Shed the past

If Disney want to shed the past and move on, there's 2 obvious choices here:

1. Scrap Star Wars films altogether and create something new.

2. If they're adamant about doing Star Wars universe films, they could make films that don't feature any familiar characters: no Han Solo, no Chewbacca, no Yoda, no R2, no Millennium Falcon.

Disney are currently considering a trilogy that isn't about the known characters...

JJ Abrams

JJ Abrams also tried this 'throw out the past' approach when it came to Star Trek movies, all the while using nostaglia (Kirk, Spock etc) to hook the audience's interest.

Isn't this a little contradictory?

Reject the past?

Another Last Jedi critique is this... a common mofit throughout the film was the rejection of the past/nostalgia/sentiment in favour of the new. Kylo Ren argues this, so does Luke and even Yoda...

It sounds fine until you consider the fact that you're watching Star Wars episode 8. There are 7 preceding movies and movie 7 was a nostalgic kitsch-fest c/o JJ Abrams.

Even Last Jedi can't make the claim of scrapping the past with any conviction because the movie relies heavily upon known/over-used characters/themes.

Last Jedi criticism:

"The central theme of The Last Jedi isn’t good versus evil. It’s not figuring out how to be good. It’s not even about flirting with temptation (as Empire arguably was).

It is a movie about knowing what’s right and doing that, even though everything else in the universe is stacked against you. It is a movie about why you might start a rebellion against a fascistic order, rather than simply going along with the status quo. Part of the movie is about how the worst people in the universe aren’t even the First Order, but the rich profiteers who are happy to go along with whoever’s in power, so long as they keep making a few bucks.

The theme of The Last Jedi, then, is about being tested, about having everything you value thrown into question and figuring out for yourself the right thing to do. You can’t make the world perfectly safe for your metaphorical children. You will fail them, and they will fail you.

But sometimes they fall into simpering self-pity (as Kylo Ren does), and sometimes they rise above what even you expected of them (as Rey does). It is easy to be a good guy in other Star Wars movies, because the lines between good and evil are clearly drawn. They aren’t in The Last Jedi, and that makes the moments when good and hope triumph all the more powerful."

Last Jedi criticism:

"Even the movie’s attempts to critique the Han Solo archetype Poe Dameron fell flat on its face. While he is chastised early on for having a dumb plan that gets a few people killed, he later initiates an even dumber plan that leads to all but 10 members of the Resistance getting killed and nobody seems to care."

The Last Jedi

We saw The Last Jedi finally and it was OK. Better than The Farce Awakens but hardly The Empire Strikes Back. This film critic neatly captured the experience:

"The Last Jedi is more or less a metaphorical depiction of the baby boomer generation (a generation that featured a lot of white dudes — good and bad — in positions of power) handing off leadership roles to younger generations, particularly millennials, who tend to be more racially diverse and to advocate having more women in positions of power. The series’ millennial good guys are a young white woman, a black man, a woman of Asian descent, and a Latino man, while its millennial bad guys are two white dudes."

Tinkerbell statue by Sideshow Collectibles

DC Collectibles Aquaman and Mera