Star Wars: How Fandom Shaped The Sequel Trilogy

gamerant.com:

Few, if any, other franchises have managed to achieve the prolonged cultural relevance that Star Wars has enjoyed. It has now been almost half a century since A New Hope was released, yet the profile of the original trilogy has only increased, spawning two more trilogies and a host of spinoffs. Though The Rise of Skywalker concluded that original story, the Skywalker Saga, nearly three years ago, the franchise shows no signs of slowing down. Even now, a slate of new movies and shows that will be expanding the universe for years to come.

Forty-five years is a particularly long time in Hollywood — enough time for children who were raised on the original trilogy to grow up and become directors themselves, to produce content that testifies to the influence of Star Wars on their own authorship. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are, essentially, fanfiction. Despite being incredibly different takes on the Star Wars mythology, both bear certain undeniable hallmarks of fan-made films.

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“This will begin to make things right.” The first line spoken in The Force Awakens was interpreted by fans to have a double meaning, and it was taken up as a sort of rallying cry for the sequel trilogy. The prequel trilogy, which had premiered fifteen years earlier, was immensely popular, but it suffered from weak writing and massive discontinuities with the original trilogy. Fans took the line in The Force Awakens as reassurance that J.J. Abrams would not let technological wizardry get in the way of good storytelling; that midi-chlorians and outrageously-nimble Yoda were things of the past. The world of the prequel trilogy would be the same world that fans fell in love