Rogue One’s greatest achievement, besides being a stellar episode 2.5, is proof that 3 decades later, a worthy Star Wars movie can still be made, and be be slightly over 2 hours.
Thanks to Gareth Edwards and the writers.
Indeed, but also remember this film was in trouble, Colin Trevorrow stepped down (or was fired, I don't know), and Gareth Edwards steps in and orders a new ending, major rewrites and a lot of reshoots. Some charachters that we were looking forward to seeing more of, lost out, such as Saw Gerrera.
I'm not complaining, because Disney and Edwards made the right decisions, and the final product was excellent. Aside from the original trilogy, this is the best Star Wars movie.
The trouble with producing new films for a beloved franchise is complex imo.
First new movies will almost always mess with people's ideals of what that franchise ought to be. There's no way to get around this, Luke's new force powers are a prime example. You cannot tell a new story without introducing new elements. You can't have new plots, new situations when you're using the same charachters, abilities and flaws as the original film. It just becomes a retread, i.e., complaints about Force Awakens.
The second issue is flamiliarty breeds contempt. What I mean by this is that for many people, Star Wars is special and part of that specialness is its rareity. We have the orginal trilogy, we then had the new prequels, and some of the cartoons that filled the storyline for the prequels. Now we're seeing annual releases, and I think that may very well dilute the brand. It stops being special because its not rare.