Saying Goodbye to Game of Thrones, The Avengers, and Star Wars in 2019

It was in 1899 when German poet Ludwig Jacobowski scribbled, “Do not cry because [things] are past! Smile because they once were.” It’s safe to say that Jacobowski never knew a 21st century entertainment executive or the vigilant fanbases they must placate. After all, we are living in an era where even the concept of sequels and trilogies has been supplanted in mass media pop culture by the prospect of “shared universes.” In modern geek culture, the best ending to a story is none at all. Nonetheless, all good things, no matter how beloved or lucrative, must end. And 2019 is nothing if not stuffed with highly anticipated endings to many of fandom’s darlings, all of which have dominated the pop culture landscape for the past decade or more.

In 2019, we will be saying goodbye in some form to Star Wars as we know it, for the “Skywalker Saga” is reaching its final bookend (again), concluding an epic yarn that started in 1977. All told, 2019 stands as a literal pivot between one decade to the next, and likely one vision of pop culture to something that could be incredibly different going forward.

It’s a curious thing when most of the franchises that dominated geekdom and the larger entertainment industry beyond must go away. Game of Thrones, for one, has enjoyed a nine-year meteoric rise that very well could signal the last of traditional water cooler television. Beginning in the early spring of 2011, Game of Thrones was launched as a gamble by Peter Dinklage picked up his first of three Emmys just five months after the series’ 2011 debut.

Today, it has seen its viewership steadily rise year by year, even after it became cable cord cutters, the idea of 30-plus million people waiting week to week for Game of Thrones’ last six episodes seems antiquated in 2019.

The series has lasted so long, it has survived to an entire different era where fans binge, and backlash builds online the longer you survive. As the series rockets toward its conclusion, a seemingly limitless universe that appeals to geek culture’s ion for deeply realized worlds or “universes” has suddenly revealed the contours of its ultimate narrative. While assumed major protagonists turned out to be collateral damage in early and mid-seasons, the actual protagonists of the series have proven more blessed with the ability to survive to the bloody end. Even before the final season begins, the think-pieces and video essays are already deconstructing why fans are “falling out of love with Game of Thrones.” They’re arguing why, in the face of an ending, there can be nothing short of disappointment.

It is a trend that extends beyond television or even this decade, which is why 2019 is so intriguing for fan communities. Traditionally, fandom hates endings to their stories. After Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, Sophie Turner already prepared some fans for the fact the final season won’t satisfy everyone.

read more: Game of Thrones Season 8 Predictions and Theories

This is because fan culture has increasingly, most especially in this decade, become built around the thrill of anticipation. The commercial brilliance of the Marvel Studios method is that each film acts as an ment for the next two or three movies, often with glorified ads as post-credit “scenes” that may have nothing to do with the film audiences just watched, but immediately set audiences’ attention to begin speculating on the next shiny possibility. This effect is only magnified among fan communities. Some of the most contentious endings to popular stories, like Batman choose to retire.

We may have a preview of the pitfalls of 2019’s endings with the reception of Rian Johnson, made the bold choice of beginning to close off those threads early in the second chapter, as well as offer endings to Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker. He killed a character whose adventures never concluded in the decades of fan fiction since Return of the Jedi. Despite that Star Wars movie offering Luke a touching sendoff (that was hinted at given he went into hiding before The Force Awakens), Johnson still had the audacity to kill him. Luke may have stayed true to his Jedi teachings by protecting life without taking any, and did what fans seemed to want which was face down the whole First Order with a laser sword, but in doing so, he also finished his journey. And fandom’s division on this destination appears to be less the debate among a community than cannon fire exploding above the skies of Fort Sumter.

Whatever you think of The Last Jedi and its other virtues or sins, it is fair to say the movie divided fans in large part because everyone had their own idea of Luke Skywalker, and to close off that image with a denouement as final as Last Jedi could never satisfy large portions of fans. This in turn puts J.J. Abrams’ fate and importance of Supreme Leader Snoke—any finality will be treated as suspect.

Perhaps for this reason, no franchise has more riding on it than Marvel Studios’ Avengers films. As the multi-tiered franchise that has come to define how pop culture sausage is made in its 11-year existence, the sprawling pseudo-story that began with 2008’s Iron Man must have a pseudo-ending with April’s other key players’ contracts are up and they show little sign of re-upping for the next 10 years. This might be the most curious challenge of the 2019 finales too, considering that the success of Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe is that, by design, there are never any true endings. It is always on to the next one before the lights come up on opening night, and there is always more to speculate on. Suddenly, and after 11 years, there needs to be a true finale that satisfies everyone.

Whether fans are possible to fully satisfy is open to debate, but it is a good thing for the culture that we put our favorite toys away. As a genre or not, the Marvel Studios formula has on its own proven elusive for other studios to replicate, as seen in the struggles of the Solo: A Star Wars Story. Endings are also a fresh start to create something new and find genuine beginnings. Going away creates anxiety, but it is also a chance for perspective—and maybe even new stories that we haven’t spent years obsessing over.

But in today’s marketplace, nothing you love is ever really allowed a final bow. Three major geek properties might be going away… but not forever. Marvel Studios could theoretically stumble a little while outliving Downey’s version of Tony Stark, but the studio president Mad Men predating the original series’ start. And yet, it will be in Westeros and offer a home away from home for those nostalgic for Winterfell. And even Star Wars will continue, although in a new form where Luke Skywalker and his family are not at the center of all things.

It is so very hard for fans to say goodbye, but in 2019 they must, even if for only a little while. What comes in the time between though could help define a new era of pop culture and a fresh, heroic journey.

David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. He’s also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. Read more of his work here. You can follow him on Twitter @DCrowsNest.