Photo: Lucasfilm

“Whatever happened here, it happened a long time ago.”

Watching the main characters of Skeleton Crew traipse through the ruins of worlds left behind this week put me in mind of the remarkably effective campaign to market Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I still remember feeling chills at the wide shot of a speeder racing past the shell of an old Imperial Cruiser, as a brief glimpse of the remnants of the war depicted in the original trilogy. It was a killer image that told its own story, of a time long since past and of a generation left to pick up the pieces. I remember this so well not just because it wasn’t that long ago, but because it was the sign of an exciting new revival of the films I loved so dearly as a kid.

With it being the middle of December, I’ve seen a few folks on Bluesky noting that we’re at the five-year mark since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and at the seven-year mark since Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And so on and so on. The natural conclusion to th…