Ultimately it ' s the tone rather than the elements at play that I think make them different . You need some basic starting point for the fans to flock to , the Death Star plans being stollen , Han Solo ' s backstory , ect . for them to get excited about it . Where you make things unique is in the tone of the film . You change it so that the tone isn ' t space opera focused on the Skywalker family . This first one , yes Vader is in it but he isn ' t the focal point . The next one there won ' t be a Skywalker in it . I hope after the second one we can get away from the OT elements , ancient Jedi if it is done in a different tone than space opera would be cool . Heck if they find someway to make a buddy cop film about a Jedi I am sure I would watch it . As long as the tone is different I think we can deal with these spinoffs .