Ironically, considering all the poor prequels Lucasfilm has birthed into our world (and it looks as though they’ll continue to do so in the future unless ‘Solo’ turns them gun shy), the company has already created two solid prequels including “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” Yes, the movie undoubtedly has its problems, a lot of them stemming from the fact that basically two different filmmakers directed it (Garth Edwards and then Tony Gilroy, not unlike the ‘Solo’ fiasco, but no one was actually fired), and Lucasfilm chose to dissect and rework substantial parts of the movie making for something disjointed, but it has sound core ideas. Take a big historical event—the destruction of the Death Star—and tell a related, but different, event: how the group of people who stole the plans to this weapon of mass destruction did it. The nuts and bolts of the story have the benefit of familiarity and connection, but it’s all built on one aside of dialogue about those that stole these plans. But you know none of these lead characters so there’s nothing to spoon feed the audience anything about their history; you’re learning about these people as you go like in any regular movie.
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Yes, there is some inevitability there: because of the events of “A New Hope,” we know that this group of rebels succeeded. But otherwise, we know nothing about them. We don’t know who they are, none of them are connected to the trilogy characters you know and certainly no one could’ve predicted that they would make the ultimate sacrifice and die so that the rebellion could live on and attack the Death Star (having everyone die at the end of ‘Rogue One,’ is the rather brilliant way to upend and even overcome and overpower the inexorable qualities of the story).
And arguably, ‘Rogue One’ is more of a story told in parallel movie rather than a traditional prequel. And the lamest parts of ‘Rogue One’ are its connecting-the-dots elements: Princess Leia shoehorned in at the end, Lucasfilm second-guessing itself and adding Darth Vader’s final scene to the movie last minute and obvious, similar elements all of which are thankfully not vital parts to this story.
Though it’s nowhere near as well-known, the animated series “Star Wars Rebels” on Disney XD is a very good prequel as well, but again, approaches the story from a very different flight path. “Star Wars Rebels,” without getting too far in the weeds here, on the surface, is the story of how the Rebel Alliance was made (zzzzz). But really, “Star Wars Rebels” is about the story of a group of insurgents fighting against tyranny and how they happened to, like many other splinter cells, join forces with other guerillas and revolutionaries to become the Rebel Alliance.
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But like ‘Rogue One,’ which does not center on leaders like Rebel High Command council like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa or General Jan Dodonna, ‘Rebels’ eventually organically features these characters into the fabric of the story of the group known as the Spectres (or the crew of the Ghost), none of whom you’ve met before or have any connections to the “Star Wars” universe you know. Yes, there are cameos of related characters and some crossover, but ‘Rebels’ exists within the framework of the galaxy before the events of ‘Rogue One’ or ‘A New Hope,’ but is interested in telling the story of its own characters, who they are, their motivations in life and more. So the story happens to connect to the forming of the Rebel Alliance story, but it’s not about how that coalition force began (and the Spectres are really kind of a special ops team anyhow within the schema of a larger leadership and greater plan). Perhaps more importantly, in none of these stories do you have to learn how someone became who you already know, an essentially dull and predictable premise.
So, it can be done, Lucasfilm. You’ve done it twice, already. Time to learn from your triumphs and avoid repeating your failures (might I suggest, I’m happy to lend my services in San Francisco when you’re ready to do your “What went wrong?” post-mortem on ‘Solo’ and I work for relatively affordable rates). Less history, more mystery: we don’t NEED to know what a scruffy looking Nerf Herder is, we’re good, thanks. Take an approach vector from a different, sideways angle and May The Force be with you when trying to sidestep the traps, pitfalls and integral problems and challenges embedded into the heart of a lot of prequels.
