Rian Johnson still in the mix for new Star Wars Movies

[_caleb]

I think i tagged you once...for comedic effect.

But since 2019...I haven’t really addressed you directly. We need our “space”

What “assertion”
Did I dodge?

Just to recap...you can go back and read the 3,000 posts if you want...

1. I think Kennedy deserved to be fired for allowing bad movies and hiring bad people to do them.
2. They didn’t...and though i don’t agree with it...I see Iger in that. He’s vain and weighed the PR implications
3. Star Wars has done a near 180 since. Fight that and be wrong.
4. She is 6 months from contract ending - on an option that was not acknowledged by Disney. Her public interviews/appearances have been drastically reduced. Again, fight that and be wrong.

If you want a good depiction....roll the tape of the opening ceremony for sequel land in Anaheim in 2019. Notice anything?

There is also the optics.
This is older...and not exactly the AP...but read her quotes about the need for change and direction. Someone had a lot of nuts in 2016...

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy Made It Clear She Wanted To Fundamentally Change The Star Wars Brand - Bounding Into Comics

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed that she set out to fundamentally change the Star Wars brand once Disney acquired the company.

www.google.com

But how’d that go? Unless I’m mistaken...by far the most successful entry by Disney is a show about a boba fett clone and a cute mini-yoda...

That is both a success with understanding the IP and a COMPLETE failure acknowledgement by the braintrust. That is ground for fire in Hollywood. It is. I’d submit that only Disney - worried about optics - have the patience to not clean house immediately.


For some reason...this topic has to be a rant. I started it...I made fun of the box office charts for the farce awakens and the last Johnson...saying they didn’t cover the problem. Well they didn’t...but I was mean about it. Mistakes were made.

But I’ll venture two things that color this snit:
1. I’m not always right
2. Annoyingly...sometimes I am.

Neither you nor I determine the fate of a Hollywood exec. But if this is a”game”...im
Up 10 points in the third quarter. You gotta shut down the run game and air it out.

Kennedy wanted to change Star Wars to include women. She has. Not just with Rey and Leah and Rose Tico from the films you didn’t like, but also Bo Katan, Cara Dune (RIP), Ahsoka Tano, and Fennec Shand from the shows you do (and will!) like.

And that‘s what this all comes down to—Star Wars creatives and execs have taken things in directions some fans don’t like. I’m fine with that! But the QAnon-level conspiracy theories about Kennedy being sidelined by Lucas in the dark shadows might be interesting fanfic, but it’s not necessary.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Kennedy wanted to change Star Wars to include women. She has. Not just with Rey and Leah and Rose Tico from the films you didn’t like, but also Bo Katan, Cara Dune (RIP), Ahsoka Tano, and Fennec Shand from the shows you do (and will!) like.

And that‘s what with all comes down to—Star Wars creatives and execs have taken things in directions some fans don’t like. I’m fine with that! But the QAnon-level conspiracy theories about Kennedy being sidelined by Lucas in the dark shadows might be interesting fanfic, but it’s not necessary.

I don’t subscribe to any of those theories...hell - I don’t even know them...

But the desire to “diversify” doesn’t shield that it wasn’t don’t correctly.

Disney bought Star Wars for IP and money. As we discussed above...they have SOME of both.
That may not be abject failure...but it’s somewhere on the sliding scale.

More strong female characters...that makes complete business sense. Cracking the foundation of the mythology to do it? Just no. And you pay the price.

I’d also point out those characters you listed include a lot of filoni and favreau...who were not written by Kennedy’s handpicked, disgraced, fired story group (that happened...look it up)...
The one went crazy Q and got canned...but that was nuts and did happen

And here we are: just beating our heads off opposite sides of the same wall

 

[Screamface]

Kennedy wanted to change Star Wars to include women.

Star Wars included women. George's sequel trilogy had a female lead. Stop with this nonsense.

 

[_caleb]

Star Wars included women. George's sequel trilogy had a female lead. Stop with this nonsense.

It’s only nonsense because you’re not keeping up. Watch the video we were referring to and then get back to us.

 

[erasure fan1]

If you want a good depiction....roll the tape of the opening ceremony for sequel land in Anaheim in 2019. Notice anything?

This is probably the best gauge of how people feel about Kennedys star wars. Galaxys edge should have had lines into the next state. Yet Disneyland had historic attendance lows. So if Kennedy had made any positive impact on the star wars legacy, that would have never happened.

 

[Mmoore29]

This is probably the best gauge of how people feel about Kennedys star wars. Galaxys edge should have had lines into the next state. Yet Disneyland had historic attendance lows. So if Kennedy had made any positive impact on the star wars legacy, that would have never happened.

They said they didn't want lines like that, and they designed the park to prevent that.

Also, everyone likes to say "I see toys moldering on shelves," but I see toys flying off considerably. Star Wars toys are still a huge deal.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

This is probably the best gauge of how people feel about Kennedys star wars. Galaxys edge should have had lines into the next state. Yet Disneyland had historic attendance lows. So if Kennedy had made any positive impact on the star wars legacy, that would have never happened.

Well yeah...reception has not been great (now masked by covid...Disney lucks out)...

But I meant who did Iger haul up on stage to pump up the crowd? Who were mostly reporters, LFL staff and imagineering?

Didn’t see daisy or Kath up there? More of an “apology” to the Reagan era

They said they didn't want lines like that, and they designed the park to prevent that.

Also, everyone likes to say "I see toys moldering on shelves," but I see toys flying off considerably. Star Wars toys are still a huge deal.

There are hardly any toys ON the shelf. Check a target and see the 8 foot wide “section”....then go to a Barnes and Noble and see a 600 sf shrine to Harry Potter.

That’s not completely predictive...as online sales are an ever larger portion of the take...but Merch demand drop isn’t a fabrication.
I can’t dig up the articles since 2017 if you really are gonna question this...seems pointless though.

 

[Mmoore29]

Well yeah...reception has not been great (now masked by covid...Disney lucks out)...

But I meant who did Iger haul up on stage to pump up the crowd? Who were mostly reporters, LFL staff and imagineering?

Didn’t see daisy or Kath up there? More of an “apology” to the Reagan era



There are hardly any toys ON the shelf. Check a target and see the 8 foot wide “section”....then go to a Barnes and Noble and see a 600 sf shrine to Harry Potter.

That’s not completely predictive...as online sales are an ever larger portion of the take...but Merch demand drop isn’t a fabrication.
I can’t dig up the articles since 2017 if you really are gonna question this...seems pointless though.

In his book, Iger calls Horn the best hire he made. Why? Horn likes to say he'll "calm the waters", but he's really an arsonist who happens to be a firefighter. Remember how he screwed over Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne in order for Warners to fully take over New Line?

Horn was never fit to be in the studio chair. He resembles no one so much in the world of finance and companies past as Al Dunlap, the man who made a big reputation out of downsizing to "make companies great" but also buttressed that up and the image of his achieving turnarounds with accounting fraud, notably at Sunbeam.

Either Dick Cook should've come back, or someone like Meryl Poster should've gotten the job, or preferably both of them, with Bergman as their second-in-command, since Bergman's a company man, through and through.

 

[erasure fan1]

They said they didn't want lines like that, and they designed the park to prevent that.

Yes they did. But we are talking about one of, if not the most, ravenous fan base ever. So if they wanted to show up, they would have. Couple that with Disney fans, the same ones that put lines around the park for days when Mermaid opened in DL. And that says everything in my opinion.

But I meant who did Iger haul up on stage to pump up the crowd? Who were mostly reporters, LFL staff and imagineering?

Very true as well. Not Rey, Poe, Finn but Lucas himself with Luke and Han.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Star Wars included women. George's sequel trilogy had a female lead. Stop with this nonsense.

LOL.

*A* female lead is not equity when females are half the population but get way less than half the leads.

The original trilogy had one female lead. The prequel trilogy had one female lead... who existed to be the love interest of the male lead and eventually mother of the twins, then gets killed off. The later prequels went *backward* in representation.

Not to mention the almost complete lack of female roles that aren't lead.

 

[BrianLo]

Galaxy's Edge Attendance was actually quite robust pre-COVID. It's a shame the narrative will forever be it failed because Disney successfully told everyone to stay away one summer.

 

[_caleb]

This is probably the best gauge of how people feel about Kennedys star wars. Galaxys edge should have had lines into the next state. Yet Disneyland had historic attendance lows. So if Kennedy had made any positive impact on the star wars legacy, that would have never happened.

People line up for $4.49 Baby Yoda blue macarons. Success!

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

LOL.

*A* female lead is not equity when females are half the population but get way less than half the leads.

The original trilogy had one female lead. The prequel trilogy had one female lead... who existed to be the love interest of the male lead and eventually mother of the twins, then gets killed off. The later prequels went *backward* in representation.

Not to mention the almost complete lack of female roles that aren't lead.

Here’s where we agree...

They could have done a better job on diversifying in 1999...

I think Ashoka in clone wars was almost a direct acknowledgment of that.

But then again...a coherent story in the prequels would have made EVERY character/more popular.

If they ever make a sequel trilogy...i’m sure they’ll understand that story consistency and harnessing the best parts of the OT will be key

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

People line up for $4.49 Baby Yoda blue macarons. Success!

As they say: “what the hell were they going for with this mongrelized mos eisley/Jabbas palace land??”

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Galaxy's Edge Attendance was actually quite robust pre-COVID. It's a shame the narrative will forever be it failed because Disney successfully told everyone to stay away one summer.

In the overcrowded/under re-invested wdw...or the more selective, AP based Disneyland??

 

[Screamface]

LOL.

*A* female lead is not equity when females are half the population but get way less than half the leads.

The original trilogy had one female lead. The prequel trilogy had one female lead... who existed to be the love interest of the male lead and eventually mother of the twins, then gets killed off. The later prequels went *backward* in representation.

Not to mention the almost complete lack of female roles that aren't lead.

So now stories need to all be equitable on gender? Why not on race? Why not on weight? Why not on ethnicity?

George made his story his way. My comment was referencing the false claim that Star Wars didn't include women. When in both the original trilogies, the smartest main character was a woman.

Padme is a smart successful politician fighting against corruption her evil male husband is helping to install because he's an idiot. You can spin this stuff all sorts of ways.

When you get into the realms of demanding equity in art, you're not creating art.

 

[MisterPenguin]

So now stories need to all be equitable on gender? Why not on race? Why not on weight? Why not on ethnicity?

George made his story his way. My comment was referencing the false claim that Star Wars didn't include women. When in both the original trilogies, the smartest main character was a woman.

Padme is a smart successful politician fighting against corruption her evil male husband is helping to install because he's an idiot. You can spin this stuff all sorts of ways.

When you get into the realms of demanding equity in art, you're not creating art.

A token inclusion isn't inclusion.

 

[BrianLo]

In the overcrowded/under re-invested wdw...or the more selective, AP based Disneyland??

Both. DLR had a bad summer, which is well known. But the Fall was fine. The RoTR opening drove demand before the abrupt closure. Unfortunately meaning it was not even open a full quarter yet.

Pointing to just Disneyland's bad summer is what we have. It's really all that we'll be left with as the narrative, rightly or wrongly. Disneyland attendance will be garbage for the foreseeable years and by then the product will be old hat.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Both. DLR had a bad summer, which is well known. But the Fall was fine. The RoTR opening drove demand before the abrupt closure. Unfortunately meaning it was not even open a full quarter yet.

Pointing to just Disneyland's bad summer is what we have. It's really all that we'll be left with as the narrative, rightly or wrongly. Disneyland attendance will be garbage for the foreseeable years and by then the product will be old hat.

No...pointing out that people in Florida will line up for ANYTHING and drink the sand distorts the Star Wars land as well.

Evidence: the line for mine train and slinky dog.

 

[BrianLo]

No...pointing out that people in Florida will line up for ANYTHING and drink the sand distorts the Star Wars land as well.

Evidence: the line for mine train and slinky dog.

Again... I am talking about DLR. There was very high demand primarily because of RoTR just prior to Pandemic closure.

I again want to point out we'll simply never truly get the full picture. Maybe demand would never manifest itself, but we simply have no evidence for or against it. Summer 2019 is a poor snapshot and that's all we'll really ever get. Because again, the full product was never actually open for a full fiscal quarter.