General Star Wars Discussion

[Douglas Dubh]

Yeah, but not because of some general unhappiness with LucasFilm's, specifically Kennedy's, performance.

We really don’t know the reasons. The reported reasons aren’t necessarily the real reasons.

 

[mdmost]

https://deadline.com/2025/02/kathleen-kennedy-clarifies-lucasfilm-exit-star-wars-future-1236304421/



Sounds like the Shawn Levy movie with Ryan Gosling is a go. Set 5 years after Rise.

 

[wabbott]

Had to read all the way to the end to get to the money quote:

DEADLINE: Two final questions. Will you step out as Lucasfilm boss this year?


KENNEDY: We really don’t know at this stage. There’s so much going on, Mike. I don’t know.

 

[BrianL]

https://deadline.com/2025/02/kathleen-kennedy-clarifies-lucasfilm-exit-star-wars-future-1236304421/

Sounds like the Shawn Levy movie with Ryan Gosling is a go. Set 5 years after Rise.

Excellent interview by someone who treats a professional like a professional. There were some interesting things. I had never considred that ill-timed production announcements may at least be partially caused by the heightened scrutiny that Lucasfilm is under.

I read the article and there were no comments - one refresh, and the trolls are out in force!

 

[nancipants]

“I will die making movies” is such a mic-drop statement. What a boss.

 

[mdmost]

Excellent interview by someone who treats a professional like a professional. There were some interesting things. I had never considred that ill-timed production announcements may at least be partially caused by the heightened scrutiny that Lucasfilm is under.

I read the article and there were no comments - one refresh, and the trolls are out in force!

Yeah, I never read the comments section other than to get a chuckle at how mad people get about things they have no control over. So based on the article, we know there's the Shawn Levy movie with Ryan Gosling that we should get an announcement on soon. There's the post 9 trilogy that's being written. There's the James Mangold Dawn of the Jedi movie which will be coming since they have a history. She still holds out hope for the Taika movie. The Rey movie will start shooting as soon as the dumb script is finished. I feel that gets announced at Celebration along with Oscar Isaac and John Boyega coming back. I hope she can get Tony Gilroy to do more down the line.

 

[HokieRaven5]

As long as JJ Abrams never touches another beloved sci fi series ever again I’ll be content to give what’s to come a chance.

 

[Kit Jackson]

If I was the boss, here is what I would do:
- focus on young Indy and hire you a great set of writers and actors to revive the love for Indiana Jones.

I liked all of your suggestions and wanted to highlight this one. I would love Indy in college. I was so disappointed the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles seemed to spend an eternity covering WWI, and then we barely got to see Indy at the University of Chicago.

 

[irlandaise]

I liked all of your suggestions and wanted to highlight this one. I would love Indy in college. I was so disappointed the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles seemed to spend an eternity covering WWI, and then we barely got to see Indy at the University of Chicago.

That was a wonderful series, though. I never thought I'd see a network TV show featuring J. Krishnamurti, Leo Tolstoy, and Bronislaw Malinowski.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

You know, I don't think that we are the ones who have dug in our heels. I can admit there have been issues - but I'm not going to exaggerate things to fit a certain narrative. I'm not going to villify, no, crucify, a single individual over all of the perceived failures and never give credits for the successes. I don't agree that certain...creative aspects are why we have seen some declines. Certain fans try to make it so simple, when in fact there are many complicated factors at play.

The fact is, Star Wars is still a healthy franchise that is very popular. It was never going to be "the most popular thing in the universe" forever. Sure, it was at one time, but now there are other big things too. The fanbase is aging, which is why they are trying to grab younger fans, which is, of course, exactly what you don't want them to do. I mean, how dare they, right? I can only imagine how things would be if they didn't even try to do that! Could some things have been a little better? Sure. Could some stuff have been handled differently? Of course. Would any of that have led to a major bump in success metrics? Maybe. Maybe not.

You are stretching the truth again Brian. I have consistently said there was some good. TFA was good, until TLJ ruined the trilogy. That is on KK, she was running the studio and had to know the stupid ideas Rian Johnson had would not be popular. Rogue one was great, and so was Mando seasons 1-2. The rest as bad (Book of Boba) to downright horrible (Acolyte). You have to try really hard to lose money on a SW movie and Lucasfilm did that with Solo.

SW is not very popular currently, it’s just not. The latest Disney+ show was their worst performing show to date. They haven’t produced a SW movie in 6 years. Not to mention the flops of Indy 5 and Willow. You are unwilling to consider that you aren’t correct about this, it’s as simple as that. Lucasfilm is a brand in decline, and SW is a brand in decline, period. It can be improved for sure, but it certainly needs a lifeline currently.

I like all other SW fans want good SW content, we just haven’t gotten very much of that under Disney’s leadership.

 

[Kit Jackson]

I have consistently said there was some good. TFA was good, until TLJ ruined the trilogy.

YES! The Force Awakens was a great start. I was excited to see where it go, because it had real potential. The Last Jedi was a narrative mess. The Rise of Skywalker felt like a sequel to movie/story that came after The Last Jedi but the audience did not see it. The sequel trilogy lacked a cohesive/coherent storyline.

Star Wars on Disney+ has been hit or miss for me. I loved Andor, Skeleton Crew and the first two seasons of The Mandalorian.

Book of Boba Fett lacked a cohesive/coherent storyline. It felt like it spent the bulk of the season trying to figure out what it was and wanted to be. Ultimately, they settled on The Magnificent Seven for the last 3 to 4 episodes. There were episodes that felt more like back door pilots, which is fine in a 22 episode network season but doesn't work as well in an 8-10 episode streaming season. The Acolyte was a good idea with an absolutely horrible execution. They were trying to do three different things at once and it didn't work at all. If they had picked one of them and focused on that, it could have been a decent series.

 

[BrianL]

You are stretching the truth again Brian. I have consistently said there was some good. TFA was good, until TLJ ruined the trilogy. That is on KK, she was running the studio and had to know the stupid ideas Rian Johnson had would not be popular. Rogue one was great, and so was Mando seasons 1-2. The rest as bad (Book of Boba) to downright horrible (Acolyte). You have to try really hard to lose money on a SW movie and Lucasfilm did that with Solo.

SW is not very popular currently, it’s just not. The latest Disney+ show was their worst performing show to date. They haven’t produced a SW movie in 6 years. Not to mention the flops of Indy 5 and Willow. You are unwilling to consider that you aren’t correct about this, it’s as simple as that. Lucasfilm is a brand in decline, and SW is a brand in decline, period. It can be improved for sure, but it certainly needs a lifeline currently.

I like all other SW fans want good SW content, we just haven’t gotten very much of that under Disney’s leadership.

How would she "know" that? Again, there is nothing in TLJ that is so offensive to me - I wouldn't have gotten it either. I left that movie happy, as did all my friends. Then I got home and read teh Internet. Obviously it was divisive, but a lot of people liked it too. You can never know the reaction. That's like saying that George Lucas had to know the stupid ideas he had for Phantom Menace would not be popular. He was shocked by it actually. Oh, but it's still a popular movie that a lot of people love too. Honestly, the viscious complainers are not the majority.

Based on the amount of Star Wars crap I see around in general, I think it's still plenty popular.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

I'd imagine if things were so awful and out of control budget wise under her leadership that Iger would've stepped in and cancelled upcoming projects.

In fact, Bob Iger has been cancelling projects and he said:

“You have to kill things you no longer believe in, and that’s not easy in this business, because either you’ve gotten started, you have some sunk costs, or it’s a relationship with either your employees or with the creative community,” Iger said. “It’s not an easy thing, but you got to make those tough calls. We’ve actually made those tough calls. We’ve not been that public about it, but we’ve killed a few projects already that we just didn’t feel were strong enough.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/b...-disney-morgan-stanley-conference-1235843133/

Please understand my PP was a very rudimentary project budget cost analysis. That's all. That's why I am asking folks to sit down and take an honest, hard look at how Lucasfilm is being lead and run. Kathleen Kennedy is the boss. She is responsible for the health of the studio. That's why my PP focused Lucasfilm's leadership and the idea of potential layoffs at ILM and other subsidiaries due to the parent company struggles. Before we start calling the next studio head a "hatchet man" with mass layoffs, maybe we need to take step back and examine the financial health of the company and what lead to the current situation.

Please also understand that my PP didn't get into: pre-production budgets for projects that were cancelled (i.e. sunk costs for starting a project); marketing/distribution budgets (i.e. the millions spent to send Indy 5 to Cannes or money spent on Super Bowl commercials), and other overhead untethered to production budgets (i.e. health care benefits for employees and administrative staff wages, utility costs, etc.) All of these costs are going to be in the $100s millions of dollars for Lucasfilm.

Making movies is hard. Really hard. That's why good management and leadership is so important.

Not every Star Wars project is going to be a hit. Not every MCU movie has been after Endgame. There will be good movies and bad movies.

This is true. But, this comparison is completely unfair to Kathleen Kennedy. First, Marvel movies have had something like 10 movies make more than $1B. Lucasfilm isn't going to be able to do that type of box office business. Second, Marvel hasn't had a pause between theatrical releases for a 6 year period like SW (and something I do not believe Bob Iger ever thought would happen when TWDC bought Lucasfilm for $4B). And to be frank, I'm not really sure how excited the general public is for the Mando & Grogu movie. D+ subscribers are likely excited, but are non D+, general public excited about Mando? I just don't know.

I love Disney. I love Lucasfilm. I want to see success. I am deeply concerned with both companies right now.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

How would she "know" that? Again, there is nothing in TLJ that is so offensive to me - I wouldn't have gotten it either. I left that movie happy, as did all my friends. Then I got home and read teh Internet. Obviously it was divisive, but a lot of people liked it too. You can never know the reaction. That's like saying that George Lucas had to know the stupid ideas he had for Phantom Menace would not be popular. He was shocked by it actually. Oh, but it's still a popular movie that a lot of people love too. Honestly, the viscious complainers are not the majority.

Based on the amount of Star Wars crap I see around in general, I think it's still plenty popular.

I completely disagree. I think you could see this coming a mile away. Let’s take the hero of a generation and make him a grumpy old man who is mad at the world and abandoned his loved ones when they needed him. Then let’s let him angrily drink milk from a dinosaur teat. Then let’s let him die alone from “forcing too hard”. Yes, you absolutely could see this coming a mile away. The creative decisions were bad and the result is it pretty much split the fandom in half. TLJ was insanely divisive and this should have been obvious to any person in leadership closely connected to the project.

Agree to disagree on the popularity thing. Walmart used to have an entire isle dedicated to SW toys / games / etc. Today Bluey commands much more shelf space than SW does. At my local Walmart SW occupies less than 10 ft of shelf space.

I also believe the 6 year theatrical pause is absolutely an admission of concern by Disney. The franchise floundered, and they got cold feet about putting out another movie that lost money. There is no way that Disney wanted this long of a pause in a movie studio that they paid $4B for.

 

[BrianL]

I completely disagree. I think you could see this coming a mile away. Let’s take the hero of a generation and make him a grumpy old man who is mad at the world and abandoned his loved ones when they needed him. Then let’s let him angrily drink milk from a dinosaur teat. Then let’s let him die alone from “forcing too hard”. Yes, you absolutely could see this coming a mile away. The creative decisions were bad and the result is it pretty much split the fandom in half.

Agree to disagree on the popularity thing. Walmart used to have an entire isle dedicated to SW toys / games / etc. Today Bluey commands much more shelf space than SW does. At my local Walmart SW occupies less than a 10 ft of shelf space.

You focus so much on the little things. I saw a movie where the hero of a generation had extricated himself from the fight due to perceived failure - reluctant to change at first, but learned that he could move past that, stepped up to save the day and did so, then became one with the force. It's the same thing Obi-Wan and Yoda did. Suppose the movie had introduced us to Luke Skywalker, paragon of perfection and happiness who immediately rushed in to easily slice the Supremacy in half with his lightsaber, destroy Snoke and Kylo, and live hapily ever after? That's a story with no drama.

And what is your fixation on the milk? It's just a little thing that was supposed to be funny. It doesn't affect the character one way or another. I mean, you are obsessed with that part!

Walmart used to have several aisles dedicated to many, many toy brands, but they no longer do. Toys in general have seen a decline, not just SW. You could say the same for TMNT or Transformers too. Bluey is INCREDIBLY popular, so of course it's going to have a lot of share right now. It won't forever. It also competes in a different market than SW does. Still, SW is a presence and Black Series is still pretty popular. Sure, there is the ocassional dud/peg-warmer, but a lot of them do move. I haven't even SEEN the Skeleton Crew kids in the wild, but I know they have been out because I have seen Jod and Brutus. Those kids sold out fast!

 

[nancipants]

I am a humongous Luke Skywalker fan who did not like TLJ, and I still cannot understand why people continue to litigate it 7+ years later and spend their time watching hate videos on YouTube. Life's too short, man.

Go watch Bluey instead, it's great!

 

[BrianL]

I am a humongous Luke Skywalker fan who did not like TLJ, and I still cannot understand why people continue to litigate it 7+ years later and spend their time watching hate videos on YouTube. Life's too short, man.

Go watch Bluey instead, it's great!

It's fair to have critical debate about it, but, "They had Luke drink some milk in a funny way!" is not really a critical observation.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Neither is you thinking people should not have been upset with how Master Jedi Luke Skywalker was handled. It was incredibly divisive to a large portion of the fandom, whether you agree or not.

It’s still being discussed 7+ years later, because it was a massive miscalculation by Disney that split the fan base. The franchise has never been the same since that one movie debuted. It is the single biggest significant marker in time in the past decade for this entire franchise. No other criticism of a SW movie has matched the significance of this one movie, and likely never will.

Go to any SW message board on the internet and TLJ related debate post will outnumber all other topics 5 to 1.

 

[irlandaise]

Go to any SW message board on the internet and TLJ related debate post will outnumber all other topics 5 to 1.

Thus proving nancipants' point. Cue the Bill Shatner "Get a life!" skit...

 

[mdmost]

Any way. I'm excited for Andor. DD17 has shown interest in watching the first season so she can watch the 2nd with us. I think will be easier for her to take as more of a binge. I'm excited to rewatch it as we got a 4K projector since the series came out and it should look fantastic.