Lucasfilm Unveils New Star Wars Movies at Star Wars Celebration

My comment was sufficient. This isn't the place to indulge that topic further.

 

First of all, I'm pretty certain JB will be coming back...not so long ago he was waxing positive about DLF in an interview; he seemed much happier than he was before and I actually thought that they'd announce his return to the franchise.
Also, DR has stated more than once that she'd only return if her friends did, who are JB and OI.

Regarding whether the film will be made at all....Disney have to take into account that they need to cater to the general audience as well as 'fans', so they will have to think long and hard about how the characters might have developed in the years post TROS. I actually think they are making a mistake with such a big time gap; the reason for the time gap between the OT and ST is of course - because there WAS a time gap!

And as you say...will the film actually be made? They have put Rogue Squadron on hiatus.

I guess time will tell, I'm luckier than a lot of people here because I'm not interested in Rey's further adventures, my favourite character was killed off, but I DO feel for Finn, Rey and Poe fans if DLF build their hopes up only to dash them.

 

Not much time passed in the ST from 7 to 9. More time passed in real life. By the time this film is released in 2025 it would have been over 10 years since they filmed The Force Awakens. So a time jump makes plenty of sense.

Just a note. We all know your opinion. You mention it every time you have a chance. Repeating it over and over got old a long time ago. You've been asked over and over to stop doing it. Please, either drop it or go to the right topic. It's beyond old at this point.

 

I'm with you. I'm excited for the Dave Filoni film as I think that has the best chance of being made. I'm cautiously optimistic for the Mangold film, but in "i'll believe it when I see it" mode for both it and the post ST film. You said it best... there have been a TON of projects announced only to be put into turn around or simply dropped. If it happens that they complete and release ll three? Great. If not? Oh well.

 

I didn't know you were a mod.

 

This is how I feel...

As to the Dawn of the Jedi film? If Indiana Jones goes down like a lead balloon - That film won't see the light of day with said Director. We have seen this numerous times.

They hire someone that is currently popular, they have a swing and miss project - SW quietly gets pulled under the old "creative differences" chestnut.

 

Mangold isn't some "up and coming" director. Any accomplished director has films that aren't well received. FWIW Indy 5 has been done for awhile and it's a good sign that the studio likes the finished product when they release it at Cannes a month in advance. Tons of moves change in production. They're just not newsworthy when it's not an IP.

 

I think Mangold is a bit different than the usual move we've seen. JJ Abrams was hot after his successful reboot of Star Trek (and handling of Mission Impossible). Gareth Edwards was hot after his Godzilla film and Rian Johnson after Breaking Bad (although honestly Breaking Bad was great ot because of RJ but Vince Gilligan but anyway). Colin Trev after Jurassic Park reboot.

But Mangold is different. He's been successful over a much longer period, dating back to 1999 and Girl Interrupted. Walk the Line and 3.10 to Yuma in the mid 2000s, then recently Logan as well as Ford vs. Ferrari (which he didn't write). He's also had some duds, so he's not immune from that. And Indy 5 may very well be a dud. It's obvious the studio doesn't think it will be, but the people will decide that. IF, and it's a big IF, Indy 5 flops, then it may be that his Star Wars film never gets done. He's got two other projects he's working on anyway, so I'd say the target date is 2027? Certainly not 2025 (I'd expect that to be Dave Filoni's event film).

 

Johnson was coming of Looper in 2012 which was received pretty well and that was his 3rd feature. I'm not sure Breaking Bad had much to do with it, his star was already rising.

Yeah, people blamed his film, but the breakdown for him was the script. After Carrie died he couldn't get a story that Lucasfilm wanted to make. Before that change they had approved what he was trying to do.

 

It's not unusual at all for film projects to fall apart after they're announced, so to act as if this happening with regards to Star Wars somehow tarnishes the IP is strange.

 

I read an interview with Michelle Rejwan (?) and she said the mistake was not having Trevorrow in on what they were trying to do from the start. It wasn't until I read a fan essay on Rey .
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1--bzmYmNlfhVlDCd3cqpZHablxfBEbw1o74LtYBTcSY/edit?usp=sharing



That I understood why Trevorrow was sacked. LF wanted to do the heroines journey with Rey. Which involves internal and psychological growth/transformation. And Trevorrow clearly couldn't deliver. The Rey in his script is just your typical derivative action heroine.

 

I think it comes down to three main things:

First is that Lucasfilm and Star Wars are major keystone pop culture pieces, and they want to stay that way. That means they swing harder and go farther and yell louder...which also means that the failures and mistakes are much more apparent.

Second is related to the first - Lucasfilm has historically had a trend when it comes to directors and projects - hire someone young and upcoming, give them a project, and salvage the film in post-production at best or quietly cancel it when their most recent project fails at worst. (Josh Trank, Lord & Miller, Gareth Edwards, Patty Jenkins, etc.) The problem is that these are high-profile people, so what happens is more high-profile.

Finally, for major keystone pop culture pieces, this isn't a unique reaction. DC and Warner Bros have been going through this for nearly as long (actually longer IIRC) than Star Wars! They had so many movies scheduled to come out that all fell apart. The Flash losing directors and writers was a joke for YEARS...but at the end of the day, it got made. And so did Aquaman 2, and Shazam 2, and Blue Beetle, and various other projects. (Most of which weren't on the announced slates, but made nonetheless.)

But DC's reputation is still mostly in shambles. They've made promise after promise after promise. They've changed so much trying to conform and then to do their own thing, and now we're all just waiting to see how things turn out. Lucasfilm's reputation isn't in shambles, but they have become conditionally trustworthy, if that makes sense.

 

Another major issue is that the SW fandom is a double-edged sword. One side is very enthusiastic and hunger for new info, talk of new movies and big names attached while the other side seems to lie in wait and jump at any talk of disruption or turmoil in the works. It seems like LFL and KK, in their efforts to feed and please the one side, have become victim to the other side. All of these ups and downs, ins and outs, and fan speculation have sharpened the one side, who seem to gloat in being right when something goes wrong, while the side that holds out hope gets dulled and jaded. I think that KK has changed her way of dealing with it, and hopefully Iger's return will help right the ship as well.

Honestly, the three movies announced this weekend are pretty solid bets. Mangold is far from a flash-in-the-pan kinda guy, I believe this is a project he truly wants to do, and it seems like KK is letting him do it his way. The "Rey Movie" seems to be far enough into development, it looks like that Filoni and Lindelof-led writer's room developed the story, now Knight will finish the script, there's an Oscar-winning director attached, as well as Daisy, I assume we will start to get more casting rumors and confirmations over the next year or so. We know Filoni is not going anywhere, and he made it pretty clear he's not rushing his movie right now. KK also confirmed that Taika is still working on his, and I believe Levy's project is probably in the same status. The three announced movies may or may not be the next three movies released, but I would say odds are high that all three will make it to screen.

Anybody who has not seen the IGN interview with Kennedy and the one with Jon and Dave, they are some of the best stuff to come out of this weekend.

 

Three things:
1) Josh Trank was fired because he had a substance-fueled meltdown on the set of Fantastic Four and at a convention just before he was supposed to go out on stage with Lucasfilm executives

2) Lord and Miller were fired because they were unwilling to adapt their filmmaking style to fit the guidelines that Lucasfilm was giving them and because they ran up Solo's budget through their stubbornness

3) Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron film fell apart due to scripting issues, as did Colin Treverrow's version of Episode 9

It is, as I noted, not an unusual thing in Hollywood for film projects to fall apart; the fact that the projects I just mentioned were part of the Star Wars IP does not in any way make it noteworthy that they fell apart, nor does the fact that they fell apart tarnish the Star Wars IP in any way.

 

It's been more than that. And as UsetheFalchion pointed out, this isn't a normal situation. If Colin T. or Patty Jenkins has a project that gets cancelled, that's one thing. But when you have project after project cancelled (or have major changes) time and time again on arguably the biggest film franchise out there, its different.

No one cares if "X" project is put into turnaround. However, if said project is, say, a Superman film? And then it happens to a Batman film... then "Flash"? DC looks like morons. Or say MCU films. Same. Again, to reiterate what Falchion said: the spotlight is brighter on Star Wars then maybe just about any other property. The constant changes, cancellations, etc... doesn't make them look good.

Having said that, I'd love nothing more than for the 3 films they announced not only be made, but turn out to be fantastic. I'd absolutely love it.

 

I mean it is... The recent Top Gun sequel had around 10 writers touch that project over the last 10 years. We only hear about this stuff because it Star Wars. Heck, many of these projects haven't even officially been announced. The Feige project was never announced.

More information on the New Jedi Order project.

So come June/July Lucasfilm should know if the script is good enough to start production in early 2024 which would be plenty of time to have it out in December 2025.

 

I'm up for whatever Filoni has up his sleeve with Mando but I can't believe they're doubling-down on a ST-based theatrical release. We've seen the numbers -- TFA global box office returns were just north of $2B. TROS barely cleared $1B. The specifics are outlined here by Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/caroli...t-profitable-star-wars-movie/?sh=44bd02bb2a25

I try to not be a debby downer, but this decision is a head-scratcher in my book. The public writ large weren't into the ST past ep. 7 -- and TFA's draw was due to the anticipation of a "new" generation of SW films. Once the second and third movies of that trilogy delivered less and less a return I'm unclear why LFL/Disney would expect a fourth movie to reverse the trend.

This won't be a popular post, but I'm just speaking honestly and as a fan.

 

The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker each generated more than 1 billion dollars in Box Office receipts. Movies that "the public writ large aren't into" don't generally make that kind of money.

 

I would much rather see LFL stick to their guns and "double down" on continuing the story. It's an integrity move. These characters and stories are not done yet. What would it say about the powers that be if they scrapped those characters and those stories simply because of a small portion of resentful fans can't get over a movie they didn't like. I'd bet a dollar that Star Wars has gained more new fans since the ST ended than lost because of it. I'd bet two dollars that most of those "lost" fans will still be lining up at the theatres for the next movie anyway.