The Resistance Broadcast - Spider-Man: No Way Home Director Coming to Star Wars?

It's been too long since I last listened! Interesting to hear about Jon Watts potentially directing a Star Wars property. I'd say he'd be too busy, but if James Gunn has shown us anything these past two years, it's that anything is possible.

Outside of that, my feelings are decidedly and surprisingly less optimistic. Not because I don't like Jon Watts, in fact, far from (home) it! I love the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy. I think they're great, and the third one worked in ways I wish Star Wars did at times. (It does at other times, but not nearly enough IMO.)

My problem with this rumor, if it happens to be true, is that it proves that Lucasfilm's higher-ups (or maybe the shareholders?) are just chasing clout, not content. They're choosing someone who is a hot name right now and is on the rise instead of someone who can make the film work. And we've seen this story before:

Rogue One by Gareth Edwards, who was hired after 2014 Godzilla's success? Saved in the Editing Room and by reshoots because the original production was apparently a mess.

Episode IX by Colin Trevorrow, who was hired the summer Jurassic World came out and did gang-busters numbers? Left right after the Book of Henry flopped.

The rumored Boba Fett movie by Josh Trank after his critical darling first movie Chronicle? Never saw the light of day after Fox tried to do the same thing with him and ended up with Fan4stic.

The Star Wars series with Benioff & Weiss, the showrunners of the world's most popular show Game of Thrones? They got a better deal at Netflix...and became Fandom Targets No 1 after the GoT finale. (To be fair, there was a considerable amount of wariness happening within the GoT fandom, but the idealism outweighed the skepticism at the time.)

Solo by Lord & Miller of 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie fame? They exited the film and Ron Howard basically had to reshoot the film from the ground up.


My point, if you can't see, is that none of these movies turned out as they originally intended. Some of the things were out of Lucasfilm's hands, such as Carrie Fisher's passing and Solo being released during the World Cup. But who was chosen and when shows a clear pattern of Lucasfilm chasing hot-shot directors instead of working to build a director up.

That's one of the (many) reasons why the MCU movies have worked so well, because Fiege will pick out the right director for the right project. It's not always a perfect fit, he's gotten it right more often than not. This also isn't to say that Fiege hasn't gone after clout either - Joss Wheden (at the time), Chloe Zhao, Ava DuVernay, and Ryan Coogler were all clout picks IMO. But he got lucky with them.

Granted, sometimes snagging a director who is free to work on a project and has some clout can be a steal, as James Gunn has demonstrated. But more often than not for Star Wars, it's a curse instead.

What makes it even more annoying is that The Mandalorian was the perfect example of Lucasfilm's new direction going forward - future directors would get their feet wet with that show (or other related shows), and then they could do their own project. Taika Waititi, Deborah Chow and Robert Rodriguez are examples of that. (I imagine Bryce Dallas Howard will soon be added to that list. Filoni is an odd case and an exception.) If this rumor is true, it feels like Lucasfilm is going back to its old ways, and I'd rather not see that.

Overall, I'm not saying this rumor is bad if it's true, since the clout-chasing isn't indicative of movie quality, but I'm not convinced it's a good thing given Lucasfilm's track record.

 

To be fair, as a GOT’s fan the last season felt rushed. I guess due to the cost of each episode we got only eight, ( after like what 2 years ???) but I wish they had expanded it to much more.

I don’t know what the magic number of episodes would be, 8 to me, wasn’t enough… I don’t think B &W would have done a good job either. I liked what they did with GOT, the first 6 season’s…
But I think that they would have to have GL, Filoni, and Favreau to assist them on set.

Simply because the episode where they got allot of input from George R. R. Martin were really good. It’s better off that they didn’t touch Star Wars. It might of been another Rian Johnson situation and I’m a fan who likes RJ, so no slight to him. I don’t want to start a flame war. If you like or dislike TLJ that’s cool.

 

I'd love for RJ to return! I didn't agree with all of his decisions and some I still dislike, but I respect the man for making them, and his love for Star Wars shines through every scene.

They left the trilogy after GoT's finale aired. (Again, showing Lucasfilm's Fair Weather Fan approach to creative talent - hire them when they're hot, drop them with "creative differences" when they flop. That's not to say there aren't creative differences, but I do find the timing in these cases to be most intriguing.)
Cost wasn't the problem for the final season IIRC. HBO offered two more seasons, B&W talk about it in the pre-final season interview stuff. The HBO programming president at the time talked about it a little. B&W felt like that's where the show should end.

It Is Now Clear Having Two Short ‘Game Of Thrones’ Final Seasons Was A Mistake (forbes.com)
Game of Thrones season 8 showrunners interview: 'This is where the story ends' | EW.com

B&W were great when they had a guideline and story to follow. It's when they ran out of material that things started to decline for most. Star Wars has a lot of lore and inspiration to pull from and inspiration that it has pulled from, but unless B&W were adapting something straight to screen, I'm...wary of their ability. They did a lot of good stuff before GoT of course, but their track record and ideas post-Season 6 are shaky to me.
I think this also relates to why Martin hasn't really finished the books. GRRM had this idea for how the story was going to end, and it was most likely incredibly similar to the show. Of course, GRRM was going to go more in-depth in the reason things turned out the way they did, but the point is that the show proved to be a giant test audience for his ending...and it wasn't well-received to say the least. Again, most of the problems were show issues, but if the character arcs were similar, then...well, George had a lot to think about. But I'm starting to ramble lol!

 

@Use the Falchion What do you think about Patty Jenkins and Star Wars after WW1984? Did LFL drop her yet? Do you think she’ll pull off a good Star Wars film?

 

I think she's in a better state than RJ's trilogy, but not as good as Taika Waititi's film or Kevin Fiege's thing. I think it'll still happen, but it will be a while before anything happens. WW84 was bad, but it did well during the year and wasn't a critical or financial flop, so she's still good IMO.

 

I agree, The first WW film was pretty good, third act wasn’t, it had problems. WW84 was disappointing to say the least. I hope she does a better job with Star Wars. If not, she is a great director and will continue to be successful in other genres. It would be a shame if the first female director fails, it will be ugly, so I wish her much success.

 

Honestly I dislike Marvel and dislike the current Spider-Man. I have no expectation.