Disney has had its ups and downs with Star Wars since acquiring the franchise in 2012.
When The Force Awakens hit theaters, Star Wars fans were eagerly filling up seats for the first time since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith. The film became an instant hit at the box office, amassing over $936 million in the United States and Canada alone, which is still the record for the highest domestic gross.
Fans were ecstatic about what the rest of the sequel trilogy would bring, until the next film, The Last Jedi, was released in 2017. The movie divided the fandom completely down the middle, with around half of the viewers praising it as one of the best Star Wars movies and the other half claiming that it was one of the worst.
The Rise of Skywalker then came along in 2019, and many viewers were disappointed with the way it closed out not only the trilogy but the Skywalker Saga as a whole.
Despite differing opinions, almost any fan can agree that there were strong plot points and characters introduced in the sequel trilogy. With the attention of Disney and Lucasfilm shifting toward Disney+ due to the popularity of The Mandalorian, it seemed for a time that the sequels were being forgotten about.
However, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy recently gave an update on the topic, and it seems as though there will be more in store for those characters and stories.
Kathleen Kennedy Teases Return of Sequel Characters
In a recent interview with Empire, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy sat down to talk about the future of Star Wars, specifically what is in store for the characters and stories that the sequel trilogy introduced to the franchise.
Kennedy assured that the post-Return of the Jedi characters "will live on" and teased that they are already trying to continue the storylines from that era of Star Wars:
"Certainly, those are not characters we're going to forget. They will live on, and those are conversations that are going on with the creative team as well.”
The Sequel Trilogy Has More To Offer
While many fans can agree that the sequel trilogy has its fair share of problems, there were some extremely interesting plot points and characters that the films introduced.
When The Force Awakens was released, the majority of viewers saw the potential and promise of nearly all the new characters. John Boyega's Finn was a stormtrooper who went rogue and left The First Order and was then later revealed in The Rise of Skywalker to be force-sensitive.
That plot point resonated with many fans in the trilogy's final movie, but it was also arguably frustrating because it was never fleshed out. A large portion of the fandom has expressed their interest in seeing a Disney+ series focused on Boyega's character learning the ways of the Force and even rebuilding the Jedi Order following the events of The Rise of Skywalker.
Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron has also been praised as one of the sequel trilogy's best characters, and like Finn, many people have made it known that they would like to see a continuation of his character, possibly in his own series.
At the end of the day, it is welcoming to hear Kathleen Kennedy talk about the future of the sequel trilogy's characters and stories, and hopefully, both the actors and the fans can be given something that showcases their full potential.
