Disney CEO Bob Chapek Reaffirms Kathleen Kennedys Secure Future at Lucasfilm

Apologies I interpreted your line " they new that not being planned out proved to be no obstacle to producing the most beloved film trilogy in film history" as saying you thought the sequel trilogy was the most beloved film trilogy in film history I missnterpreted you sorry

As for the OT not planned out. Yeah your right it worked. but the circumstances were very very different.

• Firstly Lucas didn't know he was going to do a trilogy when he started so wasn't in a place to plan it out. Disney knew they were going to release a trilogy, with the whole trilogy planned to come out within 4 years of the first film.
• Secondly, the main story of the OT all comes from Lucas, it's easier for one mind to come up with a relatively consistent story,
• You had a year extra between films with OT, a year longer to get a story right.
• Finally, with the original trilogy, you didn't have to deal with 40 years worth of previous stories to factor in, not to mention 40 years worth of expectations

Of course, I'm not saying was impossible for them to do it with no plan and that makes the sequel trilogy instantly crap. I just think it made things a hell of a lot harder for themselves not having a story they wanted to tell before going into production. I think it made it doubly harder when they went all-in on the mystery box element of episode 7, it meant they had to come up with fulfilling answers that they didn't have as well as a story that they didn't have.

But like i say that doesn't make the films crap cos they weren't planned out. I do think it was bad decision, go back to when the force awakens came out, 90% of people assumed they had a plan, I remember people getting really angry at the suggestion that they might not. The reason was people thought they would have been stupid to try this without a plan.

If you are put in charge of releasing the most eagerly awaited film sequels in history, and you have 2 choices

1. plan the story so you are sure it's as perfect as you can before you shoot
2. don't plan a story and come up with it as you go along.

Both ways of course could end up making great films or crap films. But for me, option 1 has a lot more chance of being great.

 

I can see the reasoning behind why they made the ST the way they did. Giving three different directors the chance to each show off their own creative vision sounds great on paper. In hindsight, I do agree it should've been mapped out better, but it was probably one of those "it made sense at the time" things. As DarthSnow mentioned, Disney made an honest mistake, but one that they appear to have learned from.

That said, I think it was also just really unfortunate timing with Carrie Fisher's passing, and with Colin leaving and then the original plans for Episode 9 had to be completely thrown out. There's always a part of me that'll long for what the film would've been like if only Carrie had been around for it.

 

Directors/writers come and go on projects all the time. Using that as a measure for producer success is funny. Producers come and go constantly.
Movies are little miracles they ever get made and good ones are basically water turning to wine.

What'd be worse is if the producers saw the ship sinking and made no effort to plug the hole.
*looks at the mess DC has had with getting the DCU off the ground*

 

There’s no such thing as mapping out a perfect story in advance. A good writer/creator has a rough guide, but it does not mean that they can’t change their mind as they go along, due to circumstances or better ideas emerged. I think that’s what George had with the OT and I am sure that’s what the creative team at Disney had. But nothing was set in stone or written in blood as it should be.


I believe that it’s a misnomer that Disney didn’t have a plan going in:


https://io9.gizmodo.com/star-wars-kathleen-kennedy-on-the-long-road-to-ending-t-1840267035

 

OFF TOPIC, BUT your avatar is my favorite character in the expanse... NICE

 

Once more unto this stupid breach...

Hilariously, that's one of the few things I actually respect about DC. When their plans fall apart, they keep moving forward. I don't think their plans five years ago involved a Harley Quinn movie, but we got one. Their plans certainly didn't involve two versions of Justice League, but here we are. Is Joker connected to any of the other movies? Not at all! Do we care? Not at all! How is the whole movie reboot stuff going to work out in regards to Batman? No idea, but I'm here for the ride!

Star Wars on the other hand is bound by its nostalgia and the lack of retcons that superhero movies have access to. It can't push forward beyond the ST, and frankly I believe it doesn't really want to.* Because that might mean a different look, something the franchise is very hesitant to accept. (As are its fans.) Lando, Mando, Ando(r), Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and ultimately even Ahsoka are all set within the same general time period, which means the same aesthetic, which means no real change.


The High Republic is a welcome idea and one that openly stated "hey, we're planning this out!" But it's an idea that came at the wrong time, and frankly I don't know how many people actually care. I've had a High Republic comic setting on my desk, staring me in the face for a month, and today was the first day I even opened it. I have friends who I consider so much more into Star Wars than I am, and they've barely even given this stuff a glance. Look at our own forum! We still haven't changed the name of the High Republic from "Project Luminous" and moved it out of the Movie section. The last conversation there was a little over a month ago! And while the books occasionally get some buzz, no one is commenting on the comics.

At least I can contrast the operatic tones of the Snyder stuff with the bombastic girl-power fun of the Harley Quinn movie with the nonstop action adventure ride that is Aquaman. I can look at Man of Steel for a classic superhero origin story, and then watch Shazam for a sort of post-modern take on all of it. All three look, feel, and ultimately are different. It's hard for me to honestly say that with anything past ROTS.

And the saddest part is that is probably what the ST was going for - a round-robin of stories told by different people as to have a different feel, but connected by the same characters. It's a great and creatively exciting idea on paper...but without someone to unite the characters and story behind a vision everyone could get behind (or provide the hard "No" when ideas got out of hand), they ended up doing their own thing and ultimately fighting each other.

This doesn't mean the moves Kathleen's making now are bad - I'd say they're pretty good, if not great! But for many people the mindset is "wait and see" instead of "eagerly awaiting" or even "cautiously optimistic."

I kinda find it interesting that Kennedy left out how all three movies were based on a story by George Lucas. He wasn't sitting back and producing. He was sculpting the story, guiding its shape. Everyone else may have had a hand in how it looked, but George was dictating what it was. One vision, three directors.

Ultimately, Kathleen feels more like a person whose top desire is to keep the ship running. Which is good, since that's her job. But what many fans want is someone who cares about the ship itself, whose care about the ship will in-turn keep the ship running smoothly. Something Fiege does well (or at least publicly seems to do well.*)


*I just know someone's going to point to the Lego holiday special, which I will preemptively mention is non-canon, as are all Lego stories and adventures.
*No, there aren't any rumors, nor should any be started. My point here is that things behind closed doors aren't always as they seem, and I want to allow for a certain amount of wiggle-room to acknowledge that.

 

Isn't she just the best?!

Not only is she my favourite Expanse character (Amos is a close 2nd!), but one of my favourites in all of Sci-fi.

 

The problem is they've ultimately cost themselves many relationships and resources.
Obviously Snyder is never going back to WB after this unless they pay out the teeth which, probably won't happen unless the Snyder Cut does insane numbers. And then all the secondary and tertiary fall out from this whole thing.

Either way this isn't the thread for that but obviously there is sometimes merit to staying to the course through the tough times but there comes a point where a hard decision has to be made and it's before you start production on the third movie after seeing the tepid response to the first two movies.

 

Fair enough.

 

It's interesting how the theory that lack of guidance by Kennedy from start to finish on the trilogy's story and letting the film makers supposedly go anywhere they wanted was the mistake she made coincides with the theory that Mandalorian is a success because Kennedy left its writers and directors to get on with it.

 

Well they like that.

 

It's like the Jedi council.

 

The most likely thing is KK let’s writers and directors do whatever. Only intervening when things get really bad such as when she sacked the original directors for Solo. It’s because she is so hands off you get shows like the Mandalorian. It’s also why you get stuff like TLJ which divided the fandom.

If she was more controlling you don’t get stuff like the Mandalorian or visions which I am very excited about. Where she obviously said you know what no rules tell them to do whatever the heck they want.

KK has done more good than harm in my eyes. She was the one who told Filoni he should get into live action filmmaking. She was the one who paired Jon and Dave together for the Mandalorian. Sure you can credit her for the failures, but you must also credit her for the success.

 

Almost everything she has done at Lucasfilm has been a failure and her presence has caused nothing but negativity from fans and Lucasfilm continues to find itself in a endless amount of controversy. To me you just sound like a Disney shill Star Wars is dead Disney killed Star Wars and screwed over George Lucas its done its over it is a corpse now and a shell of its former self.

 

Is this a parody account? I only ask because the user is called "Prequelfan" and "Lucas Killed Star Wars" was basically the state of Star Wars discourse on the internet from 1999-2012.

 

The only people who think Lucas ruined Star Wars with the prequels are original trilogy boomers. Lucas wasn't perfect and i don't agree with everything the guy said or did but at least the prequel films were cohesive and he had a overall plan of where he wanted to go unlike Disney.

 

I don't really hate any Star Wars films, but the prequals are the weakest films and they were also the most planned out. I get it, the cool thing to say is that "sequels weren't planned," but the least planned trilogy was George's original trilogy. He was basically making it up as he went a long. So the whole "planning thing" doesn't necessarily mean good stories. The biggest problem with the sequels was an untimely death of a key actor and Disney's interference (Disney appears to have learned their lesson).

There are tons of factors that go into making a movie or a series so it's not really worth getting worked up over. I like Revenge of the Sith way more than The Rise of Skywalker, but I like the sequel trilogy more than the prequel trilogy. Making and telling stories isn't an exact science. If you don't like something move on, but the idea that Star Wars is dead is silly.