Star Wars: Disney May Retcon The Sequel Trilogy
Let’s talk about the crazy rumors Disney is going to undo the Sequel Trilogy.
The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy was not everyone’s cup of tea. While it has its fans, especially the first two movies, it has also grown a massive anti-fan base. This week wild rumors started circulating that Disney could take the drastic step of de-canonizing the Sequels and making the dreams of thousands of enraged internet fans come true. Today lets look at these rumors, how they say it will happen and if it’s possible.
Where They Come From
These, rather insane rumors, come from Doomcock Overlord DVD over on Youtube. The Overlord DVD channel has in the past posted leaks and rumors, both from Star Wars and other Disney movies that have proven correct. In addition in his video’s on the subject he claims to have spoken with (unnamed of course) insiders at Disney and Luscasfilms about this issue. He’s not quite a random nobody, but it is far from any official source. Since then a number of news outlets have run the story, see- here, here, here and here– though none of them quote any additional sources besides the Overlord DVD video.
The Rumors
The rumors that Overlord DVD have shared have a couple of parts. The first is that there is some kind of “civil war” going on at Lucasfilm, between a faction that seems to be headed by Kathleen Kennedy, representing “new Star Wars” and one headed by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, representing the “classic Star Wars” and the Lucas vision for the franchise. According to these rumors the Kennedy faction like, or at least are invested in keeping the Sequels around (apparently it’s her “legacy” ) while the Filoni/Favreau group dislikes the new movies and wants to get them de-canonized. According to Overlord DVD:
“I have received confirmation from two additional sources claiming that this is spot on — that indeed Lucasfilm realizes they have a massive problem on their hands, that the Star Wars franchise is all but dead, and despite Kathleen Kennedy’s hatred of this idea, Lucasfilm is preparing to render the Sequel Trilogy null and void.”
The method this would be done in ties back to the show Rebels. According to Overlord:
“In the Season 4 episode 13 installment titled ‘A World Between Worlds,’ the concept of the Veil of The Force was introduced, a mystical dimension of The Force that connects all time and space.”
This concept would effectively be used to create a new Star Wars multiverse- one with several timelines. The video further explains:
“Emperor Palpatine had a room on the second Death Star called The Room of Mirrors. The mirrors were created by The Emperor prior to the Death Star through the Dark Side using ancient Sith rituals. These mirrors linked to the Veil of The Force served many purposes. Using them, Palpatine could manipulate The Force in many ways to further his aims. For example, the use of the mirrors allowed Palpatine to cloud the Jedi Council to conceal himself and his dark apprentices from the Jedi and from Force-sensitives that followed their fall.
Using the mirrors allowed Palpatine to access the awesome powers of the Veil of The Force. They were indispensable tools that allowed him to rise to the pinnacle of ultimate power. It is this conceit that explains how Palpatine survived Darth Vader throwing him down the shaft in the throne room of the Death Star. In desperation as he fell, Palpatine opened a portal to the Veil of The Force and entered it. This explains why Palpatine is in such a damaged state in the Rise of Skywalker, as transporting himself into the Veil without the aid of the mirrors drained him and damaged him severely.”
It’s possible this room was actually the room on the Death Star II where Rey found the Sith Wayfinder, a famously relevant and impactful scene, it did have mirrors and it did show her an alternate version of herself. The idea here is that since the Veil of The Force exists outside of time someone from any time in Star Wars could go there, wait for Palpatine to leave the Death Star II and then stop him from getting to Exogol and then, as Overlord DVD puts it:
“[The Emperor] is prevented from using the mirrors to return, he dies as he was intended to [in Return of the Jedi], and ‘Bob’s your uncle’ and all our problems are solved.”
With that change, the sequels no longer happen. They become some sort of “what if” Legends event and are taken out of the “primary” timeline. They are no longer canon and “canon” Star Wars can be redone without all the things people hated in the Sequels.
Why This Won’t Happen
OK. So those are the rumors. Let’s take a breath and all agree as much as this might be a dream of some people, it’s not going to happen. First off, the theory doesn’t even really make sense. Using the Veil of The Force to kill Palpatine and prevent the events of the Sequels from taking place wouldn’t make them non-canon. It would just be a kind of crazy time travel retcon, the kind we might expect from the Terminator franchise. It would also create all kinds of paradox issues. Moreover, this doesn’t seem to even be how the Veil of the Force works, in Rebels Ezra doesn’t seem able to actually change the past. 
So the mechanics described seem questionable, but sure Lucasfilm could make something up to make it happen. They still won’t. While they did move the old Expanded Universe to the be non-canon Legends, doing that raised a ton of questions and has created a ton of issues for fans, writers, and merchandisers. Doing it again, and so quickly would only compound these issues. It would also undo basically any meaning of canon for Star Wars. The EU move was a clean-cut when the company changed hands. Doing this to the Sequels would effectively mean that any time “fans” weren’t happy with a product it could become non-canon. At that point, what even would “canon” be? It would undermine the whole idea of any sort of organized storytelling, with three post Return of the Jedi futures described.
Also, what about the rest of the new canon that’s not just the movies? Would all the new Post RoTJ novels and comics, and games be de-canonized? Would they keep some and not others? Yes Disney has been moving away from covering the Sequel Era, but they still have some books and stuff coming out, would all that be void now? What about the Mandalorian? Sure the Sequels had some backlash, but they also made a ton of money (even if it might have been less than hoped for) and it would basically be unheard of for a major movie studio to do something like this. If Lucasfilm really wanted to do something like this they’d be better off using the Veil of the Force idea to tell the other one-shot “what if” stories while keeping the core movie cannon intact.
Lastly, I don’t buy this supposed civil war within Lucasfilm. Certainly, there could be personal or creative fiction between Kennedy, Filoni, and Favreau, though I’ve not seen convincing evidence of that. Even if there is, I doubt there are really these factions of “reformers” and “old schoolers” fighting for the future of Star Wars, and none of them would do anything to jeopardize the success of The Mandalorian. This is just another poor angle to try to attack Kathleen Kennedy and make her out to be a bogeyman. No, at the end of the day I can’t see this happening. Lucasfilm will do the same thing they did with the Prequels. Ignore the fan backlash, focus on other eras, continuing providing good stories for fans to enjoy and make a ton of money.
Let us know what you think about the out there rumor, down in the comments!
