What Star Wars learned from its prequel problem

Rogue One, hitting theaters next week, is an experiment on the part of Lucasfilm to see if the Star Wars franchise can survive without having a Skywalker starring in a central role. Described as standalone films, they have the potential to tell different types of stories than the backbone films of the saga. But both Rogue One and the as-of-yet-untitled Han Solo film could also run into familiar problem: they’re prequels. And when it comes to prequels, Star Wars has history.
When George Luc