The most reviled storyline in The Last Jedi is without a doubt the Canto Bight scenes involving Finn and Rose. And yet, the casino scene finally did something Star Wars had failed to do in all its other properties: bring some real-world context into the world of Star Wars and introduce some real-world consequences.
As a whole, Star Wars exists in a vacuum. The idea of a galaxy far, far away, has always kept the franchise separate from some real-world issues that could have been explored effectively. The effects of war on the common people is one of them, particularly considering that this galaxy far far away has been at war for far too long. The Canto Bight scenes were meant to both teach Finn and Rose a lesson, and also examine the larger consequences of war. But fans barely paid attention to the larger picture, preferring to focus on the Finn and Rose of it all.
This is particularly true because The Last Jedi ends up swerving very far from where The Force Awakens started, and where The Rise of Skywalker would end. The storytelling incongruencies within the sequel trilogy failed characters and storylines alike, but they also failed the larger ideas the movie tried to incorporate. The notion of war profiteering and the effects of a long and sustained war on the population was one of them. Star Wars has never been the franchise to incorporate many real-world issues into its storytelling, but perhaps it should be. After all, the franchise needs to move away from just the Skywalkers, and this would be a very interesting way to bring in some stakes into the story.
The Canto Bight scenes, as a whole, were not just about the war in general, but also about how wars always end up being about more than good intentions and noble purposes. This is sometimes a reality that people in the trenches, or even in those in charge of decision-making, can easily miss. Someone has to worry about the big picture, after all. But there are many interesting beats to be had in the smaller issues, and the fact that Star Wars abandoned this idea completely is one of the most disappointing parts of the lack of plan for the sequel trilogy, and that’s a very long list.
The idea doesn’t need to be abandoned, however. Star Wars as a whole needs to find new stories away from the nostalgia and the established characters. It’s the only way the franchise can survive. One way to do so would be to explore war profiteering during the wars, and how it affected different planets. Space wars might be much more technologically advanced, but wars are wars, and there are always people with no qualms who are looking to make money no matter who gets hurt. Focusing on this would allow Star Wars to both stay in a science fantasy world but reflect a reality so many people have seen up close.
Stories of big stakes between good and evil are interesting, but Star Wars has already had nine movies about this larger struggle. The success of a stand-alone show like The Mandalorian proves that people will consume other kinds of stories set within the world. And the one constant of a galaxy far, far away, throughout the course of both the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy, has been war. Even in the prequel trilogy, it was all building towards it. There’s an entire animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, based on a war, after all. If the franchise never attempts to explore the consequences of war on the people not directly involved in the battle between good and evil, it will be a lost opportunity.
There are a lot of things Star Wars could do going forward, to tell new and different stories. One of the smartest bets would be to pick up on one storyline from The Last Jedi that The Rise of Skywalker completely dropped, that of Canto Bight. This would allow the franchise to finally tell some new, interesting stories, outside of the Skywalker family. Plus, it would present them with possible storytelling avenues that would feel closer to real-life stakes than anything in the franchise ever has before. At this point that would be a welcome change for a franchise that has spent too long circling around the same character stereotypes and the same family’s story.
Star Wars has brought up many interesting storylines that it has yet to pursue, and the casino scenes in The Last Jedi are the most interesting storytelling possibility left open. With the franchise looking for new stories to tell, this would be a good place to start. Fans have already seen stories of the Jedi. They’ve already seen stories of the Empire. Now it would be interesting to focus on the smaller actors doing good, and bad things, in this galaxy far far away that, with every day that passes, looks more like our own.