Future and potential Star Wars films - news and speculation

Tony EH

🤣 A Rey movie.

Let's hope these new movie announcements go the same way as the Patty Jenkins one.

Why won't Disney just fucking learn?

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464657#Comment_120464657

the doubling down is fascinating , it must be weird working for Disney these days, they have some bubble going on

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464657#Comment_120464657

Thing is, Disney are not mugs, despite the Jackie Chan "Wot??" we might be feeling about the news.

You don't get to be the dominant force in Western Media by not knowing your market. So as much as we might sneer and boo the idea of Rey returning ... clearly there's something telling the bean counters it makes sense. You don't pick that character so glibly without market research insinuating potential success.

Disney aren't immune to failure - they came so close to closing their doors pre Little Mermaid it's kinda crazy - but it's rare enough they let go of the wheel that badly. And I'd be confident enough they learned lessons from the sequel trilogy.

I'm not interested in Rey starring in a movie, but maybe the kiddos and girls who did like her are excited. Easy to lose sight of demographics who watch these things too.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464774#Comment_120464774

not read into the story, but wasnt the head of Marvel fired recently , and it seemed to be he wanted to control costs at Marvel, whereas the mantra by Iger or whoever was "Box Office" , so not sure if the bean counters are in control there. With the recent drying up of free money, there might be ripples that will force Disney's hand in the next year or 2

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464774#Comment_120464774

I'd be willing to put money on the largest demographic for Star Wars being 40 year old saddos trying to relive the magic of the cinematic wonder they saw as kids. And sure, Disney is interested in new blood as it were, especially girl blood - hence Rey being this ridiculous character that trounces all the boys etc.

But surely, they've been taking notice at the sheer rejection of their sequel trilogy and the mostly lacklustre response to the bulk of their TV fare?

I cannot imagine that anyone, anyone, was clamouring for a Rey movie, especially on the back of the bad taste that the sequels left in everyone's mouth.

Like yourself, I'm not interested. But I may have been more warm to the idea had Rey actually been a good, well written, character. Or at least something beyond "Great, can and will do anything and everything cos whatever".

Into the bargain, I think it might be fair to say that a lot of people have rejected this era they keep trying to push as well. Disney shit the bed with the state of the galaxy, as it were, and created (and I use that word lightly) a half assed "universe" which made no bloody sense. I have no faith that they can salvage that even if this thing is supposed to be taking place 9 years later.

In any case, as I said, fingers crossed this will end up being memory hole'd like a lot of other announced Star Wars projects.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464852#Comment_120464852

I don't think so. I see enough Grogu backpacks and the like to speculate the franchise appears popular enough with kiddos, that something less pandering to us grey heads makes simple economic sense. We've seen that with the TV material with its cartoons - stands to reason it might eventually pivot on Film as well.

Not sure Rey is the right launchpad for this, for sure - but again, what do I know? Of the grouped opinions I've ever read WRT the Sequel Trilogy, I've never seen any from someone under 18. Disney would be fools not to pivot towards the younger audiences to keep the franchise relevant and profitable - even if inevitably that might cause tension with the older audience annoyed because <insert reasons>.

I don't generally buy into the "they're films for kids about Space Wizards", especially in light of output like Andor showing the kind of mature range the universe can accommodate ... but equally, sometimes it is worth remembering that .. yeah. Foundationally, it's a film series for kids, about Space Wizards; those demographics mightn't be champing at the bit for Rey specifically, but easier to fashion a film from a preexisting character than a film centred around someone new.

As to Rey herself? I'm not so dismissive because as we've already seen, her backstory was rewritten (to placate the angry fan cohort; that went well), I'd suspect the same will happen again. Set it far enough into the future that enough time can pass & the writers just ignore the Palpatine stuff.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120465113#Comment_120465113

Grogu's biggest draw was probably "women of a certain age". For the first time ever I saw middle aged women talking about Star Wars and that was purely down to the Baby Yoda show. They're most likely the ones forking out for merch backpacks for the tykes too. Jesus my own Mrs was asking when the next Mandalorian episode was out during S01 and she never gave a tinkers cuss about any of this crap before.

But the core audience is still probably blokes and it always will be, whether they're 18 or "grey heads". Sure, Disney need to find new blood as I said, but pushing a characterless nothing supergirl like Rey is not the way to do it. If Disney had been smart they'd have just quietly dropped the sequel era and its wretched "characters" and moved on to something else. They've shown that when they puts the minds to it they can produce great material, like 'Rogue One' and 'Andor', both of which have received (almost) universal praise from the fanbase, as far as I've been able to gather. While everything else has run the gamut of terrible to mediocre and has divided fans in the most palpable way.

As for Rey being rewritten to placate anyone, I've never really bought into that TBH. If the case truly was that Disney rewrote anything because of a noisy online retort, then they would probably just have dropped the character altogether after the sequels whimpered to a halt. But here we are with a Rey movie of all things. I think what really happened was that Disney had no story and no characters for their trilogy and were floundering around, making things up on the fly. Plus if they really thought that making Rey a relative of Palpatine (WTAF?) would placate angry fans, then that only solidifies what I've thought about Disney's custodianship in that they just simply do not have the faintest idea what to do with this thing.

BattleCorp

Having watched the standard of writing and acting in the clip below, I think I'll be giving Star Wars a wide berth from now on.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1643539877617893376

Slydice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120463885#Comment_120463885

I'm not sure the art-style. I do recognise parts that I'm pretty sure remind me and feel like a Wallace and Gromit appearance.

MisterAnarchy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120463885#Comment_120463885

Are most of the characters in that trailer female ?

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467383#Comment_120467383

Looked pretty evenly split to me (with a few random indistinct aliens who could've been either).

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466476#Comment_120466476

Haven't watched anything beyond episode 3, but fuck me that's bad.

It's like some Youtube fan effort.

silverharp

looks like even the media are turning against the show, not good for the Flagship series

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/the-mandalorian-season-3-fan-backlash-1235369277/

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467459#Comment_120467459

The Mandalorian season 3 has been a bizarre case of a show completely without an ounce of purpose, direction or energy. I wasn't incensed by the Jack Black stuff because at this stage it's like, sure, why not guys; not like they're even trying anymore so why get angry? At least that episode felt like it wanted to have a little fun - and that alone made a refreshing change from the tedious & pompous "This is the way" Boba Fett cosplayers we've been hanging around with.

Dave Filoni increasingly feels less like some Star Wars equivalent of Kevin Feige, and more like a spoofer fanboy; one who just wants to bash all his toys together without knowing how to construct a coherent narrative - or characters worth a damn. At this point I'm not worried about interest in a Rey centred film, but Dave Filoni turning the franchise into this treadmill of humourless canon-suffocating rubbish only internet fanboys will lap up.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466693#Comment_120466693

Oh it looks like Aardman, but the characters don't have that rictus expression the studio has used throughout the entirety of its catalogue; I'm not surprised 'cos it's a very goofy style that mightn't have worked with Star Wars

Relikk

Favreau is the main showrunner and writer, not Filoni. Filoni has co-written a couple of this seasons episodes, sure, one of those we have yet to see, but he has only solo written two episodes previously, The Gunslinger from season one and The Jedi from season two. Filoni's efforts in animation are also quite good overall, so I can't agree that Filoni is overly affecting anything anyone is currently seeing in the live action series.

Tony EH

@pixelburp

The Mandalorian season 3 has been a bizarre case of a show completely without an ounce of purpose, direction or energy. I wasn't incensed by the Jack Black stuff because at this stage it's like, sure, why not guys; not like they're even trying anymore so why get angry? At least that episode felt like it wanted to have a little fun - and that alone made a refreshing change from the tedious & pompous "This is the way" Boba Fett cosplayers we've been hanging around with.

I'll probably get around to watching the rest of series 3 at some stage, but TBH I just don't have a goo for it at the moment. To me the show reached its natural conclusion at the end of series 2 when baby Yoda was handed off to Luke. As you say, it feels like the show it just treading water now, with any purposeful reason to swim on.

As for being angry etc, you're right, why bother? But that feels like the default state of reaction to the entire franchise under Disney.

Dave Filoni increasingly feels less like some Star Wars equivalent of Kevin Feige, and more like a spoofer fanboy; one who just wants to bash all his toys together without knowing how to construct a coherent narrative - or characters worth a damn. At this point I'm not worried about interest in a Rey centred film, but Dave Filoni turning the franchise into this treadmill of humourless canon-suffocating rubbish only internet fanboys will lap up.

I've never bought into the Filoni baloney, no matter what level of input he has. Some fans seem to want to think that he's the natural successor to Lucas, but I've only ever just seen him as a chancer in a cowboy hat.

Theboinkmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464657#Comment_120464657

They just seem to love losing money.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464657#Comment_120464657

This sounds a bit like the Jon Snow-centered Thrones sequel, but even more pointless because in Star Wars everything has been resolved twice and now they're somehow (Palpatine has returned) going to have to unresolve it to justify a new story based around a not-very-interesting character...

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120469646#Comment_120469646

4 out of 2022's Top 10 Worldwide grosses were Disney movies; so far Ant-Man 3 sits atop 2023's, and there are a number of releases coming who might join it by December.

You may not like Rey - I don't and have immediate questions about any movie involving her - but I'd never bet against Disney making bank. They didn't swallow 20th Century Fox like it was a snack, without having some idea how to monetise its ideas.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120469673#Comment_120469673

There are story ideas that could work using Rey, if the concept is her seeking out Jedi to join a new Academy: you could have a fun bit of planet hopping as she tries to find potential candidates, racing the inevitable Sith who'll show up trying to do same. If it's just another Super-Weapon story, then boo.

nix

Yeah but the thing with antman, its cost to make/market cost more than what it has earned last i checked. So the box office it made is a loss for disney regardless.. Also to take into account, Disney dont get the entirety of the box office, the theaters get a big chunk of that, im not sure what the breakdown of that is though, i would guess its a lot though as it wouldnt be worthwhile otherwise to run a theater 😄

Penn

One thing the Rey movie has going for it is that, regardless of her taking on the Skywalker name at the end of the last one, this isn't part of the "Skywalker Saga"; the trilogy of trilogies. It's no longer beholden to being part of that story. They now have greater freedom to use Rey to help shepard in the new Jedi Order and what the Jedi will be facing going forward.

Rian Johnson almost helped do the same thing by having Rey not be from a special lineage, until JJ Abrams came in and said "No, she's a Palpatine..... but now she chooses to be a Skywalker!" Hopefully now she's able to just be her own character. Her character had potential until she got saddled with carrying the Palpatine & Skywalker lineages.

One thing they need to do though is make some advancements in the tech used. All the displays for computers, targeting systems etc are blocky Atari-type graphics with no detail. It's been about 80 years since Episode 1. Advance the tech. You already have perfect holograms, you can't have a computer display with more than 10 pixels?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120469760#Comment_120469760

For sure AntMan isn't a success, and possibly won't figure in the top 10 by year's end... But like I said there's other stuff coming that more than likely will. Disney's a behemoth and it'd take a real succession of true bombs to call It a crisis. I daresay they never wanna be a in a situation like the mid 80s ever again.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120469800#Comment_120469800

Ah no, the lo-fi analogue aesthetic is a cornerstone of Star Wars imo.

Penn

I just find it laughable at this stage. Absolutely perfect holograms beamed across the galaxy and displayed on a device you can hold in your hand. And ships have displays like this:

Tony EH

That's part of the charm.

buried

Yeah the pathetic writing and non existent character archetype that nobody can relate to isn't the problem.

Its the displays on the ships you see for two seconds, that's really what the problem is.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120470544#Comment_120470544

Calm down, I'm mostly just joking. Just find it funny.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120469975#Comment_120469975

Naw. I think you remove the lo-fi from Star Wars, you remove a key part of its charm and identity.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120470564#Comment_120470564

No need to tell me to calm down man, I find this whole hyped franchised debacle genuinely hilarious!

nix

Perhaps we can get a prequel movie or show to cover why the display for the computers/screens are never advanced 🤔😄

thegreengoblin

Slightly off topic, but anyone know if Return of the Jedi is being shown here as part of the 40th anniversary release? Seems to be US and UK only from what I can see.