Solo "bombs", so what happens next?

Still on two screens, in two D only, at my local here in Rural Western Penna.

 

The problem is that they painted themselves into a corner. For half a year the quasi-official company line was that everyone who dislikes TLJ is a bigoted racist. If they now back down it looks like a concession to that small subset of fans that the label actually applies to.

Well coordinated diplomatic community management could have easily avoided this and saved face for LF and RJ. I'm thinking of something like when JJ apologised for the shot when Leia and Chewie just pass by each other instead of hugging at the end of TFA. It's just a small thing (I didn't even notice it) but apparently lots of people were angry about that and JJ acknowledging a mistake was worth a lot to calm people. Instead they constantly amplified the few loud idiots to taint all critics by association and never even remotely acknowledged that relevant criticism might exist.

10000% agree with this.

 

100% agree.

Sadly, a polarizing film, and a dishonest way to deal with criticism, transferring ulterior motives over to the fan base not accepting the new narratives. Now, the prequel lover were showered with ridicule. There's no arguing that, and I can easily refresh anyones memory by looking in the archives at this very site.

Still, it wasn't that nasty as we see now.

Unfortunately, and this we even see in articles from the main media, people who did not like the movie are quickly labeled bigots, racists, alt-right, white power supremacists, "manbabies", basementdwelling nerds etc. etc. Sure, undoubtedly there are a few nutjobs hating TLJ for some bizarre reason, but most just found it a fundamentally flawed movie with an arrogant director mostly worried about his own ego. Topping it off with connecting lage parts of the fanbase with a few ftards harassing and actor just doing her job. It's almost become a trump vs hillary thing. And when you do that, the gloves eventually come off.

That is the recipe for division, for anger, and to create to polar factions among a fanbase. That is huge brand damage right there, and the fault lies with Lucart/Disney for going with this spin and not backtracking. Instead they have doubled down...damaging SW further.

 

Im going to throw my 2 cents, and maybe this will be off topic, but im getting really...really...really... tired of the sense of entitlement that the fandom has ( and this is not only for star wars) seriously just because they spent their time and money on it, doesnt give them the ownership of the thing that they love, I can not believe that people can not differentiate those things, they do not own this, why should things be done in their own way? What about other people who do not have their taste?

Content creators do things the best they think and tell the story they want to tell, they do not do it in order to please everyone, sometimes it will work, sometimes it will not work, it's that simple. Why do these people think it's an insult to them that they did not like something? Because they are not able to get out of their own way of thinking, and assume that everyone thinks the same.

All this drama of Rian Johnson, Lucasfilm, Kathleen, Mark Hamill J.J etc ... "insulting the fanbase" (are they?) is because some people have a victim complex or fear, yes ... this sounds ugly, but all the phrases they have said are aimed at people who have been attacking the actors, actresses, and the director, because these films do not fit their points of view. The victim complex or fear comes in the sense that they believe that for the simple fact of not liking the film, they will be pigeonholed with these undesirable people, and several times the authors of these phrases (Rian, Lucasfilm, Mark Hamill etc) have made it clear to what they point out. I have seen this complex several times in the internet, for example, you just have to realize how some people behaved with the sayings of J.J. when he was asked his opinion about those people who made a cut of "no without women" in the last jedi, several became angry, and did not even bother to read the context in which the statement was, due to the question asked by the interviewer.


It is clear that some media are will not differentiate between the undesirable and the fandom in its entirety, but it is also true that there is media that is differentiating this small portion of the fandom. So i dont know why they should stop of calling those people by their names. They know that the majority of the fandom is not like this, is a consolation??? maybe, but sadly is not a solution either

The most ridiculous thing that i have read comes from Twitter, where some guys were asking to Rian to apologize to the fandom, because he made them bully Marie Kelly Tran, Daisy Ridley, etc... like REALLY????? , Same people that asked to Lucas to apologize to the fandom for the prequels and the special editions.

So no, this is not a ego problem of Lucasfilm, Rian Johnson, Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas, Gareth Edwards,Ron Howard and J.J Abrams( and the directors that were fired), they doesnt owe them anything, they are not their slaves ( they have been more cautious in responding to people, if you compare it with the PR agent of George Martin who aswered to the fandom the question about Martin taking his time to write his books, basically saying that R.R. Martin is not their Vhlor).

Is really a bad idea listen to the vocal minority, because they risk to piss off other section of the fans. Just looks what happened to Sonic, they keep pissing the people off, because they keep listening to the "fans". Is a risk and the companies knows it

Sadly social media is a echo chamber for those miniorty sections of the fandoms, so Lucasfilm is really in a position in which they cant win, the fandom of star wars has always been divisive since the 80' and it wont change

 

Rian took the same route that George did

 

I think we admit what the thread title states so easily, the film didn't work. We can bicker as to why, but clearly films like Solo aren't going to work.

My suggestion is to cancel the Boba Fett and Obi Wan film plans immediately. These films are not wanted by the public. They are tired of rehashed material. They want fresh Star Wars and when the brand delivers that, (not just in films, but in cartoons and novels too), the sales improve.

Disney needs to learn that lesson, that they acquired this brand, but that doesn't license them to regurgitate it to death. Fans want fresh stories that move the universe forward. If you can continue to dwell in the past of films previous, the universe ceases to be vibrant and alive and you lose the key component that makes serialized adventure so compelling, the continual question of: What Happens Next?

We already know what happens to Han Solo and not really interested in a muddled production that attempts to rehash his past. America agreed with me.

Will they learn the lesson?

 

This seems like an awful lot of speculation based on a couple of tweets by a director encouraging people to see his film. Howard has tweeted a lot of stuff. The CNET article is an article about tweet.

As time passes since my second viewing I must admit that Solo is a meh Star Wars flick. In the long run I'll probably enjoy it more than Rogue One, but it seems like Star Wars fans like it a lot more than casual fans who tune in for action. Other than the train heist Solo doesn't have a lot of super exciting moments.

So what will Lucasfilm do now?

I'm not sure there's going to be a big change. Had Solo not had issues with the directors it could have made profit. The goal going forward for Lucasfilm will be making sure the production issues end and do better with marketing. Also, if they're going to do a Boba Fett film in 2-3 years they need to tied it in with Solo. This will allow people to watch Solo on-demand/streaming. Solo isn't bad and would help build moment for that film (that I originally had no interesting in seeing). However, a stand alone Fett film with now Solo/Lando seems like a dreadful idea.

There's no reason to suspect the RJ will be stopped. We're probably a couple years away from any hard details about that trilogy. If the Kenobi film is the next announced Lucasfilm needs to make sure it's a story worth telling.

They're already green lit two new series that aren't tied to what we know so it seems like Disney is already well aware that it's time for new stories.

 

That not was not what the fans were saying back in 2014 when Disney announced that they were doing stand alone. Look at the old comments on Youtube, IGN, Reddit, etc and the 2 most common named stand alone movies that people were asking were Obi-Wan and Boba Fett.

 

Keep in mind those are primarily male fans. That doesn't necessarily represent a good cross section of fans or what fans really want.

 

I know. It's just annoying to keep on reading comments that for years than when they actually plan on doing a film that people "seem" to be asking people get mad. People said that they want an original SW movie that was different from the OT but George gave us the PT which one of the many criticisms of it's time that it was that it was too different than the OT. I've accepted the fact that the fandom don't know what they want out of SW. The fan base it just too big. Disney is going to piss off some part of the fandom no matter what they do.

 

I feel like they're making films for every piece of the fan base. I didn't like Solo as much as some other people, but I'm not mad they made it.

The people who get pissed after a single movie are just weirdos. You can go mad trying to make those people happy.

 

The problem isn't films like Solo. Solo was a good movie; good movies are never a problem.

The problem is the complete lack of overall vision to the saga. The chronological order of Disney's 4 films goes 3-2-4-1 (keeping in mind there's an entire trilogy between #2 and #3). All this can actually be pretty confusing for the casual viewer. I don't think the movies themselves do all that good of a job establishing the timeframes for casual viewers. The 2 movies that should have tied in closely failed miserably in that regard. Giving one director pretty much free reign for E7 and then another one free reign in E8 to go in an entirely different direction was a horrible idea.

Hear me now and believe me later: E9 will not outperform E8 financially (despite historical data for trilogies indicating otherwise). Star Wars started high but has gone in one direction (downhill) since Disney took over. Disney knows this and is working to reverse course. Major changes are coming soon (keeping in mind that "soon" in this industry is measured in months). The announced and rumored movies (Rian Johnson trilogy, Benioff/Weiss Trilogy, Kenobi, Boba Fett) are by no means written in stone.​

 

Considering I've noted overwhelmingly positive comments about Solo from people *who have actually seen it*, I'd say this post is pretty presumptive about it not "working". I definitely think Disney made mistakes with this film, but I think it's mostly from the angle of when they chose to release it- too close to TLJ and also with STIFF competition from Avengers and Deadpool.

Disney, in fact, does have the license to "regurgitate it to death" as they own the IP. I personally would like to see a mix of old and new SW, but that's just me.

 

Collider - Exclusive: Future ‘A Star Wars Story’ Spinoffs on Hold at Lucasfilm

http://collider.com/star-wars-spinoffs-on-hold/

 

Surprised about Kenobi - something I actually wanted to see with Ewan. They better be focusing on Benihoff and Weiss....or I feel like it will just inflame things further.

Maybe they had to close up those projects to buy/bid on Fox. Sad day for Kenobi fans.

 

This is such a huge bummer and could have been easily avoided in so many ways had Solo been better marketed, had a December release date, and had Disney (or whoever is at the top in terms of marketing) believed in it.

I'm honestly so devastated for the lost potential of not only this film, but what's to come, or what's not to come in this case. Solo really jazzed me for the potential of more high-quality anthological films, and I was really hoping to explore the world further with Boba Fett.

I think Maz Kanata could have even played a part with her obvious connect to Han and Chewie. How sick would that have been?

I'm fine with the serial series I guess, but I'd take A Star Wars Story series over a Johnson trilogy any day.

 

It's such a shame too. Solo was a buttload of fun for me at the very least.

Here's hoping they opt in to conclude that storyline using some other medium. I would say Jon Favreau's live action TV show but that's set after RotJ. IIRC.

 

Hopefully "on hold" really means that and we just see those anthology movies later than initially anticipated. I think it's obvious Solo suffered from release date problems and less than stellar marketing, so hopefully they have learned a lesson there as well. For casual fans, i.e. not awesome nerds like most of us that frequent forums, etc., oversaturation is a real thing and maybe they've considered that as well.

 

Well that happened even sooner than I thought. It's pretty clear that Kennedy is already no longer running the show at LFL and that major decisions are being taken out of her hands.