It’s no secret that Star Wars under Disney has sunk to an all time low following the release (and subsequent cancellation) of the live action series “The Acolyte”. Lucasfilm – the division of Disney in charge of Star Wars – is at a crossroads (especially if Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is close to stepping down, as her contract expires around the end of this year). Ever since “The Last Jedi” derailed the sequel trilogy, splitting the fandom and leading to infighting among the Star Wars community, Disney’s reputation on how to handle the franchise has gotten worse and worse. Leaving aside the debate over the sequel trilogy, there’s been one thing that’s still agreed upon by most fans:

Star Wars in animation is absolutely fantastic!

Translating the universe of Stars Wars into animation has done wonders for the franchise. Okay, so we won’t talk about the “Ewoks” and “Droids” series from the 1980’s here, but starting with the two Clone Wars series, it’s been proven to be a visual and storytelling delight. The first one, titled just “Clone Wars” (by famed animation director Genndy Tartakovsky), ran from 2003 to 2005, and the second one, called “The Clone Wars”, ran from 2008 to 2014 (and was brought back for a final season in 2020).

From there, we had other well regarded shows such as “Rebels” and “The Bad Batch”. “Star Wars: Visions” proved to be a popular international animation showcase, and the recent “Tales of the Jedi/Tales of the Empire” shorts were a hit. Only “Resistance” and “Young Jedi Adventures” were lacking (due to their more “childish” tone, or possibly due to the time period being covered in those series).

Meanwhile, Disney’s live action has been….mixed (or terrible). As mentioned previously, love it or hate it, “The Last Jedi” (followed by “The Rise of Skywalker”) hurt the appeal of the “Sequel” era, and yes, while the first two seasons of “The Mandalorian” proved to be a huge success, since then each subsequent live action series has proven more and more disappointing (with a few exceptions – the “Andor” series has proven to be critically acclaimed, though not a ratings phenomenon).

Which brings us back to the current state of Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars, and how best to “right the ship”, going forward. The answer: Bring back Luke Skywalker! The character’s cameo at the end of “Mandalorian” Season 2, with him getting to play the hero again and seeing him at the height of his Jedi glory, it proved to be arguably the most defining moment of the Disney Plus era.

Yes, we all now know Luke’s final fate (in “The Last Jedi”): His new Jedi Order is destroyed by Kylo Ren and he goes into self exile, and passes away at the end of that film (having somewhat redeemed himself one last time). But in Star Wars continuity, there are 30 years that pass between “Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens”. The much maligned (and controversial) event of Luke attacking Ben in his sleep, this occurs 6 years before “The Force Awakens”. From there, if you just arbitrarily say Luke started training Ben 4 years before that, that’s 10 years before “The Force Awakens”. That gives you 20 years of time from “Return of the Jedi” to the era where you need to start tying plotlines into the sequels.

The thing is, Mark Hamill is no longer the best choice to reprise the role in live action (going by the age difference between real life and the fictional character). Not a statement on his health, it’s just that he no longer looks like how Luke Skywalker would’ve looked 5 to 10 years after “Return of the Jedi”. While he reprised the role in the episode of “The Mandalorian” (courtesy of digital de-aging), another actor took up the role in Luke’s appearance in “The Book of Boba Fett”.

All of which points to animation being the answer for “how to bring back Luke” – and the rest of the cast of the original trilogy as well, though the show’s creators might be best off to largely just focus on Luke, as bringing back Han and Leia brings up them having a one kid (Ben, not the trio of kids from the “Expanded Universe” novels of the 90’s, which goes back to splitting the fandom). I think a focus on Luke exploring the Outer Rim or the Unknown Regions (with Han and Leia and the rest staying around to deal with issues in the Galactic Core and the start of the New Republic) would be compelling. What Star Wars needs is a break from the New Republic, the Empire, the First Order, Palpatine, Darth Maul’s “Crimson Dawn”, all of it. Going to the “Unknown Regions” would solve that problem.

We’re in the midst of an Animation Renaissance in the 2020’s, so Disney Star Wars should embrace that and go “all in” on making a sophisticated animated series. It shouldn’t be something “too adult” (no one wants “Invincible”/”Blue Eye Samurai” levels of violence from Star Wars), but it should avoid the pitfalls of the early “Star Wars: Rebels” animated series. A tone similar to the final season of “Clone Wars” (which was created and released on Disney Plus in 2020) would be welcome.

So far the only appearance of Luke in animation is the brief “Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventure” Youtube shorts (which were released from 2018 to 2020), which were simple “retellings” of the original films for a younger audience. The animation was still beautiful, but there’s still so much more they could do with Luke (imagine an art style similar to “My Adventures With Superman”, or “Arcane”).

As said above, Star Wars is at a crossroads. There are 3 Star Wars movies in pre-production right now: A “Mandalorian” movie (basically a continuation of the show), a “Rey” movie (a continuation of the Sequel trilogy) and a movie set thousands of years ago (a “Dawn of the Jedi” movie) – and some of these movies are already in question as to whether they’ll be completed.  For Disney Plus, the only confirmation we have is an upcoming live action show called “Skeleton Crew” (which is “Goonies in Space”), and Season 2 of “Andor” and a Season 2 of “Ahsoka”. Other than that, upcoming Star Wars is quickly becoming a blank slate. Every other movie or show that’s been previously announced has been cancelled. It’s time for something new.

A new Luke Skywalker series in animation would be a way to heal the fandom and a way for Disney to start receiving praise again.

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