It’s no secret that Star Wars fandom is in crisis. Since Disney acquired Lucasfilm, fans have observed a decline in storytelling quality. The issues began with the sequel trilogy and reached a peak with the recent release of ‘The Acolyte,’ the latest Star Wars installment.

The stories no longer resonate as they once did, and there could be various reasons for this. George Lucas recently remarked, in the context of the prequel trilogy, that fans’ expectations might have changed now that they are adults, while the movies are still essentially aimed at children.

Some attribute various instances of review-bombing to simple hatred of female and diverse representation in live-action projects, with the latest example being ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte,’ whose cast and crew faced unprecedented abuse on social media. The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle, as the issues began long before ‘The Acolyte’ and stem from the quality of the stories.

In 2021, Marcia Lucas, an acclaimed Star Wars editor, gave an interview to JW Rinzler for his new book about Star Wars’ producer. She summarized everything wrong with the current state of Star Wars and identified two main culprits for the franchise’s deterioration.

I like Kathleen. I always liked her. She was full of beans. She was really smart and really bright. Really wonderful woman. And I liked her husband, Frank. I liked them a lot. […]Now that she’s running Lucasfilm and making movies, it seems to me that Kathy Kennedy and JJ Abrams don’t have a clue about Star Wars. They don’t get it.

And JJ Abrams is writing these stories – when I saw that movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious. I was furious when they killed Han Solo. Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. […]I thought, ‘You don’t get the Jedi story. You don’t get the magic of Star Wars. You’re getting rid of Han Solo?

Lucas won an Oscar for Best Film Editing for the original Star Wars (1977) alongside Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew. The film, featuring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, was written and directed by George Lucas. Lucas also worked as an editor on the sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). In the same interview, Lucas accused Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams of churning out movies annually and criticized the nonsensical Rey storyline.

They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore. […]It sucks. The storylines are terrible. […] And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is. […] Just terrible. Awful. You can quote me… JJ Abrams, Kathy Kennedy – talk to me

I wonder what Lucas thinks about ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte.’ Do you have any thoughts to share? Let us know in the comments below!