It’s official: “This week Lucasfilm exec Kathleen Kennedy confirmed to reporter Erick Weber that a standalone Star Wars movie focusing on bounty hunter Boba Fett is no longer in development. While the project had never been officially announced, it was known to be a piece in the parade of “anthology” movies planned in the universe.” This was already highly likely, considering that Disney previously announced that they were making a TV show called The Mandalorian — but now it’s official.
We will now pause while everyone with an opinion on the subject counts coup. Gonna be honest, here: I don’t trust simple answers to complicated questions involving tons of money. More to the point: neither does Disney. They put up several billion dollars in order to acquire this particular intellectual property, and the Mouse has a dizzying number of blunt instruments with which to hammer this issue back down until it’s flush with the surface and generating revenue. They will adapt and overcome their Star Wars problem. Don’t know how they will, but they will.
I imagine they’ve already turned a profit on the franchise. They can just quit while they’re ahead. Also, they don’t have to worry about competing against it in the future. If they decide not to do any more Star Wars movies for a while, they still win.
Well, when the person in charge of the property has made it clear that her top priorities are not to make money or make enjoyable films (at least for the core fans) it makes it somewhat difficult to do those things. Considering that Disney has renewed her contract, it seems their priorities are also different- at least for now.
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At this point, they are all the Joker in Dark Knight setting piles of money on fire.
They have made some pretty questionable choices. That last Star Wars movie was a dud.
Frankly, the problem with The Last Jedi was that they did not do a very good job of tying the various scenes together. The gambling planet was pretty awesome. Rey’s training by Luke was also cool. The fight at the gates of the abandoned base was cool. The stuff connecting all of that varied between sub-par and downright horrible.
Those big racing creatures on the gambling planet were the best part of the whole movie.
Eh. Sure, free all the giant space puppies, but leave the *children* in vile slavery…..
“Solo” wasn’t awful .. it was uneven, it was strange in spots, it overplayed *and* underplayed backstory .. but still better than “Phantom Menace”.
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That said, I suspect Mr. Lane of being a tad too optimistic here.
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Cat’s opinion is .. Disney is trying to get through the promised “third trilogy”** .. and will then put the franchise “on ice” for a decade.
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At this point, they’re into diminishing-returns, they still haven’t tackled the disjointed dog-vomit George pushed out as the “first trilogy”, it’s unclear exactly where canon stops and starts, and the side-projects have stopped bringing in the *really* big bucks.
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I’m expecting Episode 9 to be a “homecoming” .. they’re pulling back in some names from the last *successful* films .. but with Kennedy still in charge, I don’t know whether it’ll be good or just more dog-vomit.
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Still .. Disney has put big moneymaking properties out to pasture for a decade or more in the past .. and it’s not like they don’t have other properties waiting to bring back ..
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Let some new storytelling technology mature a little, let the current stories merge into the cultural fabric, let the writers get a better handle on the politics ..
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Mew
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** the three George Lucas allegedly had already written, way back in 1978***
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*** I recall an interview, in the Carter years, where ol’ George claimed he had plotted out *nine* films in the universe .. and that he and Spielberg thought the middle trilogy made the best pitch to Hollywood…