Kevin Feige and Patty Jenkins Star Wars Films No Longer in Active Development, Taika Waititi Potentially Starring in His

Far from surprising and if I’m completely honest I’m not really disappointed. But man, the movie side of things has been in shambles since even before TROS came out, and it’s only gotten worse since. I hope they get it sorted soon, it’s a terrible look to have all of these cancellations and lack of organization.

 

I am not in the Kathleen Kennedy Hater Club but the SWNN article was an exercise in 'How NOT to run a movie studio.'

I realize that announcing film projects is a tiny part of being President of Lucasfilm, but KK's credibility is pretty much non-existent with fans. Last year when she teased that Waika's film could come out at the end of THIS year, most SW fans rolled their eyes.

 

I mean, are we as a Fan Base just gonna hold out hope forever on the Feige obsession? FFS, he has moved on! He is already AT the prom with somebody else! How many more stories about Patty Jenkins being a nightmare and Rogue Squadron being a dumpster fire are we going to grin and bear it through? So Shawn Levy is "excited" to make a SW movie once his schedule is clear... see you in 2029! I want Taika to be all-in for a SW movie, but hasn't he made 2 Thor movies since he was rumored to be working on Star Wars?! What is this obsession with only filmmakers from the MCU/DCU movies?

I think Lindelof is an excellent choice, I hope his project is as stable and progressing as it seems to be. I think of him as JJ Abrams without the swollen ego, and hey, it may be a very unpopular opinion, but I wouldn't hate to see JJ step back in to the ring for another SW project. We also have super talented filmmakers over on the TV side that could easily slip over to the Movie side and make great films. Don't tell me that Jon Favreau, Rick Famuyiwa or even Bryce Dallas Howard couldn't make a blockbuster Star Wars movie.

 

Must be a slow news day so Variety pushed this article out? There's nothing in this that's really news. Deadline put out an article almost immediately that says the Feige/Jenkins projects aren't dead. We already know that the Lindelof project appears to be moving forward with Waititi's project right behind. With those two projects in line any other project wouldn't be in active development. The only piece of real news here is Waititi wants to star in his own film which again is hardly surprising since he's had a role in almost every project he's created.

Based on what we heard the last six months it appears Lucasfilm is doing the right thing and trying to plot out the next few years so they can get to making movies again on a regular basis. This is obviously the right thing to do and they have to make sure they get the first film right. As Kennedy mentioned last year finding a filmmaker who is willing to commit several years to Star Wars is difficult, but getting Lindelof to sketch some stuff out with Lucasflm/Filoni is a wise move.

 

This was surprising, but also (and unfortunately) very in-line for Lucasfilm.
Honestly, Lucasfilm really just needs to stop promoting things that they can't promise. It's not a matter of disappointment now, it's just a matter of believability. Regardless of how this comes out, this will also put a major damper on any SWC movie projects announced IMO, since fans won't actually believe that the project being teased/announced will actually manifest.

On the flip side, I find it a little upsetting (but also pretty fair, looking pragmatically) that Fiege and Lucasfilm's parting comes after the failure of Ant-Man 3 and the mediocre reception of most of the Phase 4 movies. Internally, Lucasfilm doesn't lose that much face for separating from someone who isn't winning, but it also makes them look...not ungrateful but more like they're clout-chasers, for lack of a better phrase.

Regardless, I've gone from being sad to disappointed to just plain amused, back to disappointed since I thought Lucasfilm grew out of this behavior.

 

Yeah, but...
This is more likely just journalists shaking the bushes in the lead-up to Celebration, not official statements or press coming from Lucasfilm. I think it's a given that we will get some clarity at Celebration, and the safe bet is that if a project is not mentioned specifically, it can be considered dead and buried. I don't see KK or anyone else discussing what has been scrapped, they need to put focus on the positive and just disregard everything else. If the Lindeloff project is the only thing mentioned, IMO, that is best case scenario.

 

I can't imagine them discussing a film past 2025. With so much riding on this first film post-ST they really can't lock themselves down. They'll have to be flexible to see what does and doesn't work for this project. The good news is these films won't be put in a trilogy structure so they can begin working on the 2027 film.