A highly anticipated sequel to a 2021 Star Wars project was recently released on Disney+, but it unfortunately did not live up to the hype, as it was clearly not as good as the original story. Star Wars has had a dramatic history when it comes to sequels. On one hand, the franchise is home to arguably the greatest sequel in film history (The Empire Strikes Back), but on the other hand, the sequel trilogy as a whole was widely considered a major miss.
When Star Wars: Visions Season 3 was finally released on Disney+ in October 2025, fans were able to see the long-awaited episode titled "The Duel: Payback." Across the three seasons of Visions, the very first episode of Season 1, titled "The Duel," has undoubtedly been the most popular and most well-received by fans.
Therefore, it was no surprise when it was announced that the premiere episode for Visions Season 3 would be a direct sequel to "The Duel." Unfortunately, fans have not taken to the sequel as well as they did to the original episode. For instance, on IMDb, "The Duel" has an 8.4-star rating with around 7,400 reviews. "The Duel: Payback," on the other hand, currently sits at a 7.5-star rating with just 648 reviews.
On most occasions, a project's rating goes down as it earns more reviews, so "The Duel: Payback" already being nearly one full star lower than its predecessor is quite telling. One aspect of "The Duel" that everyone seemed to love was that it was led by a character who was extremely mysterious. The viewer did not know Ronin's intentions, had no idea why he did what he did, and overall felt a bit uneasy because his allegiance was not fully explained.
"The Duel: Payback" revealed more about Ronin in general, which led to him becoming a less interesting character. Every now and then, a character doesn't need to have their backstory explored. Many fans resonated with Ronin and found him compelling as a nameless wanderer, and "The Duel: Payback" took some of that away.
Most likely, Ronin's time in the Star Wars universe is not over. The character is still extremely popular, and many would likely jump at the chance to spend a bit more time with him. However, it could benefit the character and the story more if Star Wars went back to "The Duel," and really pulled from past Western and Samurai-centric projects, as it originally did.
5 Star Wars Sequels that Didn't Live Up to the Original
The Mandalorian Season 3
Star Wars fans could not get enough of Din Djarin, Grogu, and The Mandalorian after the show's first two seasons aired. Unfortunately, though, Season 3 fell entirely flat. The first two installments explored the dynamic between Grogu and Din Djarin while taking Djarin through a full character arc that sent him from being a ruthless bounty hunter to an adoptive father with a big heart for Grogu.
Since Grogu and Djarin were broken up at the end of Season 2, many expected to see Djarin's character change yet again. However, The Book of Boba Fett brought them back together, so Season 3 took a turn for the worse.
Not only did Din Djarin and Grogu not have to go through any real issues from being away from each other, but they also got roped back into going against Moff Gideon for the third installment in a row.
The Book of Boba Fett
The Book of Boba Fett was definitely the most frustrating of all of the Star Wars sequels. It had a chance to be truly incredible, and, on top of that, it featured flashes of absolute greatness. For instance, the spaghetti western-style duel between Cad Bane and Cobb Vanth was classic Star Wars, as was Bane walking into town from the desert.
The Book of Boba Fett also revealed exactly what happened with Boba Fett after Return of the Jedi, which fans have wanted to see for years.
In short, there were flashes of excellence in The Book of Boba Fett. Unfortunately, though, it was not a worthy sequel to Return of the Jedi or The Mandalorian, because, in between the greatness, there was a lot of sloppy material.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Book of Boba Fett was the most frustrating sequel to come out of Star Wars, but Obi-Wan Kenobi was the most painful. An entire generation of fans who grew up on the prequel trilogy were getting to see Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader again. On top of that, Ewan McGregor was returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi. What could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, Obi-Wan Kenobi's storyline got away from Anakin and Obi-Wan and somehow found itself focusing on a young Princess Leia. Yes, Leia knew who Obi-Wan was in A New Hope, but Obi-Wan Kenobi made it so that Obi-Wan was essentially a second caretaker for her since the pair traveled all throughout the galaxy together.
The show did have some incredible moments, though. During the duel between Vader and Kenobi in Episode 6, Vader's mask got cut open, revealing part of Anakin's face. It was one of the most emotional moments in all of Star Wars to hear Obi-Wan apologize to Anakin, and then viewers were also reminded of when Ahsoka also cut Vader's mask and got to see Anakin's face in Star Wars Rebels.
At the end of the day, it was just disappointing that Obi-Wan Kenobi did not live up to the hype that surrounded it.
Tales of the Empire
Tales of the Jedi is a collection of six animated shorts that were animated in the same style as The Clone Wars. Many Star Wars fans would agree that Tales of the Jedi is one of the best projects to come out of the franchise since Disney acquired Lucasfilm from George Lucas.
After Tales of the Jedi came out, though, Tales of the Empire followed. The sequel wasn't necessarily bad; it just did not live up to the original series. Tales of the Empire included extremely important background information and context to the stories of two major characters: Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano.
Tales of the Empire, on the other hand, focused on Barris Offee and Morgan Elsbeth, two characters who didn't exactly resonate with fans all that well.
If Tales of the Empire had chosen other characters, it may have been more well-received. For instance, Thrawn made an appearance in one of Morgan Elsbeth's episodes. If he had had his own three-episode arc in the show, it likely would have been more compelling.
The Rise of Skywalker
The sequel trilogy as a whole was not received well by fans, but The Rise of Skywalker sadly sat on a level all by itself. Most of the movie's problems can be traced back to bringing Palpatine back as the trilogy's main villain after establishing Snoke as the major antagonist in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. However, The Last Jedi killed Snoke off, so the trilogy then implied that Kylo Ren would not go through a redemption arc and would instead take over as the main villain.
That idea never actually came to be, though. Instead, Disney and Lucasfilm decided the best route to go was to bring back Palpatine, not really explain how he came back from the dead, and then kill him again in the same exact way he was beaten by Mace Windu in Revenge of the Sith (all while undermining Luke Skywalker's character arc in the original trilogy).
Overall, The Rise of Skywalker simply did a lot of harm to the franchise. It definitely was not a good project to end one of the longest-running and most successful franchises of all time. Maybe that's why Disney and Lucasfilm could be developing Episodes X-XII, though.
