If you’ve ever wondered what happens after The Rise of Skywalker, you’re not alone. Six long years after the movie put a cap on the sequel trilogy, we’re still waiting for any sort of follow-up to the adventures of Rey, Finn, Poe, and the rest of the gang. We may finally get some resolution in 2027 with Starfighter, the first Star Wars movie set after Episode IX, but in the meantime, a new book promises to continue the story of two overlooked characters.
Kwame Mbalia made his debut as a Star Wars author in 2023 with a short story featuring Bib Fortuna in A Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi. Now, Mbalia returns, this time focusing on Finn and Jannah in Star Wars: The Last Order, a young-adult novel marketed as continuing their stories right after The Rise of Skywalker. Unfortunately, that’s only partially true.
It’s been 10 years since The Force Awakens and the character of Finn, played to perfection by John Boyega, arrived on the scene. I enjoyed Finn as a character from the get-go, but found myself growing more and more frustrated as the character’s story seemed to fall away by the time we got to the last entry in the sequel trilogy. So a story focused on Finn, as well as Naomi Ackie’s Jannah, who, like Finn, defected from the First Order, was an instant must-read.
I was excited to finally find out what happens after the battle of Exegol. What could we glean from this book about where Star Wars is headed next? The answer, as it turns out, is the past. While the novel does indeed pick up a few days after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, with Finn and Jannah uncovering a supernatural plot to kidnap young children into a rogue army and strike back against The New Republic, it’s not long before we’re thrust into flashbacks that make up roughly 80% of the novel.
The Last Order’s marketing did acknowledge we would get a glimpse into the pasts of Finn and Jannah, but I didn’t expect it would be the only thing I would see when jumping into this book. Now, to Mbalia’s credit, these flashbacks are fascinating, and I enjoyed the deeper dive into their differing relationship with the oppressive First Order. While Finn is more naive and hopeful, willing to believe the organization that raised him simply has a few bad eggs but is ultimately a force for good, Jannah is more experienced, older, and has already witnessed horrors that would make anyone shudder. She’s less loyal to the First Order than she is loyal to her squadmates – something which puts her at loggerheads with her superiors. After all, soldiers under the First Order are supposed to be cogs in one big machine; caring about some more than others is a good way to get yourself killed.
Jannah was only a minor character in one single movie, and this gives Mbalia a lot more room to work with. The author doesn’t resolve any popular fan-theories that lingered about Jannah’s heritage — no, you won’t find out if Lando Calrissian is actually her father, but you do find out how she got her name — but I still left The Last Order with a new appreciation for her character. This is what Star Wars expanded material, like comics and novels, is for: highlighting different characters and fleshing them out in ways we’d never see in film or TV. Sure, I’d love a Jannah spin-off on Disney Plus, but will it ever happen? Doubtful.
Sadly, Finn’s chapters don’t really do much with the character the movies hadn’t already – and considering how lackluster Finn’s arc was by the time The Rise of Skywalker came around, that’s saying something. We see his early days in the FN Corps and his compassion for the people around him, which ultimately leads him to desert the First Order in The Force Awakens. But outside of a few sweet (and domestic) moments with Poe that might make the FinnPoe shippers happy, we’re only given a few measly crumbs to work with. Boyega himself hasn’t been quiet about his displeasure with how Finn’s story turned out, and The Last Order doesn’t do much to counteract those very valid complaints.
It’s not just Finn. The Last Order doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t know before. Yes, the First Order kidnaps children. Yes, the First Order are human supremacists. Yes, they’re a powerful force that sweeps across the galaxy, and nobody trusts them. The only real difference is that the First Order, much like the Clone Army in the prequels era, mostly relied on secrecy to get its foot in the door and cause havoc long before the New Republic could do much about it. This is touched on briefly, with The Last Order showing that superiors within this regime will often go out of their way to backstab others in their bid for power. But again, this isn’t anything we’ve not seen before.
Despite The Last Order taking place after The Rise of Skywalker, we don’t get to see where Finn (or Jannah) goes next. One of my biggest criticisms about the sequel trilogy in general is how so many of its main players, including Finn, Poe Dameron and arguably even Rey herself, were pushed to the side so the franchise could wax nostalgia about legacy characters. In a trilogy that was supposed to be about the future of Star Wars, Lucasfilm’s refusal to let go of the past and give us those new adventures only proved to be to its detriment. The same can be said for The Last Order.
It worries me that, even in expanded material, the future beyond The Rise of Skywalker, six years after its release, is still so mired in mystery. Sure, we have Shawn Levy’s 2027 Starfighter movie (set sometime after the sequel trilogy), and then Rey is allegedly getting a sequel film of her own, but after so long, I can’t help but be pessimistic.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
