As Star Wars slowly makes its way back into cinemas, Disney will attempt to recapture the billion-dollar magic of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. For the past seven years, since the divisive release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm’s flagship franchise has been focused on its streaming output with undeniably mixed results. While shows like Andor and The Mandalorian have been genuinely successful, projects like The Acolyte and The Book of Boba Fett have failed to connect with audiences.
Still, The Mandalorian proved popular enough to become the official stepping stone for Star Wars’ theatrical return, with The Mandalorian and Grogu flying onto the big screen last month. While Lucasfilm’s belief in the so-called “Mandoverse” seemed logical enough, relying on the dynamic duo after a less-than-stellar third season may have been too big a gamble. The Mandalorian and Grogu experienced a historic 70% drop in its second weekend and, at the time of publication, its earnings hover around $300 million worldwide, nearly $100 million less than the lowest-earning Star Wars movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story (via Box Office Mojo).
Presumably, this isn’t the bombastic return to cinemas Disney and Lucasfilm were hoping for. It’s certainly a long way from Star Wars’ previous hiatus break, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned well over $2 billion at the global box office in 2015, and the franchise’s first anthology movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, earned just over $1 billion a mere year later. Rogue One, especially, was a surprising success story, considering its largely unfamiliar cast, character roster, and its position as an (arguably) unnecessary prequel to the first-ever Star Wars movie, later retitled A New Hope.
That was part of its charm, however. Despite its ties to the most famous Star Wars story of all time, Rogue One stood entirely on its own merit, crafting a thrilling, self-contained sci-fi heist that anyone, regardless of their previous connection to Star Wars, could enjoy. Aside from a few brief cameos and some crowd-pleasing Darth Vader scenes, Rogue One‘s characters were destined to die, but that was part of the movie’s power. Not everything in Star Wars needs to be connected as a spinoff or a sequel. One-off stories can be just as impactful.
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”
Jedi OrderLight-side guardians
The SithRule of two
The RebellionA new hope
Bounty HuntersThis is the way
The EmpireOrder 66
01
The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?
✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.
02
A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.
✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.
03
In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?
✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.
✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.
04
Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.
✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.
05
In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?
✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.
06
The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?
✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.
07
Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?
✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.
08
Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.
✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).
✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.
The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing
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Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?
That’s exactly what the franchise’s next movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, promises to be. First announced at Star Wars Celebration 2025 and set to be released next year, Starfighter stars the one and only Ryan Gosling as a pilot tasked with protecting Flynn Gray’s mysterious youngling from dark “new threats” (Matt Smith and Mia Goth have been cast as the movie’s villains).
It’s believed that Gray’s character may be Force-sensitive, as he and his protector navigate a “rebuilding galaxy” in the aftermath of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and, according to the movie’s official synopsis, “their journey may alter the future of the Force itself.” Levy has stressed that Starfighter is meant to be a standalone title, though unlike Rogue One, it will usher in a brand-new era of the Star Wars timeline.
Star Wars: Starfighter Will Face More Difficulties Than Rogue One
Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray in Star Wars Starfighter
Starfighter may not be billed as “A Star Wars Story” — that practice was essentially abandoned after Solo’s underwhelming performance — but clearly, the two movies have a lot in common. They’re both independent stories, accessible to a wider audience, and they both feature new, unknown characters with no obvious links to the Skywalker saga. In this age of prequels, sequels, spinoffs, remakes, and reboots, that might be exactly what Star Wars needs to get audiences back into cinemas: something entirely new.
However, Star Wars: Starfighter will have to fight a lot harder for its success than Rogue One ever did. Rogue One premiered in a completely different entertainment landscape, riding the coattails of The Force Awakens’ unprecedented financial success and hype. Would Gareth Edwards’ movie have been as successful had it premiered in the wake of the more divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi or Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker? It’s impossible to say, of course. Given The Mandalorian and Grogu’s middling reception and slow box office performance, however, Starfighter will have to prove its worth beyond just being a Star Wars movie.
After all, major movies and franchises are no longer only competing with fellow blockbuster tentpoles and surprising indie hits. They’re also competing with the convenience of at-home streaming and shifting audience needs. Original stories like Ryan Coogler’s Sinners seem to be thriving, while traditional box office winners — like The Mandalorian and Grogu — are lagging. Star Wars: Starfighter has the advantage of not being closely connected to any major Star Wars movie that’s come before; hopefully, that will be enough to give it a boost.
Luckily, Star Wars: Starfighter also has the privilege of premiering in Star Wars‘ 50th anniversary year, as the franchise celebrates the original 1977 release of A New Hope. Star Wars Celebration will also return to Los Angeles next year, offering the perfect opportunity to showcase Star Wars‘ cinematic future, led by Gosling and Levy’s secretive new space-faring adventure.
Star Wars: Starfighter will arrive in cinemas on May 28, 2027.
