For Star Wars fans, May the 4th is an annual celebration of the long-running franchise. But what does Star Wars mean to the Stereo Geeks in 2026? 

The Stereo Geeks’ Ron and Mon have loved Star Wars since the Special Edition release in 1997. Their adoration of the franchise has ebbed and flowed over the years, as more and more stories (or is it ‘content’?) has been released.

But it’s 2026. The messages of Star Wars – hope, rebellion, freedom – hit differently than in times of relative peace. The world has been on fire for years. War is streamable entertainment. Fascism has returned. Politicians are boldly corrupt. What do the films and TV shows that make up the vast Star Wars universe stand for now?

The first film, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope was released as just Star Wars in 1977. It was an international success and launched a passionate fandom, rivaled in Western countries only by its fellow space adventure story, Star Trek.

By 1983, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi seemingly heralded the completion of the trilogy and the story. The original trilogy got a new lease on life with a Special Edition release in 1997, that included upgraded visual effects and new scenes. This was our, the Stereo Geeks’, introduction to the universe and they’ve never looked back.

Then came the prequels in 1999, with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. This was ‘the trilogy’ made for millennials. Watching the trilogy in India, the Stereo Geeks were relatively safe from the discourse. They were well and truly in love with Star Wars.

For all intents and purposes, the divisive prequel trilogy was the final end of the Star Wars films. But, behold! The sequels appeared many rotations later.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens landed in cinemas in 2015, the start of a new trilogy. The Stereo Geeks unabashedly wept as the theme played on the big screen. We never thought we’d see Star Wars on the big screen again. Our love had never waned. But with Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron’s appearance, we were head over heels.

Unfortunately for the sequels, by the 2000s, the Star Wars fandom had become vocally sexist, misogynistic, and racist. And thanks to the internet and social media, these bigots could air their hatred to the largest possible audiences with little effort. The films did well at the box office but were uneven and received way too much bigoted hate. Having moved into the digital world, we were no longer free from the fandom discourse. Our feelings for the films were constantly tainted by others’ opinions.

Lucasfilm and Disney powered on with standalone films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2016, which we adored, and Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018, which left us cold (but not because of Alden Ehrenreich). In 2019, the extremely divisive Star Wars: Episode XI - The Rise of Skywalker appeared to be the final big screen outing for the franchise.

Until 2026! Star Wars will be back on the big screen with The Mandalorian and Grogu, following three seasons of The Mandalorian Disney+ show. There are more standalone, or possible trilogies, in the works for the big screen now.

While the big screen may have taken a break from Star Wars, the small screen has proliferated. Animated shows like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels expanded the prequel timeline, while Star Wars Resistance expanded the sequel trilogy timeline, These shows gave fans a grounded view of life under the Empire. They also gave us arguably one of the most beloved characters in the franchise: Ahsoka Tano, now the star of her own live-action show.

The aforementioned The Mandalorian was the first live-action series and turned out to be the first of many others. The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Ahsoka brought back well-known characters. The innovative but cruelly short-lived The Acolyte was set far in the past, whereas the entertaining Skeleton Crew followed children living in the New Republic.

In other words, there’s been a lot of Star Wars happening in the world. But what does it mean to us? Is it escapism? A lens on the real world?

The Stereo Geeks may have loved Star Wars for the majority of their lives but Ron and Mon have differing views on what the franchise makes them feel now. Read on to find out what they feel about the vast universe on May the 4th 2026.

We’ve been rewatching some of the Star Wars TV shows in preparation for a May the 4th quiz. I’m surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed them. But it does feel like I’m watching new shows. Were we not paying attention the first time around? So much of The Mandalorian, specifically, seemed brand new.

The Acolyte is still my favourite. There’s one particular aspect of Star Wars that continues to captivate me – lightsaber duels. I. Love. Lightsabers. The Acolyte reignited that love but it’s always been there. As I mentioned in my review for Maul: Shadow Lord, I completely understand wanting to see non-Jedi and non-powered people in the Star Wars universe, but the beauty of a lightsaber shining through the dark, clashing against another, the sounds they make, I can’t not keep falling in love. It’s why I can’t stop thinking about The Acolyte; and why I enjoyed Obi-Wan’s and Ahsoka’s shows. 

We can’t ignore the nostalgia aspect of the shows, especially with Boba Fett and Obi-Wan, both of which I’ve liked more than I expected. But the lightsaber duels, the expansive lore, the story structure, and all those unique characters of The Acolyte still hold a special place in my heart. I will never not be angry that the show was cancelled after one season. Justice for The Acolyte!

And that’s exactly the kind of thing that tempers my enjoyment of Star Wars. All these characters that I’ve immediately fallen in love with are hampered by behind-the-scenes politics, and bigotry. The Acolyte would have lasted several seasons if it was full of straight white male characters. I’m pretty sure The Mandalorian only works because the ‘fandom’ don’t see Pedro Pascal much. And it’s still written and often directed by white men. Though Bryce Dallas Howard’s episodes are always the standout. Funny how she doesn’t get a film to direct.

Andor, a show we should have loved because of how much Rogue One affected us, became the white guy show. It was all about Stellan Skarsgard’s Luthen Rael, and our Latin-American hero got left by the wayside. The narrative was also extremely white gaze-y. We grew up in  post-colonial India, and watching Andor felt like a white man’s poor imitation of history.

I still love Star Wars, and it’s been great disappearing into the shows as we prepare for May the 4th trivia. But it doesn’t feel like escapism because so much hatred from a tiny group of bigots colours my enjoyment of the franchise. John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran have spoken often about it. Ahmed Best contemplated suicide because of it.

Look, Star Wars is innovative and creative; it expanded my imagination when I first watched it and continues to do so. Beyond the varied spaceships and the creative creatures, seeing a lightsaber always reminds me why I’ve loved this universe for the majority of my life. But the imagination and the glorious lightsabers can’t obfuscate my struggles with the discourse that surround the series. How can we escape into Star Wars when we know how the people in the series were made to feel?

It’s been a really interesting experience watching all these live-action Star Wars shows ahead of the May the Fourth trivia we’re attending. We’re, essentially, watching the shows in a vacuum, unlike when they were originally released. 

I felt almost discombobulated watching them. In a good way, though. I was disengaged from the usual unending, mostly bigoted, and often media-illiterate discourse about what all is wrong with said property. While rewatching these shows, I didn’t question my love for a galaxy far, far away. 

In fact, I ended up enjoying the shows a lot more. I loved being with all these characters and going on these journeys with them. I was amazed at the nuanced performances, the stunt work, the choreography and fighting skills, the stories, the themes, the messages, and the dynamics of these characters. 

And, I was surprisingly moved and emotional at different points during most of the shows. 

I know that nostalgia plays a huge role in this. I always get emotional when Order 66 scenes show up. The loss, the betrayal. The scenes at the start of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the scenes with Ahmed Best’s Kelleran Beq in The Mandalorian are not just a reminder of a fictional tragedy, but a reminder that there are real tragedies that we should also hold people accountable for. 

And yet, I can’t help but tear up every time Anakin is back on screen, because his story through the films, and especially through The Clones Wars show, turned him from a uni-dimensional monster into a lost soul, who was manipulated and suffered till he found redemption. It’s less about Ani though, and more about hope and redemption, and most importantly, about validating the love that so many characters (and fans) had for him. 

Yeah, Disney and Star Wars are playing into that fan-service. But, rewatching these shows, it didn’t feel like the fan-service was at the cost of good, complex stories, and interesting, complicated characters. 

Rewatching most of the live-action shows these past few weeks (bar The Acolyte that I have rewatched before and didn’t have the chance to squeeze in, and Andor, because I didn’t want to) has almost given my love for Star Wars a bigger boost. I can see the cracks in the kyber, but I can see past it to the beauty within. 

The worst things about Star Wars are everything surrounding it. It’s the louts that can’t accept that Star Wars isn’t, and never has been, about straight, white men fighting one sole baddie. It’s a galaxy made up of heroes, villains, and everything in between who look and sound like the diversity of real people. They may not always have got the leading roles, but they were there. You just needed to see them from a certain point of view. 

Over the years, those heroes and villains have walked out of the shadows in live-action fare, so we got amazing inclusive and representative characters like those in The Acolyte, Ahsoka, The Mandalorian (especially Season 3), The Book of Boba Fett, and Skeleton Crew. These strides are celebrations.

So, this May the Fourth, I feel a sense of optimism about the franchise that changed our lives. It won’t last, of course. I know that Disney is going backwards on all things representation. The Mandalorian and Grogu and the next season of Ahsoka might be the last few times we get to see people of colour and women leading Star Wars. And, I don’t even want to think about how insular and myopic the stories may become. 

But dank farrik, even if it’s only for a few rotations, I’m going to love being in love with Star Wars.