Star Wars flops, controversies and scandals: 16 moments that nearly RUINED the franchise

The hugely popular series is rightly one of the most loved brands in cinema – with eight ‘main saga’ movies, two recent anthology spin-offs and a small moon’s worth of novels, comics and TV series.

But since the first film came out 41 years ago, there have been lows as well as highs.

From the recent backlash over the events of The Last Jedi to directors being switched out behind-the-scenes, there’s never a dull moment in a galaxy far, far away.

Scroll through the 16 moments that nearly ruined the franchise below.

It’s a real mixture of creative choices, commercial choices, and scandals caused by the darker corners of the fandom.

Examples of the latter include the recent harassment of Kelly Marie Tran and the attempted boycott by some racist cinemagoers over the signing of John Boyega in a leading role.

Some of it, though, is more light-hearted: the introduction of midi-chlorians in the prequels was more of a disaster just for how confusing it made matters, while the whole issue of “Han shot first” just arguably messed up character continuity.

There’s no sign of the Star Wars machine slowing down, no matter how many setbacks it suffers.

Star Wars 9’s production will be hitting light-speed over the summer, after which two more trilogies are confirmed.

The state of other widely rumoured spin-offs – such as prequels for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett – remain unclear.

But one thing’s for certain: for the foreseeable future at least, despite its problems the Force is still very much with LucasFilm.

Now here’s hoping the disappointing box office results of Solo: A Star Wars Story don’t become a regular occurence…

Star Wars: Episode 9 is out on December 20, 2019.