It’s Taken 5 Years, But Star Wars Has Finally Learned How To Surprise Us All Again

Following the massive shock of Emperor Palpatine’s resurrection in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars slowed down on its major plot twists; however, it seems the franchise is back to truly surprising audiences based on its most recent announcements. Although Star Wars movies and TV shows are known for their impressive ability to retcon and their plot twists, most of Star Wars’ most surprising moments took place prior to The Rise of Skywalker. Since then, many exciting shows have been announced, but true surprises have been less frequent.

That seems to be changing with some of Star Wars’ recent announcements. In fact, Star Wars seems to be intentionally throwing audiences off the scent for new projects, which is a thrilling update for the franchise. Two of Star Wars’ upcoming movies and shows in particular suggest that a positive change is coming to Star Wars surprises.

Star Wars’ Last Surprise Was The First Rise Of Skywalker Trailer

Although it was poorly received fairly universally, the twist in The Rise of Skywalker trailer revealing an undead Emperor Palpatine to be the big bad after all was certainly a shock. In the trailer, the true meaning of the twist was vague. At the end of the first Rise of Skywalker trailer, Palpatine can simply be heard laughing in a voice-over, with no other context. At the time, it wasn’t clear what this meant.

Of course, when the movie was released, audiences were disappointed that the only explanation was “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” Even so, this was a significant surprise. Palpatine was very much presumed dead after Return of the Jedi, and the sequel trilogy seemed to instead be building toward Kylo Ren becoming the main villain of The Rise of Skywalker after he declared himself the new Supreme Leader in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Prior to that, Star Wars had enjoyed a good plot twist. The most famous was Darth Vader’s reveal that he was Luke’s father. However, other Star Wars projects before The Rise of Skywalker had included shocking turns in their story arcs as well, including Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which also saw the resurrection of Darth Maul after his presumed death in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Following the Palpatine twist, however, Star Wars was less focused on misdirections and more focused on pleasant surprises, such as the announcement of the Obi-Wan Kenobi show.

Star Wars Is Back To Surprising Us Again

Now, it seems, misdirections are very much back in Star Wars. One of the first truly shocking announcements came when Star Wars revealed that, in place of the anticipated The Mandalorian season 4, Din Djarin and Grogu’s story would instead continue in the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu movie. This news truly came as a shock, particularly given that there had already been confirmation that The Mandalorian season 4 was in the works. While the status of The Mandalorian season 4 remains unclear, The Mandalorian & Grogu felt like a true surprise.

Following very closely behind the announcement of The Mandalorian & Grogu, Star Wars revealed another shocking misdirection. Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi season 2 had long been anticipated. However, Star Wars surprised audiences by revealing that Tales of the Jedi season 2 would be replaced by Tales of the Empire, focusing not on Jedi but on dark side Force-users Barriss Offee and Morgan Elsbeth.

Both examples demonstrate Star Wars’ plan to lead audiences in one direction just to take a sudden, shocking turn and reveal something entirely different. Again, this feels quite different from an announcement of a new show; instead, Tales of the Empire and The Mandalorian & Grogu show Star Wars’ willingness to take an already-announced show and flip it on its head. Now, it seems Star Wars has truly returned to its major plot twist era, which thrillingly means anything can happen next.

Anything Can Happen In This New Era Of Star Wars

With these thrilling surprises and the return to Star Wars twists, it seems anything is possible in this next phase of Star Wars. Already, upcoming projects like Star Wars: The Acolyte and Rey’s upcoming Star Wars movie reveal changes coming to the franchise. In both cases, the stories are also wide open. The Acolyte is set 100 years prior to The Phantom Menace, in a period of the Star Wars timeline that has yet to be fully explored. Likewise, Rey’s movie is set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker, moving beyond any projects thus far.

The future of Star Wars really does seem bright, and with this return to form in terms of surprises, Star Wars is signaling that no one can really say what will happen next. Moreover, Star Wars has already made clear in the focus of their upcoming projects alone that the franchise is looking to explore and expand with brand-new characters, stories, and periods of time. Although true twists were fewer and further between following Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it seems Star Wars is (happily) back to its old tricks.

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