Disney’s Recent Star Wars TV Have Turned Its First Movie Title Into Nonsense

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney’s very first Star Wars movie, has only made less sense over time, and its title is no exception. The Star Wars sequel trilogy has received considerable criticism since it began nearly a decade ago, with some considering the trilogy among Star Wars’ worst movies. While more recent additions to Star Wars movies and TV shows have attempted to flesh the sequels out and better connect them to the larger Star Wars galaxy, at times, these additional shows have only made the flaws with the sequel movies more glaring.

Of course, this isn’t to discredit the sequels entirely; in fact, Rey’s upcoming Star Wars movie promises to be one of the most exciting among Star Wars’ upcoming movies, and it will build upon the sequels. However, aspects of the Star Wars sequel trilogy do suggest some significant oversights. The Force Awaken’s title in particular reflects a discontinuity with the rest of Star Wars that is difficult to rectify.

The Force Awakens Implies That The Force Was Dormant

The title of The Force Awakens suggests that the Force has been dormant for some period following Return of the Jedi. When The Force Awakens was released, that seemed plausible. Although numerous Star Wars Legends books had fleshed out that period, they had almost all been removed from canon when Disney bought Star Wars. In light of that, this point in the Star Wars timeline was fairly unexplored. Moreover, while Star Wars has since added several shows set during that era, including The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka, at the time, none existed.

Moreover, Luke’s absence and the lack of any other Jedi at the film’s beginning seemed to signal that the title was accurate. The Force Awakens plot centered on both the First Order and the Resistance desperately searching for Luke Skywalker, who had gone into exile, which suggested that he had cut himself off from the Force and abandoned the Jedi path. Especially given how Return of the Jedi concluded, with Luke certainly being the hope for the Jedi but also the only one left, this could have meant there were no active Jedi by the time of The Force Awakens.

Multiple Jedi Were Active During The New Republic Era

However, since the conclusion of Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy, multiple shows have proven that there were Jedi between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. In Ahsoka alone, Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, and Ezra Bridger are all shown to be active Jedi—albeit to varying degrees of skill—during the New Republic Era. While their fates are still unclear in the larger Star Wars timeline, it’s nevertheless already canon that in the years between the original and prequel trilogies, Jedi other than Luke existed.

Given when Ahsoka takes place in the Star Wars timeline, approximately 5–10 years after Return of the Jedi, it’s possible that by the time The Force Awakens begins, they have died or stopped using the Force. However, that would be a remarkably abrupt turn, suggesting that they each die or walk away from the Force within the next two decades. Of course, with Star Wars, it’s often never say never, but all signs currently point to other Jedi existing leading up to The Force Awakens.

Even Without The Jedi, The Force Was Always Present

As Star Wars has often reiterated, though, the Jedi don’t own the Force. That has only become more prevalent in recent projects, which depict others outside the Jedi wielding the Force, such as the Nightsisters of Dathomir, Star Wars’ Force-sensitive witches. Even in the sequel trilogy, a small boy on Canto Bight is shown using the Force to pull a broom toward him, showing that the Force exists all across the galaxy, not just for Star Wars’ main characters.

This proves that, whether or not any Jedi remained immediately before The Force Awakens, the Force always existed. In fact, yet another key example from the Star Wars Disney+ TV shows is Grogu, who elects to leave Luke’s Jedi Temple and abandon the path of a Jedi to be with Din Djarin in The Book of Boba Fett. Grogu is a powerful Force-user in the New Republic Era, and, despite not being a Jedi, he presumably continues to wield the Force.

The title of The Force Awakens could be a question of perspective. Perhaps from the point-of-view of the Skywalker Saga, the Resistance, or Luke Skywalker himself, the Force is finally waking back up. However, there’s little chance it’s accurate that the Force was truly asleep prior to The Force Awakens. After all, even if it was the dark side, it’s clear that at least Kylo Ren was still an active Force-user at that time. While Star Wars: The Force Awakens has a compelling title, it is sadly one that’s made less and less sense as time has gone on.

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