Maybe they could do something not about jedi and siths. Because it's a big galaxy out there.

Honestly I don't know enough about the minutiae of Star Wars to make a suggestion. Death of the Ewoks, anyone?

You mean like Rogue One and Solo?

I'd like to see them move away from the Skywalker story (and Rogue One and Solo are offshoots of the Skywalker story, make no bones about it as without the Skywalker story neither of those come into play at all).

Now form all accounts, the Jon Favreau led live action TV series is aimed to do this, and it may take up the banner of the never developed live action series George had in mind exploring the criminal underworld of the Star Wars universe, in essence being a crime story set int he Star Wars universe, which for me is an intriguing draw.

Rian Johnson's trilogy is also supposed to step away from the Skywalker saga as well and explore new territory in the star Wars universe, which is good. If it is a big universe, not everything has to be tied to the central Skywalker saga in some way. That story has been told and is pretty tight, there's not a lot of room to add stuff within that story that doesn't become redundant or lacking drama because the outcome is different. It can be done, and done well (I really liked the animated series Rebels, which does this, and Rogue One which did this and even though we knew the mission was a success there was a lot of doubt and dramatic tension as to the fate of the character sin the story, which is what is important), but you can bleed a creative well dry going to it too often.

The risk though is that there is a question as to what the audience is invested in-is it the Star Wars universe, or is it the Skywalker saga set in the Star Wars universe. A lot of people will say the former, but they really mean mean the latter even if they won't acknowledge it or even realize it on a conscious level. The Star Wars role playing games over the years have suffered from this-sales on stuff that explored the universe beyond the Skywalker saga did not reach levels of stuff that did, and a lot of folks trying to find players for Star Wars games found a resounding lack of interest in games that weren't centered on the Skywalker saga within the Star Wars universe, even among those who say I love everything Star Wars and want to explore things beyond just the central storyline of journey of Anakin and Luke's plot lines. People said they wanted that a lot, but when it came time to put their money where their mouth was, they only plunked down the cash when it was focused on the Skywalker story and its immediate milieu and cast. There is a small hardcore niche audience for the stuff beyond the Skywalker saga, but the mass audience appeal centers on that Skywalker Saga.

There's lots of room for smaller stories, but this can also be problematic, as people often associate the Star Wars label with grand sweeping epics, so the small stories work against brand expectations. The brand name often sets up unrealistic expectations among the rabid fanbase, the more casual audience and among the suits who do revenue predictions and cost benefit analysis and have to answer to balance sheets for the brand, and unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment no matter what the quality level and performance of the product actually is. That disappointment can lead to backlash against the brand, because people won't acknowledge their expectations were unrealistic, they will blame the brand for not living up to those unrealistic expectations. So there is a difference between what can be done well and what will be received well with these types of movies and finding the workable common ground between the two is the challenge.

As I said at the beginning, I would be down for well done Star Wars stories outside the envelope of the Skywalker saga, but I know well I am not the baseline Star Wars fan in holding that view even though I have been a fan of the property since I saw Star Wars in the summer of '77 as an 8 year old. You can't please everybody all of the time and when you try to do so you end up pleasing no one. They just need to follow their creative bliss and muses, and produce work they believe in, it will either find and audience or it won't but trying to please everyone int he fanbase will just result in stuff that pleases no one and likely inferior product as well as they are targeting market rather than telling a story worth telling. I am in the minority in that I have liked all of the new Star Wars stuff so far (nothing can be as bad as Lucasfilm's attempts to expand the brand with things like the Christmas Special and the Droids animated series and comics but it's Disney that is trying to milk Star Wars with bad spinoffs right?) and would rank all of it higher in my personal estimation than anything from the prequel trilogy. But that's me and others can disagree.

-M

That Darth Vader dude wasn't involved in any way whatsoever.  

He was in two scenes, and the Death Star has nothing to do with the Sith in Rogue One.

There's still plenty of material, story, and new characters to mine from the OT time of Rebellion vs Empire that can be entirely separate from Skywalker and his main Rebel band. They can't have been the only ones (or heroes) to have fought the good fight after all.

Let's face it, the Jedi (and by default the Force) is one of the most unique elements of this franchise. Considering the Order has existed for such a long time, surely there are other worthy tales to tell of other gallant (and/or flawed) Knights beyond the Skywalker legacy. You don't necessarily have to draw any Sith into such tales but the underlying dramatic themes able to be played out under being a Jedi (from so many different circumstances) is still rich.

Feloni started this in his cartoon shows but I find the examination of the more mystical/religious side of the Force to be highly interesting. Donnie Yen's character from Rogue One is a great example of this, the common person's view of and relationship with the Force. A standalone film/story with this as a possible focus would be interesting.