At 2025 we arrived in a special anniversary year. Because before a decade we experienced the start of the wave of legacyquels that continued to this day. Terminator: Genisys, Jurassic World and Creed brought popular film series back then after a long break with a mixture of new and old stars. Probably the most well -known title in this list: Star Wars: the awakening of power.
In December 2025, the war of the stars returned to the screen and again proved to be a dominant franchise when it came to epic science fantasy in the cinema. Ten months earlier, one of the Major studio of the dream factory dared to compete with an original story and new characters: Warner Bros. with Jupiter Ascending.
Jupiter Ascending was not Hollywood’s first attempt to create the next Star Wars
Basically, Hollywood has tried to position competitive projects since the resolved success of George Lucas’ Star War in the late 1970s. The Flash Gordon film was about one direct reaction to Star Wars. Even James Bond ventured into space with Moonraker. However, hardly any of the alternatives that were launched in the following decades.
The glimmer of hope: Jupiter Ascending. With Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski Warner Bros. Two of the most visionary filmmakers of our time. Previously, the two matrix had brought to the cinema and even before an adaptation of the over six (!) Time level, Cloud Atlas said they were not frightened. If someone can create a new Star Wars, then the Wachowskis.
And indeed: Jupiter Ascending is the only blockbuster in recent years With your own idea Come around the corner and at the same time picks up typical Star Wars elements-including the reference to pulp stories that are catapulted into the spheres of a Space Opera. Last but not least, it is about a space princess (Mila Kunis), which is saved by an unexpected hero (Channing Tatum).
The Wachowskis imagined Jupiter Ascending as well as Star Wars as a big Space Opera
So the premise sounds the premise: In 127 minutes, a gripping sci-fi epic will unfold in front of our eyes that cannot expect to leave the barriers of the earthly San Francisco behind in order to allow the most removable angles of the universe Explore, while an eerie villain (Eddie Redmayne) wants to pull power over these endless expanses.
Jupiter Ascending is an adventure film, a love story and an action cracker Looking for gigantic picturesthat present this Space Opera in excessive colors and details. A space fairy tale in which you can fall head over your head and in which you can sink completely. In the end, however, a film that was denied a long life in the annals of pop culture.
The production of the Star Wars alternative is said to have devoured up to $ 210 million. With a global pick-up result of $ 184 million, the financial flop is obvious. In large parts of the criticism, Jupiter Ascending failed and the audience did not want to be grasped by the new star war. This failed franchise starter did not even make it to the cult film.
A new Star Wars could never establish itself, so that a radical counter -design took over the cinema
Ten years later, it is all the more clear what a unique Jupiter Ascending in the Blockbuster landscape of the 21st century. Hollywood has never dared to go to a Star Wars 2.0 in such a large style. One of the few exceptions comes from international space: the independent co -production Valerian from 2017. But it was also a massive flop, as was Disney’s John Carter from 2012.
In theory, Guardians of the Galaxy could be listed as a successful example with his two sequels. Due to the anchoring in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Lord and Co. are always in the barriers of another world. The ambition never existed here, one of them Comprehensive WorldBuilding to operate as it happens in the distant galaxy.
The only sci-fi series that Star Wars in the cinema is currently seriously competing is Dune, which is quite ironic, since David Lynch’s Dune film adaptation from the 1980s did not do that. However, we are more likely to talk about a radical counter -draft that ambushes the dreamy space fairy tale about the struggle of good and evil undercooling intrigue game surprised.
The new Dune films mark one of the most interesting success stories in the younger blockbuster cinema. However, they are not a new Star Wars, as it was full of enthusiasm in Jupiter Ascending. Rather, Dunes Triumph asks whether the Star Wars era initiated in 2015 is not over again and the audience longs for a different kind of space saga.