Can 100% of STAR WARS Fans Ever Be Truly Satisfied Again? Probably Not and I Want to Talk About It

This past weekend, Rian Johnson’s long-awaited Star Wars: The Last Jedi exploded in theaters and made a killing at the box office. The film was met with a lot of positive critical acclaim but at the same time, it left audiences torn. Some fans absolutely loved it, while other fans hated it.

I’m one of the long-time hardcore fans that enjoyed the hell out of the movie. I thought Johnson did an incredible job with the story and I loved the direction that he took the characters. I thought the movie took some bold risks and didn’t play it safe that way Abrams did with The Force Awakens.

A lot of fans complained about Abrams because The Force Awakens was too similar to A New Hope. Then Johnson does something completely unique, unexpected, and surprising with his film. He did something that didn’t follow the pattern that we’ve seen done so many times before in the franchise. He broke the mold and still... a lot of the fans complained.

We actually got something different and no one can stop the fans from complaining. My question is... can Star Wars fans ever 100% be truly satisfied with the Star Wars films from here on out?

Hell, as hardcore a fan I am of the franchise, I did not like the prequel trilogy! I was not satisfied with those films and a lot of other hardcore Star Wars fans feel the same way. So I guess it’s not hard to think that a group of fans is going to hate what we see happen with these new films.

It just seems like from here on out, the fans who unanimously love the original trilogy are going to be torn apart by these new films and break them up into factions. You’ve got fans that are loving the direction of the new trilogy and fans that don’t. Then there are the fans that will be split up with each individual film that gets made. 

Lucasfilm and the filmmakers will never be able to make 100% of the fanbase happy. That’s just not going to happen. Even if George Lucas himself, who created this universe, came out and took his original vision of Episodes VII, VIII, and IX and got to make his films, the fans still wouldn’t be completely happy. 

After all these years of fandom, years of continuing the journey with an extended universe, years of fans talking with each other about what they want to see from these films, years of theories and speculation, all based on the original trilogy, how in the world can 100% of the fans ever be satisfied!? 

We all have our own ideas about how this story should go. As fans, we all feel we have ownership of Star Wars because we’ve invested so much into this franchise throughout our lives! We grew up with Star Wars in our lives, we’ve watched the films countless times, we’ve played the video games, we’ve collected the toys, and it’s hard to imagine a world without Star Wars.

Now, I will always defend The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, just like there are fans who will defend the prequel trilogy. Then there are the fans that will tear down these movies in the same way that I have torn down the prequel films in the past. It’s just what fans do! There are no right or wrong answers here, it's just our opinions on what Lucasfilm and their creative talent are doing with the franchise. After all, this is their franchise and they can do whatever they want. One of the main things they are trying to do is make fans happy. They are succeeding with some and failing with others in that respect. 

I’m not here to bash the fans that don’t like these new Star Wars films. I’m here to say that it’s ok that we have different opinions. It ok that we share these opinions with each other, it’s ok to have respectful debates about why we like these films and why we don’t. Yeah, you may not be able to change the minds of either side, but there’s nothing wrong with communicating with each other and sharing our thoughts on a franchise that we love. That’s life!

So no, 100% of Star Wars fans will probably never fully see eye to eye on these new films. But we do all have a base common ground, which is that we all share a love of the original trilogy! We can all look at those first films and agree that they are amazing and magical and that they changed our lives forever.