A Universe and a Galaxy

On my flight to San Francisco, I wanted to watch something fairly light that I didn't need to invest too much of my attention on, and I went with the 2nd Lego Movie. I'm a grownup. The movie lasted only 90 minutes of the 4 hour flight, so I vowed to watch something longer on the way home. I picked Avengers Endgame, and it worked out perfectly.
This is the second time I watched the movie, and was therefore able to absorb the details much more closely. (I was also able to watch it in one sitting this time, because my viewing partner didn't need to go to bed). The details, however, were more important to long time comic book fans. The coolest part for me was the coming together of all those storylines and all those heroes.
Undoubtedly, that was the pinnacle of the entire Marvel franchise to date, and will be tough to replicate in the future. Still, why would they feel the need to? On the whole, most of the characters in the Universe are part of their own story. They can keep telling Black Panther's story without Valkyrie flying in on a Pegasus. Captain Marvel will surely have some interstellar sequel that will be unconcerned about Spider-Man's pursuit of a high school diploma.
The other big franchise that is reaching its conclusion is, of course, Star Wars. Both franchises are Disney properties and make a bazillion dollars, chiefly on the backs of nerds, but that is about where the comparisons end, at least cinematically. The two biggest overarching difference revolve around the two points I made about Endgame, which made the movie so special for me and other viewers.
Star Wars is a 9 movie arc, telling the story of the same family, and those surrounding them. Those movies not of the main series are related closely to the so called Skywalker Saga. The culmination of the 9 movie arc will not result in some grand coming together of beloved characters from across the movies. There isn't a deep well of characters that will converge at the end of the movie. Instead, the end of the Rise of Skywalker will simply be the end of the story for several important characters, notably Kylo Ren and Rey.
While the end of December's movie offers the conclusion of a beloved saga, it does something that the Marvel Universe doesn't: It offers up an entire galactic playground for directors and film writers to work with. As we've seen from Rogue One and Solo, the feel and thematics are unconfined by the feel and thematics of the original anthology. There is another trilogy on the way, and it will be a complete surprise. The Star Wars Galaxy will live on, and we have no frame of reference as to how it will do so. Any movie can be made in the Star Wars Galaxy, and we won't be able to say if it's right or wrong.
Marvel's movies and Star Wars films appeal to a broadly similar fan base, but aside from the content of the films, they also have completely different circumstances surrounding them. The Marvel Universe is exciting, because we can see what we know come together, but Star Wars is exciting because there is a whole Galaxy to explore