A brand new, official follow-up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker starring Finn has just dropped, and it already seems like a classic Disney case of too little, too late.
It’s been a hot minute since Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker dropped, yet Disney is still pumping out new content for the critically panned third entry in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Baffling, really. I’ve not met a single person who has anything nice to say about the final film in the sequel trilogy, but Disney is obsessed with following on from it instead of just retconning it entirely.
Well, it seems that they’re attempting to fix one of its most glaring issues far too late in the game, because the latest Star Wars novel, titled The Last Order, just dropped, and it’s focusing on Finn’s story, pre- and post-The Rise of Skywalker. Finn was arguably one of the most interesting characters in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, yet he was relegated to a mere side character by the time the plot of the third sequel film kicked off.
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Understandably, fans weren’t too happy about him being benched for the entire final act of the trilogy.
That’s probably why author Kwame Mbalia decided to take it upon themselves to focus on the parts of Finn’s journey that were left out of The Rise of Skywalker, but don’t go into the book expecting too much.
As fans online have noted, a mere six of the total 38 chapters in The Last Order focus on Finn’s journey, post-TROS. The rest of the story seems to be more concerned with Finn’s life before the sequel trilogy, when he was still a stormtrooper.
Admittedly, that does sound kind of interesting, but I can’t help but feel that a story that focuses entirely on Finn’s post-sequel trilogy antics would do a lot more to flesh out his character.
Plus, there would be a higher chance of seeing that adapted in live-action in some way.
Instead, The Last Order sounds a bit more like a band-aid.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea for the book spawned entirely from fan complaints about Finn’s lack of importance in the final film of the sequel trilogy, but I highly doubt that those folks are going to be too thrilled with a book that doesn’t do more to flesh out his story in the current Star Wars timeline.