The shocking announcement that Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom makes it even more obvious that Marvel is getting ready to reboot this universe after Avengers: Secret Wars. With so much attention being paid to that franchise (mostly because of our collective love for Deadpool & Wolverine), it’s easy to ignore that it is not the only Disney franchise that needs this treatment. Both Marvel and Star Wars need a reboot, but the impending MCU reboot is likely to prevent the galaxy far, far away from getting one when this franchise desperately needs it.

The Comic Secret Wars Was A Reboot

It’s important to talk about the likelihood of Marvel’s future before we discuss the need for a Star Wars reboot. Because the 2015 Secret Wars comic served as a soft reboot of the Marvel comics themselves, fans have long been speculating that the movie of the same name will reboot the MCU. Such a reboot would allow for easy integration of new characters like the X-Men while allowing Disney to recast roles like Captain America and Iron Man, which the previous actors have effectively aged out of.

Star Wars Is Left To Flounder

While I think this is a shake-up that Marvel has needed for years now, the timing of Avengers: Secret Wars (currently scheduled for release on May 7, 2027) means that Star Wars is highly unlikely to get its own reboot anytime soon.

The reason why is simple: having Disney’s two biggest properties completely rebooted around the same time would make it seem like the House of Mouse is creatively bankrupt. Honestly, that may very well be true, but since the company can’t afford to lose Disney+ subscribers en mass, it’s in their best interest to hide the fact that they are out of ideas.

The Current Universes Aren’t Exciting Fans Anymore

It’s fairly obvious why Marvel needs one (we’ve lost fan-favorite characters, there’s no organic way to introduce the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and the current universe is too messy to keep up with), but why does Star Wars need its own reboot?

For one thing, this would let Disney keep as many fan-favorite characters and stories as possible while being able to ditch whatever isn’t working. That might allow for, say, the entire Sequel Trilogy getting stricken from the canon, allowing for the return of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Leia Organa.

A Reboot Means Potential Recasts

As with Marvel, a Star Wars reboot would allow those characters to be recast, which isn’t as crazy as it sounds: right now, the only way to get new onscreen adventures with these characters is to do so through animation or dodgy CGI (oh, hi Mark Hamill).

There are practical concerns about what can be done with de-aging and CGI, and there are ethical concerns about giving this same treatment to deceased actors like Carrie Fisher. A reboot could recast these characters, and we could very easily (and finally) have new adventures with them from the Original Trilogy or early New Republic era.

Marvel Wrote The Blueprint

Finally, Marvel Comics created the blueprint for giving fans what they want (notably, Miles Morales didn’t join the proper 616 universe until the Secret Wars comic), and a Star Wars reboot could do something similar with the old Expanded Universe stories.

Disney has already caved into the love for these stories by bringing back fan-favorite characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn, but the current tangled canon meant that we couldn’t get a direct adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s excellent Thrawn Trilogy. With a reboot, that would just be one out of a galaxy of possibilities.

Star Wars Needs To Do Something

As I mentioned before, Marvel’s upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars changes to this cinematic universe are likely to keep Star Wars from getting its own reboot. That’s unfortunate, however, because the current state of both franchises (the wonderful Deadpool & Wolverine notwithstanding) makes it clear that both need to start over from scratch.

Only Marvel will get a reboot’s healing factor-style regeneration of a reboot, and Star Wars…well, it might just be making a blind hyperspace jump into complete obscurity.