloat after The Rise of Skywalker was widely considered the worst Star Wars movie to ever be released. However, The Mandalorian, as well as the other shows in the MandoVerse (Star Wars' smaller interconnected universe within the larger franchise), began to fizzle out, and the future has never seemed more bleak.
Dave Filoni, a longtime Lucasfilm executive and creative mind for the Star Wars brand, recently replaced Kathleen Kennedy as the president of Lucasfilm. If there were ever a time for everything to change, it is seemingly now. With new leadership, a shot of adrenaline can be given to Star Wars, and the franchise can be successful for another 50 years, but a few things need to happen.
Star Wars Needs Episodes 10-12
After the sequel trilogy ended, nearly every Star Wars fan, whether they liked the sequels or not, was in agreement that the Skywalker Saga should never be touched again and that Lucasfilm should spend most of its time and money creating stories set in other eras within the galaxy. Essentially, everyone thought it would be most beneficial and most interesting for every future Star Wars project to not be tied to the Skywalker Saga, and that new stories needed to be created.
However, seeing how general movie audiences react to smaller, more independent movies, exploring other eras and characters isn't going to work. Every single film in the sequel trilogy made at least $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Even The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, which are the most controversial and lowest-reviewed Star Wars movies, still crossed that $1 billion mark. Even though they weren't viewed that well, they still made a lot of money and were successful financially.
In opposition, The Mandalorian & Grogu was recently released in May 2026. It wasn't part of the Skywalker Saga, and while it did connect to the MandoVerse, it was still created as a standalone story. For instance, any person on Earth could press play on that movie and completely understand it without seeing anything in the MandoVerse.
Unfortunately, its theatrical run is almost over, and it will almost definitely be solidified as the lowest-grossing Star Wars movie of all time. Specifically, it has currently only grossed $329 million worldwide, which is even significantly lower than Solo, which was viewed by Lucasfilm and Disney as a financial disaster.
The Mandalorian & Grogu proves that standalone Star Wars movies simply don't work. The two central characters in that movie are two of the most beloved in the entire franchise, and they haven't even been able to carry a film past Solo at the box office. That says a lot to Disney and Lucasfilm about what fans want from Star Wars.
If Star Wars is going to be successful in the future and survive in theaters, Dave Filoni is going to have to bite the bullet and look at bringing the Skywalker Saga back. Even though some of these standalone stories have promising plots, casts, etc., they just likely won't make any money.
The route Filoni and Lucasfilm need to go is creating Episodes 10-12 of the Skywalker Saga. However, it would be of the utmost importance that a new Skywalker Saga trilogy not make the same mistakes that the sequels did.
One of the biggest criticisms of the sequels is that the three movies didn't feel cohesive and didn't seem as though they had one creative vision. After J.J. Abrams released The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson essentially went in his own direction with The Last Jedi.
Then, Abrams was given The Rise of Skywalker, and instead of building on what Johnson did or going back to what was set up in The Force Awakens, it spent nearly its entire runtime undoing everything from The Last Jedi. A new Star Wars trilogy would need to feel cohesive and like one long story.
The best way to achieve that would be for Lucasfilm to find a singular filmmaker and allow them to take the reins for all three films. That way, at least the trilogy would all be connected and feel like it was telling one story. Even if it wasn't as good as the original trilogy, at least Lucasfilm would give it the chance to succeed, which is not a treatment the sequels received.
Whatever story Lucasfilm tells in a new trilogy is up to the creative minds there. Obviously, it would need to connect to the rest of the Skywalker Saga, but it should definitely be something interesting and feel important. It would need to include legacy characters, but give them supporting roles where they complement the new characters. Perhaps most importantly, it would need to establish a new villain rather than using past villains (like Emperor Palpatine).
The Skywalker Saga movies are still a gold mine. Star Wars fans and general movie audiences alike are still willing to go to the movies to see a new entry. If Lucasfilm brought the Skywalker Saga back, it would help Lucasfilm financially, while also proving to Disney that Star Wars is still alive and well. If done right, it could absolutely work. Since nothing else has seemingly worked lately, it may be time to press that red button and greenlight Episodes 10-12.
Star Wars Needs to Reset Its Disney+ Strategy
As mentioned, Star Wars has been an important part of Disney+ since the streaming platform debuted. When Disney+ first launched, The Mandalorian was a roaring success, and it seemed as though Star Wars could survive through its television projects alone. For a while, that success continued. The Mandalorian Season 2 was just as hot as Season 1, Andor was one of the most acclaimed Star Wars projects ever, and the final season of The Clone Wars was viewed as a masterpiece.
Because Star Wars was doing so well on Disney+, fans were excited for the MandoVerse since it was an MCU-like interconnected universe within the world of Star Wars that was going to exclusively take place on Disney+. Things got even more exciting when it was announced that the MandoVerse was going to culminate with an Avengers: Endgame-like feature film directed by Dave Filoni.
Unfortunately, things started going south with the MandoVerse. The Book of Boba Fett was poorly received, The Mandalorian Season 3 felt like a total mess and killed all of the momentum that Seasons 1 and 2 built, and Ahsoka was fine, but it has currently been three years since Season 1 of that show was released, and fans still don't know when they will be seeing Season 2.
Interest in the MandoVerse is pretty much nonexistent at this point. As mentioned, just look at the box office numbers of The Mandalorian & Grogu. Because of the direction of the MandoVerse, the latest reports indicate that there won't even be a culminating film from Filoni anymore, and that it could be a Disney+ limited series, if it ever happens at all.
However, Star Wars can save itself on Disney+. The Mandalorian and the early days of the MandoVerse proved that an interconnected universe like that can work, and that fans are interested in seeing something like that. The best thing for Star Wars to do with its television branch is to bring the MandoVerse to an end as soon as possible. Allow Ahsoka Season 2 to be released since it has already been filmed, but after that, film that culminating project for Disney+ and bring everything to a close.
After that, Dave Filoni and Lucasfilm should look at resetting their Disney+ slate altogether. The MandoVerse could and should be replaced, but ideally in a more interesting era than the New Republic. Luckily for Star Wars, there are already some popular time periods in the galaxy that have never been explored on-screen.
For example, many fans fell in love with Lucasfilm's publishing initiative, which was the High Republic. Multiple novels, comic books, and more stories were released within that time period, and it saw a lot of success. It would be extremely easy and engaging for Lucasfilm to create an interconnected universe of TV shows on Disney+ set in the High Republic and finally bring that era to life on-screen.
It would also be a great idea for Lucasfilm to finally embrace the Old Republic (which is entirely different than the High Republic) and adapt some of those Star Wars Legends stories, such as Knights of the Old Republic, the Darth Bane trilogy, etc.
If one of those had to be chosen, the Old Republic would likely see the most success. For over 20 years now, Star Wars fans have been begging Lucasfilm to adapt the Knights of the Old Republic video game, as well as its sequel. At one time, it seemed as though the best place for that to happen would have been on the big screen.
For a while, a lot of fans asked Lucasfilm to create three movies styled similarly to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and set them in the Old Republic, with the story of Darth Revan being the central focus. A trilogy would have worked well, and would likely be the best way to tell that story and do it justice, but as mentioned, the film side of Star Wars is in a horrendous place right now, and putting an Old Republic trilogy in a position where only one movie could be released and then the other two get canceled would be a complete tragedy.
It would be safer for that story to be told on Disney+ because it would be less likely for it to get canceled than a movie. If done correctly, an Old Republic universe on Disney+ could be the crown jewel of Star Wars in the Disney era, and it could get Star Wars back on track and set it up for years of success.
It is also important to mention that Lucasfilm needs to pay a lot of attention to its current Disney+ projects and replicate the ones that have been successful. For example, Andor was widely regarded as one of the best Star Wars titles of all time, if not the best. More recently, Maul - Shadow Lord has elicited similar reactions. Star Wars needs to look at those two projects and try to replicate them with different characters, different eras, and different stories.
In the future, if Star Wars could create an interconnected universe set in a time period like the Old Republic, and then have solo TV shows that are the quality of Andor and Maul - Shadow Lord, the brand would be untouchable.
Star Wars Needs to Root Itself in Animation
Star Wars started out as a movie brand, and, at its core, it will always be that. However, in more recent years, the franchise has arguably been way more successful with its TV releases, specifically in animation. When George Lucas still owned Lucasfilm, The Clone Wars was a massive success. After Disney purchased the company, one of its first major acts was canceling that show, and fans (rightfully) lost their minds. They made such a fuss that Disney allowed Lucasfilm to create a final season of the show, and it was viewed as a near-perfect piece of Star Wars.
Since then, tons of animated projects have seen a lot of success for the galaxy far, far away, such as Rebels, The Bad Batch, and Tales of the Jedi. Nearly every season of an animated Star Wars show has been well-received, so Star Wars animation is much more consistent than live-action is.
It would not be a bad idea at all for Star Wars to re-evaluate its release strategy and put more focus on creating multi-season animated shows. A good recent example of how well this can work is Maul - Shadow Lord.
Shadow Lord was recently released in 2026, and it has received a lot of praise from fans. Lucasfilm and Disney already confirmed that a second season of the show will be released, and there is no reason to believe that it won't continue where the first installment left off.
If Star Wars can produce multiple long-running shows like Maul - Shadow Lord, it could give the entire brand a strong root system to fall back on in case anything in the live-action realm didn't work out. For example, if Star Wars had three or four highly successful animated series running at the same time, it wouldn't be as big a deal if a live-action series or standalone film didn't perform too well.
It could also greatly benefit Star Wars if it created a few shows like that and offset their releases so that fans would know that they were never going to have to go too long before receiving new content.
For example, if four animated series were created, and new seasons came out on a two-year basis, two shows could come out one year, and then two the next year. Then, the second seasons of those first two shows would come out the year after, and the second seasons of the second two shows would come out the year after that.
That way, fans always know they will get two seasons of an animated show each year, and would know exactly what is going to be released and when.
Star Wars could also dedicate a certain time period each year solely to animated releases. For instance, Spring and Fall every year could be when the animated shows come out, which could provide an anchor point for the entire franchise and make fans feel like things have a bit more order.
Dave Filoni already demanded that Lucasfilm improve its animation in every aspect with Maul - Shadow Lord, and since it was so successful in doing that, there is no reason that the future shouldn't include other animated titles just like that. They should also be held to the same standard as Shadow Lord, because that series is a perfect example of what Lucasfilm can achieve when everyone is at their best.
