December 12, 2016 at 02:36AM December 12, 2016 at 02:36AM

What Star Wars learned from its prequel problem Rogue One, hitting theaters next week, is an experiment on the part of Lucasfilm to see if the Star Wars franchise can survive without having a Skywalker starring in a central role. Described as standalone films, they have the potential to tell different types of stories than the backbone films of the saga. But both Rogue One and the as-of-yet-untitled Han Solo film could also run into familiar problem: they’re prequels. And when it comes to prequels, Star Wars has history. When George Lucas announced that he would be returning to the Star Wars universe with 1999’s Episode I: The Phantom Menace, fans were ecstatic to finally learn how the galaxy got to the the first Star Wars film, 1977’s A New Hope. While The Phantom Menace was highly... Continue reading…