How To Keep Star Wars Fresh

It should stay fresh enough as long as Disney/Lucasfilm is hiring young/new and old/experienced directors/screenwriters. By this method you can have a mixture of new and familiar stuff.

As you already mentioned older and more experienced directors could go back-to-the-roots while young and new directors can make some experiments for the franchise.

 

HIre a flmmaker who is not only a first-rate storyteller, but also someone who is original. Rian Johnson had the potential to meet these criteria, but I believe he failed.

 

NDA so that no spoiler would leak until film release?
Look at Solo. The behind the scene dramas, social media, youtube, unlimited damage has been done regardless of the flilm's actual quality.
This is unrealistic, but it is the only thing to make Star Wars fresh. Stop the presses.

 

Star Wars, by its very nature, is a very derivative film series. At its least noticeable, the script writers take inspiration from some classical films, repurpose some elements from previous iterations and voila, you get the plot. However, the reason why people get invested in Star Wars (or probably any other long-running film franchise/TV Series) are the characters. You have to get the characters right. You need to make people care for the characters. If you succeed in doing so, you can basically put them in any sitation imaginable. So, my answer to this question would be - create good characters. And don't overuse nostalgia, like Rogue One did (and The Force Awakens, and Revenge of the Sith but to a lesser extent.) If you want to use characters created in previous films, give them a greater purpose than what basically sums up to "Yoohoo! Do you remember me? I'm also in this film! Cool, amirite?".

 

My ideal way of keeping things fresh is still how I originally envisioned the release schedule-

A year with a big, saga entry

A year with a spinoff film that fits into a specific genre (war for Rogue One, Western for Solo, etc).

Alternate year to year.

For me, that would keep the series fresh while constantly evolving the sage.




Other than that... stay true to the series identity, but start bringing in weird stuff. Mortis, World Between Worlds. Even stuff like Maul or Ahsoka, stuff that doesn't contradict the films but will really blow casual fans' minds while simultaneously being awesomely rewarding for deeper fans.


That and maybe have a trilogy or even just a spinoff film that sympathizes with the "bad guys" for once.

 

Yuuzhan Vong invasion is the answer you are looking for.
edit: Or bugs. and Bughuggers.
edit 2: I'm really stoked for ReyTaat. Cause Legend already have a ReyaTaat.

 

Agreed!

I think that Star Wars needs to start blending genres again. ANH was a sci-fi, a western, a space opera all set to the tune of Kurosawa films. Get back to that! Give me my psychological romantic tragedy set to period piece like Casablanca? I want a Fistful of Dollars set in the Old Republic between the Jedi, the Sith, and a lone Mandalorian in-between!