Following the lackluster box office of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the divisiveness of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the franchise has been left reeling from a fan backlash, and perhaps worse, apathy.
So Star Wars: Episode IX has to unite a fractured fanbase and get people excited about Star Wars again.
Opinions will vary, but it should be obvious that the franchise doesn’t look quite like the unstoppable juggernaut it once did.
What such a course correction could entail is worthy of speculation, but in order to theorize about how to get Star Wars back on track, we must first operate under the assumption that it is off track.