SPECULATION Nervous? Rogue One and its impact on Episode VIII

I was having dinner with a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago and he pretty much summed up how I feel about Rogue One. He said, "I think of it as filler. Something to have between Episodes 7 and 8." Those are pretty much my feelings. I am interested in seeing R1, but I just can't get myself excited about it.

There is no way R1 will do as well as TFA at the box office. TFA was the first SW movie in 10 years. That alone generates excitement and anticipation. Now that there will be a new SW movie every year, there will be less excitement. Plus, I think Disney/Lucasfilm have confused audiences. I have talked to people very recently who did not realize that the SW movie coming out this December was not Episode 8, and would not have Rey and Finn in it.

Now, to answer your question more directly:

If R1 does really POORLY at the box office, I don't think it will have much impact on Episode 8. I don't really think D/LFL will do anything differently, although box office results for Episode 8 may suffer. But then how would we know what the cause of poorer box office results for Episode 8 would be? I already believe it won't do as well as TFA, so is a lower box office a result of lost enthusiasm after a disappointing R1, or just a result of it being the third SW movie in two years?

If R1 does really GREAT at the box office, it will put more pressure on Episode 8, but I don't necessarily think D/LFL will do anything differently. Their marketing plan would have been validated (twice).

 

I HIGHLY doubt nines budget would be effected. y a spin off but Han Solo would be hard to change because of the track record of the directors and R1 would have to flop HARD for any long term plans to change, as in make less than $300M worldwide.

 

I'm with you that I still after seeing two R1 trailers seem to be not as excited as I am for VIII and I don't know why, but I will be seeing R1 like everyone will.

But in all I don't think it will have as much of an affect as you think either way. There is kinda already hype for 8 with the cliff hanger with Luke and Rey.

We sort of know going into R1 the story not every detail but the basic concept. We are in the dark about VIII

 

In all honesty, I am excited for R1, but in no way am I counting down the days watching trailers daily, like I was with TFA!

Now that being said, I honestly believe it will have no impact on VIII or the continuation of any storyline, it would be counter productive.
But, I do think a lot of questions, especially around the death star and it's creation, the reason the port hole was there and not just an
accidental oversight things like that, little stuff over the time.

But, if lets say it flops (Which I doubt), I still don't see the budget/ momentum for Ep VIII, Han Solo and onward being affected.
They will shove their hand into a pile of money next to them and give it another go with a new title.

Some I reckon, good or bad, future movies are safe and will have lots of backing and I don't see a massive issue for future EPs

 

very interesting topic and I feel the same for R1. I watched the trailer 2-3 times and that was it. Nice visual stuff, but not really excitement and days counting to see the movie. Too much like Battlefront game as a movie. I think the biggest problem may become an irritated audience regarding the timeline and I think it was a mistake to start with a SW movie every year and switching back and forth in the timeline. R1 would have done fine inbetween trilogies.

A bad result for R1 may indeed force them to increase marketing for VIII, since marketing/merchandise for R1 is already very bad. I don't think reshots may be done, but it will put VIII on pressure to not disappoint. Han is gone and now Luke is expected to go out as well. That's at least what many audiences may fear and a big danger of losing interest in the franchise in general. So I think R1 is indeed a filler and VIII will be the 'make or break' in this whole franchise in my opinion. At least for me it is.

 

Thats exactly how I fell to..

 

I think if Rogue One happens to bomb it will have more impact on future stand alone movies and not VIII. There would be a lot of pressure on the Han Solo movie to do well for there to be any more stand alone movies

 

Spot on.

I'm excited for R1 and I genuinely can't wait but I'm definitely not as hyped for it as I was for TFA. But as a Star Wars fan I'd say that's kinda obvious... This isn't an Episode. We've never seen anything quite like this so naturally as an audience we're maybe more sceptical about what we're about to see. By the looks of things Rogue One looks incredible and I'm sure we'll fall in love with it. I'd be surprised if it was naff.

Anyways... to the main question:

If Rogue One Performs Poorly: I assume we mean financially and/or critically then I think it would only affect the marketing of Episode 8 and D/Lucasfilm would push for the Han Solo film to be better.

If Rogue One Performs Well: Not much change. I think the marketing will be stronger for Episode 8 than Rogue One anyway. We already have well-loved characters and many cliff-hangers. The anthologies don't have this... they summarise the whole story in one film.

 

i can understand the concern, and whilst poor box office stats would certainly influence disney's decisions moving forward - i highly doubt it will have a profound impact on the ST.

as for me personally.. i am counting the hours (1043 at time of posting) till R1 is released, and also the hours (approx 100) till i can buy tickets for me and my mates. One of my friends is more excited about R1 than the ST episodes.. he's never seen Vader on the big screen before, and to see something new with him in... yeah he's pumped lol.

R1 won't get the numbers that TFA had, but it would have to be a complete stinker to do badly... it'll be just fine, and ep8 will do great next year

 

I'm planning to skip R1 at the theater unless the critical reviews are off the chart good. The trailers and build up have not interested me at all. If it bombs, I will question Disney's anthology credibility even further since I could care less about a Han Solo movie. The only thing that will make me question the ST is if VIII sucks.

 

more or less similar for me. I will watch R1 one time in cinema, but probably not at premiere if it is a midnight screening. Additionally no toys/merch except the novel/art of R1 books. If VIII sucks regarding Luke, the Disney SW is done for me and I will go back to legends stories. I'm definately not interested at all in the Han Solo movie.

 

Fortunately for Disney a film doesn't have have to be good to make a lot of money. Suicide Squad anyone? I personally can't wait for R1 almost solely because we'll get Darth Vader in a new film. I know that we have no idea how much screen time he'll have, but this is Vader pre ESB and ROTJ. Meaning ( I hope) he'll be the full on evil Sith Lord from ANH. That's the Vader I think everyone wants to see.

If Rogue One does poorly, I honestly don't think it will effect the ST in any way. It would be disappointing of course, but it's almost like an experiment to see if Star Wars is too big to fail. (It is.)

If it does well, I think it can only help the other anthology films in the coming years, and even inspire more to be made.

Either way, episode VIII will live or die under it's own weight. It'll be a huge success in my opinion, but probably not as big as TFA simply because VII was the first SW film in 10 years and they had the OT characters for the first time in 30+ years.

 

yep I agree and the anticipation was huge for TFA, but not everything played out as many expected/hoped. So lowered expectations may be for R1 and even VIII. I still think VIII will be very important for the future of the franchise to stop people complaining about a sell out/lack of new ideas.

 

Great point. I think Rian Johnson is going to make a very original film, stamping out the complaints of redundancies between IV and VII.

 

I disagree entirely that TFA missed expectations. You don't become the number 1 or 2 movie of all time by disappointing people. The VAST MAJORITY of the viewing public left TFA wanting to see it again and again. It was received extremely well.

There are a handful of very vocal folks in the minority that didn't get what they wanted because they can't have a Star Wars movie with a lead that isn't Luke Skywalker.

 

This is not true either and you only need to read German reviews on amazon, youtube and co + a lot of people I talked to after watching TFA. Some even say they won't watch another SW movie at all. They did not like it and it was too much of a rehash/reboot. Comments like the same ships as 30 years before, the same Vader type villain, the same death star etc. (which has nothing to do with Luke)

 

maybe this fits indeed for the USA as the home of SW. I would like to see sales, especially repeated viewings from a country like Germany or other European countries. Maybe that was the reason they did no force friday here this year and almost no promotion for R1.