ROTJ was basically Lucas attempting to comment on America in Vietnam, and the prequels on his overall dissatisfaction with congress.
Star Wars has been a political vehicle since the beginning.
indeed.
Star Wars itself grew out of Lucas being the director of
Apocalypse Now (with Coppola producing). the Ewoks of 1981's
ROTJ were more or less a repackaged version of the Wookie planet idea he had in one of the early drafts, where the Jedis fought alongside Wookies. this ideas wouldn't see the light of day until 2005's
ROTS.
however there is a big difference between that and what is going on now. George Lucas's generation knew people that fought and died in these wars. George Lucas was even drafted to go to Vietnam, though his diabetes gave him a medical excuse. there were draft lotteries until 1973, when the first drafts of SW were finished. so the war was a very personal thing for a lot of young Americans. this is why it shows up so much in art of the era.
does JJ or Rian Johnson or Gareth Edwards, or even Taika Waititi, do any of those people know soldiers, do they know people fighting in wars now? i suspect not. they are largely liberal Hollywood people that went to art school. to them the war is some distant thing we can blame on Republicans. or capitalists. this is why their movies don't say anything about war aside from some gender virtue signalling (the Holdo suplot being fam fisted male feminist bs) and empty nihilism like "selling weapons to both sides" and "the good guys and bad guys are more or less the same". modern SW doesn't have anything coherent to say.
maybe Taika will do a good job here, he can certainly make an entertaining thing. however nothing he has done has reached above that for me. it'll be interesting to see what he comes up with.
