Vanity Fair have published an exclusive look at the Star Wars roadmap titled:

Star Wars: The Rebellion Will Be Televised

The recent film trilogy was garbage and Lucasfilm instead turned their attention to television series for Disney+.

Old news.

Is there anything new here?

After stepping away from Fantastic Four due to superhero exhaustion, Spider-Man director Jon Watts has created and is set to executive produce a new Star Wars series.

The show takes place during the post–Return of the Jedi reconstruction that follows the fall of the Empire, the same as The Mandalorian, but its plot remains a secret.

His Spider-Man films were great and there's not much detail for his series so where's the sad news?

That relates to another of their upcoming series, The Acolyte.

The Acolyte, Headland says, takes place roughly 100 years before The Phantom Menace: “A lot of those characters haven’t even been born yet. We’re taking a look at the political and personal and spiritual things that came up in a time period that we don’t know much about. My question when watching The Phantom Menace was always like, ‘Well, how did things get to this point?’ How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? Like, what went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment?”

None of these things are a mystery.

The Jedi had been actively hunting the Sith Lord ever since Maul showed himself but now acting as generals for the Republic army - which was a new responsibility - were stretched paper thin.

While a Jedi's connection to the force gives them an extrasensory perception of sorts, the force can be used to shield one against that sense.

The Sith are well practiced at this concealment.

Specific reference is made in the books to them also having overtaken the Jedi in their force mastery during their period of isolation.

On his way to face Palpatine Yoda had felt certain of victory.

He had faced Sith before, was one of the most innately gifted of the Jedi, and 877 years old, i.e. extremely experienced.

Even after battling and killing several other Jedi Masters that day, so not being well rested, Palpatine battled Yoda to a draw.

Yoda came to the sickening realisation that in part under his leadership the Jedi Order had stagnated while the Sith had outlcassed them.

Acolyte Showrunner Leslye Headland not knowing these things when she saw the films is easily forgivable.

Not everyone is across all of these details.

But building a new series in the franchise from a position of ignorance is bizarre.

Here's where it gets sad.

Headland describes The Acolyte as a mystery thriller set in a prosperous and seemingly peaceful era, when the galaxy is still sleek and glistening. “We actually use the term the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment,” she says. Jedis were not always ascetic monklike figures living selflessly and bravely. “The Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it’s almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about,” Headland says. “The idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that’s how little they’re getting into skirmishes.”

The plural of Jedi is Jedi.

And this is some next level bullshit.

Earlier in the piece they attempt to lay groundwork for this bizarre and desperate retcon with Dave Filoni recounting a conversation with George Lucas.

“I remember when I did Clone Wars, George came in and said, ‘Well, the Mandalorians are pacifists in this time period.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, well, that’s very different than what everybody thinks they were.’ And he was like, ‘Well, you’ve got to remember that people are never just one thing. Cultures evolve and they change over time.’ ”

Any and everything can potentially change.

But this is bullshit nonetheless.

Portraying Luke attempting to murder his sleeping nephew in Episode 8 was a last straw for many fans.

At the time we thought their intent to diminish an earlier hero to make way for the new.

Though in computer game Jedi: Fallen Order they essentially crush any hope of the Jedi Order being rebuilt after its demise at Palpatine's hands.

The Jedi Order have been portrayed at different points in their history and they've never been decadent, lazy or hypocritical - qualities arguably attributable to at least one real world religious institution.

Are Lucasfilm attempting to make a political point?

Because the Jedi Order bears no similarities to that particular institution.

You wouldn't spend $4 billion to buy the Star Wars franchise and then begin systematically dismantling and diminishing its core heroes if your goal was to make money.

Unless this is a misguided attempt to improve their merchandising prospects.

Being an ascetic order, anyone who wants to dress like a Jedi in the real world can pretty much don a brown bath-robe and be half way there.

Star Wars has officially entered the fashion game and the notion of expensively dressed Jedi might have dollar signs twinkling in Lucasfilm's eyes.

Also possibly for the emerging metaverse and NFT (non-fungible token) market where digital clothing will be a cornerstone.

Whatever their motivation, we regard this retcon as another in now a very long line of mistakes and all of this silliness as simply not Star Wars.

[ Main Image: Star Wars Return of the Jedi. Credit: Lucasfilm via IMDb.com. ]

References

Breznican, Anthony (May 17, 2022). Star Wars: The Rebellion Will Be Televised. Vanity Fair.

Fleming, Mike Jr (April 29, 2022). ‘Spider-Man’ Director Jon Watts Exits Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’. Deadline.

Wikipedia. Cal Kestis. (viewed May 18, 2022)

Wikipedia. Jedi. (viewed May 18, 2022)

Yodasdatapad. Star Wars Character Ages. (viewed May 18, 2022)