With the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ("TROS"), Disney and Lucasfilm have now concluded the disaster of a movie trilogy that began with Star Wars: The Force Awakens ("TFA") in 2015. Since then, each new installment in the trilogy, known pejoratively by fans as the "Disney trilogy", has only been worse and worse. TROS now marks an all time low for this once promising franchise as Star Wars fans leave behind the saga with broken hearts, crushed hopes, and shattered dreams. It is therefore only appropriate for Disney and Lucasfilm to collectively issue a formal, public apology for its mishandling of the Disney trilogy to restore some semblance of trust within the fandom.

From a lay perspective, TROS is an entertaining movie that ticks all the boxes for action, adventure and fan service. But when scrutinized for content, it is the most disrespectful sequel in the Star Wars saga for anyone who even remotely cares about internal consistency or movie canon. TROS makes the Jedi prophecy of the “Chosen One” pointless, Anakin’s/Vader’s sacrifice in Return of the Jedi moot, and Luke’s struggle over the course of the original trilogy empty. Never have Star Wars fans ever seen a movie that so shamelessly pandered to them, yet so completely disregarded the continuity that preceded the Disney trilogy.

TROS also makes a lot of the lore and mysticism from The Clone Wars and Rebels tv shows irrelevant. If you’re been a die hard fan from the beginning who also kept up with the other canon shows, books, and games, all of your hard work, time and expense following everything Star Wars related was NOT rewarded in this final movie to close out the saga. TROS does what it wants to do and tells you to take a hike if you don’t like it.

Finally, the creative decisions behind TROS make abundantly clear that Disney had no overarching plan for the Disney trilogy. By contrast, fans recently learned that George Lucas actually had a plan for a sequel trilogy, but Disney spat in his face by rejecting everything in those plans. The result of Disney's egregious mishandling of a successful franchise therefore resulted in the mediocre Episode IV rehash that was TFA, the subsequent dumpster fire that was The Last Jedi ("TLJ"), and JJ Abrams' last ditch effort to win back the fanbase in TROS. But TROS fails in its attempt to both retcon TLJ and cram what would easily be more than 5 hours worth of content into a 2.5 hour time span. The plot is convoluted and fans are left with many unanswered loose ends, unexplained plot points, and characters whose role was just as pointless as Captain Phasma in TFA and TLJ. JJ Abrams' comments during his apology circuit prior to the TROS premier only reinforce the notion that Disney and Lucasfilm never intended to make a great movie, but merely sought to mitigate their damages while still trying to reap a huge profit from a gullible fan service easily sold on nostalgia.

In short, the Disney trilogy isn’t the sequel trilogy fans hoped for. It is a corporate cash grab they never wanted. Disney and Lucasfilm must now do the right thing and own up to their incompetence. Apologize to the fans and restore balance to a fanbase that may never trust your corporate hands to produce anything again.