Why I Would Reboot the Entire Star Wars Skywalker Saga, All Nine Episodes, With One Plan

I'm about to pitch something that could get me banned from Thanksgiving dinner at every Star Wars fan's house: reboot the entire Skywalker saga, all nine episodes, one through nine. There, I said it. Before you throw your phone, hear me out. If this franchise keeps coming back to the same family, why not tell the whole story with an actual destination this time?

To be clear, this is my own ridiculous left field idea. There's no leak, no announcement and no secret Disney meeting. It's just me voluntarily stepping on a lightsaber. And the hardest part isn't fixing the movies people argue about. It's deciding what you do with the ones people love.

The rule for a Skywalker saga reboot: know the ending before filming the beginning

I love Star Wars, and that's why it drives me crazy. Looking at these nine movies together, I see incredible characters, massive moments, and ideas that don't always connect cleanly, especially in the sequels. Sometimes it felt like the next movie was arguing with the previous movie while the audience paid admission to try to supervise.

So here's the rule: "We know the ending before we film the beginning." Different directors can bring their own style, but the character arcs, the rules of the Force and the consequences are all agreed on. We're making nine chapters of one story, and that story is about a family trying to break a cycle of fear, control and violence. Because if we're not leaving the Skywalker saga, which it looks like we apparently never will, hear me out.

The Phantom Menace would start Anakin a little older

For Episode 1, I would start Anakin a little older. Still young, still vulnerable, but old enough to build a real friendship with Obi-Wan and a believable connection with Padme that can grow over several movies. Keep Qui-Gon. Keep Darth Maul. Keep the pod race. We're not bulldozing everything just because we found the keys to the franchise.

But make the stakes easier to feel. Show people suffering under the blockade before asking me to care about the political machinery behind it. Anakin helps because he's compassionate, even when helping costs him something. Leaving his mother should hang over the entire movie. And the seed of Vader isn't that this kid is secretly evil. It's that he can't stand being powerless when somebody he loves is hurting.

Attack of the Clones has to earn Anakin and Padme's romance

Episode 2 is where we earn those relationships. Give Anakin and Padme shared experiences, disagreements and actual reasons to fall in love. "I need more than two attractive people standing near a fireplace with a dialogue that honestly follows a restraining order against chemistry," and it really just feels weird.

Give us more of Anakin and Obi-Wan being brothers, fighting together, saving each other and enjoying each other's company. The tragedy works harder when we've seen the friendship we're about to lose. Meanwhile, Palpatine becomes a person who listens when Anakin feels dismissed. His manipulation starts with small permissions: break this rule, hide this mistake, you did what you had to do. By the time the really terrible choice arrives, Anakin has practiced justifying himself. And yes, I know we'd have to recast everybody, which is a topic for another day.

Revenge of the Sith should make every step toward Vader hurt

For Episode 3, keep the tragedy, but make every step toward it hurt. Let Anakin genuinely try to find another way to save Padme. Let his mistrust of the Jedi build through choices we understand, even if he's wrong. And give Padme an active role opposing the government Palpatine is building, with her own beliefs that she can put directly against the man Anakin is becoming.

I think Order 66 should destroy people we've spent time with. The final confrontation should feel like two brothers reaching the end of a conversation. And if Padme still dies, make the cause clear and give her meaningful choices. The trilogy ends with Anakin achieving the power he wanted and losing the people he wanted it for. You also have to fix the plot holes here, because when Leia talks about her mother, she remembers her being happy and sad, even though her mother was only alive for 30 seconds after she was born.

A recast A New Hope is the most dangerous part of this pitch

Then we get to Episode 4, and I can already hear half of you telling me to keep my hands off A New Hope. That's fair. This is the most dangerous part of the pitch because you need new actors, and whoever plays Han is immediately getting compared to Harrison Ford. That poor individual needs hazard pay before the audition even happens.

So you keep the adventure simple: Luke, Leia, Han, the droids, the rescue, the Death Star. Don't stuff it with homework. The advantage of building chronologically is that we already understand what Obi-Wan lost and what Vader became, so now we can watch Luke enter that history without knowing it. We can make Leia's leadership clear, let Han Solo earn his decision to return, and leave room for characters to be funny.

The Empire Strikes Back gets the lightest touch, but loses the kiss

Episode 5 gets the lightest touch, a feather. You keep the separation, the training, the temptation and the father reveal. I know a lot of people consider this the best Star Wars movie ever. Watching chronologically, we already know Vader's identity, so the suspense is watching Luke discover it himself and wondering whether Vader could turn his son into what he became.

I think I would strengthen Leia's own connection to the Force some more. Maybe we see the sibling relationship without romantic misdirection. We don't need the kiss, and I think we could probably retire that particular family union. But Luke still loses. He's brave, he's impatient and he's unprepared. I think the middle chapter needs to leave scars the next chapter can actually remember.

Return of the Jedi's victory has to stick, and Palpatine stays dead

In Episode 6, make Leia's role in defeating the Empire as consequential as Luke's role in saving his father. Keep that central victory. Vader chooses his son over his master. Palpatine dies. He dies. He dies. The Empire loses. Anakin's sacrifice matters, and we don't have to put a resurrection coupon into the Emperor's pocket.

Here's the biggest change: the sequels cannot start by making that victory feel pointless. Winning a war doesn't solve every problem, but it should change the galaxy. Otherwise, why did we spend three movies trying to win?

Episode 7 would let Finn's stormtrooper background drive the story

Now we get into the fun stuff. In Episode 7, the Republic exists. Luke has built a functioning Jedi school, and Leia is trying to hold a complicated peace together. The next threat grows out of what they failed to repair: neglected worlds, resentment, surviving Imperial networks. Show why people follow it, and give the conflict its own identity instead of immediately handing everybody their old uniforms.

Rey is still a scavenger with no famous parents. Finn is a stormtrooper who escapes. That's okay, but Finn's background drives this story. He knows how these soldiers are recruited, conditioned and controlled, and he wants to get others out. Then Ben Solo falls because he becomes convinced his family is too cautious to fix anything, and he wants power to impose peace. That all works. And you really, really have to give Finn the right arc here.

Episode 8 challenges Luke without turning his life's work into a smoking hole

Episode 8 is going to challenge Luke without making his entire life's work a smoking hole, and he's not going to be a sulking brat either. He still has some students, and they remain loyal. Others go and follow Ben. We get to see that rift, that split, and not just in a flashback. Luke has to confront mistakes in his teaching and the temptation to control somebody because he fears what they might become. His history with Vader should make that conflict fascinating. But he's not hiding on an island drinking blue milk.

Rey is training. She fails, she improves and she finds her own approach. She doesn't automatically have all these crazy Force powers within five minutes. Then there's Finn, who is starting to reach soldiers who also want out. Finn could be building a sort of rebellion within the rebellion. Leia is facing the cost of fighting her son, and Kylo takes control of the enemy himself. No emergency bigger villain arrives to collect the promotion. He made the choices, and that carries his story.

Episode 9 brings three generations together, and I think Ben Solo survives

The final episode brings all three generations together. The final battle includes Finn helping soldiers turn against the system, so you have stormtroopers fighting with the rebellion. You've got Leia's alliances and Luke surviving with his students. All of that matters, and Rey's choices really matter. The galaxy wins because they all act together, not because the movie discovers a new superpower with 12 minutes remaining, or a Sith dagger that, held the right way, takes us to Exegol with a thousand Star Destroyers and Palpatine back. We don't have to do any of that.

Then Ben rejects Vader's legacy of control. But I don't think redemption automatically kills him. I think he survives, faces the consequences and starts repairing what he helped destroy. That would give us something different: "A Skywalker who has to live with the work of changing." Rey builds a Jedi Order again, one that allows connection without treating love itself as the danger, which they did. The family story ends with the next generation learning what the previous generations didn't. And if you're going to do Episodes 10, 11 and 12 within the Skywalker saga, not all the Skywalkers are dead.

Why I'd still rather pitch a planned reboot than another reset

Would this upset people? Absolutely. You're recasting beloved, untouchable, sacred characters. You're touching beloved movies, and you're asking audiences to start over. Planning nine films also doesn't magically guarantee nine good films. I get that. You need good writing, good performances, good actors, and you really just need the nerve to adjust when something isn't working.

But as a crazy thought experiment, I'd rather pitch that than another story where the galaxy resets and somebody finds Grandpa's spare Death Star again for the third time. Would you watch a full Skywalker reboot with one coherent plan? Yes, you would. I don't care if you'd like it or not, and I don't care if you're mad at me for even talking about it. You would go to the movies and watch it just out of pure interest.

Are Episodes 4, 5 and 6 untouchable, and which of these changes would you actually want to see?