What are the odds that Rian Johnson's trilogy gets cancelled?

If retained, I believe Rian should be tasked as Executive Director over his own trilogy with individual directors chosen for each film allowing him to focus on the overall trilogy.

However, with the daily Rian Johnson TLJ explanations I think he is on very thin ice. There's a reason Rian Johnson is explaining different parts of TLJ on a daily basis. It is a PR campaign. Rian Johnson is engaged in a PR campaign for a reason.

Personally, I thought TLJ was a very poorly structured and poorly told story with terrible character development, so the PR campaign may be an attempt to compensate. Others can argue Rian Johnson's PR campaign is to continue conversation over Star Wars and continue support.

I think Rian Johnson and whoever was responsible for supervising his work should be fired.

 

Speaking of business. The Last Jedi did very well. The film isn't that divisive. People keep trying to argue there's some 50/50 divide and the only piece of evidence to support it is long debunked online poll. Most of the audience and fans love the film. A tiny vocal minority doesn't. Sure, it's more divisive than TFA, but more doesn't mean there's a problem.

You're right. The reason is he just directed a film and he's doing loads of interviews about said film. Which is completely natural. LOL

 

You mean just like every other director of any blockbuster film post-release, giving interviews and answering questions?

Interviewer: So tell us about blah blah blah.

RJ: *tells the interviewer about blah blah blah*

Idiots: OMG HE KEEPS HAVING TO EXPLAIN HIS MOVIE!!!

 

Maybe his trust with some circles of hardcore fans is on thin ice, but the overall feeling is pretty positive from what I've seen. The worst I've heard in my own life from casual fans is "I don't know how I feel about this." And then they see it again and like it more. Which is the exact same reaction I had, and I consider myself fairly hardcore in terms of new canon.

As for the PR, that's what movies do.

Your opinion, that's fair.

That's not fair in my books, but it's understandable.

And has their been a reason to doubt them?

TFA did this as well, except instead of "why did you choose Option X or Choice Y?" it was "Who are Rey's parents? Who is Snoke? Why didn't Leia hug Chewie?"

For R-1 it was "Did you have to fight to kill everyone (read: did Disney give you the go-ahead to kill everyone in one of their movies?) Can you tell us about the Darth Vader scene? Why did it take the Empire 20 years to perfect a laser?" In the eyes of the fans, I think all other questions were answered with the response of "reshoots."

The difference isn't the approach, it's the questions and your personal feelings towards the movie coloring them. That's not a bad thing in itself, but I do think it's important to see.

We also have to remember that most of the conversations I think we hear about come out post NA release date but pre-China release date. China, the place that has the second largest (or is it the largest now) box office in the world. China, the place that literally SAVES FRANCHISES (Pirates, Transformers, Pacific Rim) if they don't do well in the West. China, where Star Wars ISN'T a big phenomenon. OF COURSE they'd want to push it as much as possible! They've done that for every recent Star Wars movie too, so as I said above, it's not really new.


Edit: to answer the main question. I think it's still going to happen. Star Wars does need to branch out to survive*, and Rian's stylistic choices are a hit, regardless of how we feel about his storytelling in TLJ.

And we can't forget how smooth production went. They finished early, with no big controversies and positive feelings from not only the cast and crew, but the execs too. He's given them the best experience they've had yet. Lucasfilm would be crazy to give that up.

We also have to consider that this is a trilogy and being written as such. RJ will have more leeway in the story both in terms of what he wants to write and what the story demands. With him both writing out the entire story and directing (at least the first one), there's less of a chance of having "blind**" hand-offs like in the ST.

Overall, yeah, this thing is still happening, and it's going to be awesome.

*They've been exploring with the standalone movies, but those have been rough productions to say the least.

**RJ saw the dailies for TFA, and I'm assuming Trevorrow did for TLJ up until his firing, in which JJ probably saw the dailies and a rough cut of the film. So it's really not going in blind, but that's usually how we as outsiders see it.

 

'What are the 'odds' ... You ask ...


Zero.

My Opinion.

Neither Right nor Wong.

You Asked, Right ?

 

I think China sealed its fate. Kathleen is noticeably missing too.

 

It did. If they want to break into Chinese market, they need a set of films that are as much detatched from the Skywalker Saga as possible. Otherwise there won't be any interest in it at all. That's why it's even more important for Rian to stay.

 

That's total BS that people dislike it being around the Skywalkers. I suggest you go on Weibo and see what's actually being said by people. True, most of the existing base wanted a sequel to Episode III over VI back in 2015, but TLJ was genuinely disliked by many people. Denying that is silly.

 

But the new run of SW films hasn't been succesful in China in the first place and one of the reasons why they don't make as much money as Marvel movies is because they lean so much into the past of the franchise. Also, my post wasn't meant to claim that Chinese audience members don't like these films because they are about Skywalkers.

 

The OT never got a wide run in China right?
They don't have the connection to it we do and probably don't get it.

I'd also wonder how the similarities between the Force and eastern religions causes any conflicts of interest....

 

So... We all (here in the US), say it's a 'Small World' .

Rilly ??
We Got NO IDEA !

Nope !
We Really Don'T !

Oh by the way ... Rian = Trilogy, gets 'Cancelled' ... ?

.... nope.

 

Lets see now......

It's 2022/23. After a couple of years of Anthology movies AND a TV show u have 2 pay 4 a couple (straight, gay, interracial, I don't care) watch an ad 4 the first movie of the Rian Johnson Trilogy.

Person 1. Hey look ANOTHER SW movie. (Moan voice)

Person 2. Yeah, do you want 2 c it?

1. Oh heck no!

2. Why? That blue skin female with the Red Eyes looks cool.

1. Remember TLJ? Well that same guy is directing this also.

2. Oh ok I'll wait for the download.

Yeah i think "creative differences" will kick in guys.

Memory of TLJ plus franchise fatiuge = no RJT

 

He was still given enough control to do what he did...a good director shouldn't need to explain their actions for their storytelling for every single thing almost...it's definitely more divisive than TFA, and I thought that TFA was divisive too.
.

 

For me it's the exact opposite way around. Yes, RJ didn't make the best Star Wars movie ever and I have some major issues with it. But it also got its ups, for example Rian's ability and passion to do something new.
Furthermore Rian showed with his movie that he's perfect for a trilogy which is set free from all the limitations of the current saga (no established characters etc.). This is something people need to understand and to accept.

But eventually people shouldn't take their personal feelings about a movie to predict the future. Stephen King also released books which were hated, but he still kept on writing and had huge successes.

Rian Johnson's "trilogy" (remember he's just responsible for the first movie) will happen.

 

As long as Disney gains a shitload of money they won’t cancel anything.

 

Not quite true. They're in the position they can be picky and cancel projects, as they have enough investments to not need to do Star Wars movies for a while. I could see the franchise focusing on anthology films for a 10-year spell, and a serialised live action TV series alongside it.

Whilst I'm a Star Wars fanboy, it makes more sense all their sci fi attention is spent on making Avatar 2 the biggest film of all time.

 

What do you mean Kennedy is missing too?

 

I don't know about missing but her public profile has declined since TFA and RO.

 

In what way has her public profile declined?

 

I think we as fans probably see this question with really different perspective.
For Dinsey and Lucasfilm I see more factors:

1. The movie was divisive: it means X% of the fans like it and X% of the fans didn't (1 point for each). Even die hard fans are divided. Are they happy with it? I don't guess so... But probably was expected in some way. I don't see this is a reason to stop those plans. The division has born from the risk they take with the movie. And the plot was aproved by all of them (1 poitn for Rian in). (RJ in 2 - RJ out 1)
2. Box office: TFA was huge money. We all know why: 40 years after original movie, 33 more or less from TROJ... Poom! New Episode! The expectations was sooo huge, almost 2billion$. Honestly I was expecting this movie between 1billion$ and 1,5billion$. Why? Few reasons: some people didn't like that much the TFA, it was just next part after 2 years from the last. A lot of people was going to the previous even without being real fans. After watched it they remind they were not such a fans. And then expectatives playing their role... So right now is around 1,3billion$. Not the best, they could achieve 1,5billion& without the division between fans probably. Still good enough (1 point for each). (RJ in 3- RJ out 2)
3. Rian Johnsons itself: you can search for the comments by KK and Lucasfilm people, even Dinsey. They love how he has worked. They like him, they probably like his ideas and he is coming from a really good previous works. The fact that they offer him the trilogy even before the premiere (a bit of marketing strategy, of course) also means that they value other things that he has for sure. (1 point for Rian in) (RJ in 4 - RJ out 2).
4. Stupid one: little reasons. First, even if we don't know, probably it is already a little development or ideas about what this new trilogy could be about and probably they like it. Maybe is something rough, but for sure there were some chats about it. Second, Disney or Lucasfilm didn't shake at all when they had to fired people or go for reshoots (don't think I need to explain that, we all know) so the fact they go till the end with TLJ give them the same responsability than Rian Johnson. I would say another point for Rian.

So, RJ in 5 - RJ out 2

Maybe that was a really stupid way to see it... Maybe I am not right at all. But it seems pretty logic for me