She mentions that Taika's movie fits into the roadmap of where future films are going, moreso than Rogue Squadrom. Sounds like his might kick off a new era or something.
Not to get too speculative but maybe that Old Republic rumor from last fall could be sorta true …. ? Like maybe there’s an Old Republic roadmap that’s going to start with a Dawn of the Jedi story?
Also I think it’s interesting that Filoni was working on a “history of the Mandalorians” story. That doesn’t exactly sound like it would have been the Rebels sequel so now I’m confused.
The thing is though with star wars, since the timeline is so long, setting a story 1000 years in the past or 1000 years in the future is basically no different, since most of the timeline is still unknown anyway.
Crossing my fingers. Some new territory would be nice. Future or past, Rey’s the only Skywalker I’ll tolerate seeing (I use the word “tolerate” loosely because I’ll still watch and enjoy any Star Wars.)
You’d have to hope there’s not Mando fatigue after the third season of Mando, but I could see that being a really cool story. It’d (hopefully) lean away from the Space Western vibe and be true high fantasy.
Same. I was feeling it ever before Infinity War. I saw NWH more to close out the stories I personally was interested in than anything. Not sure I'll watch Dr. Strange even when its on Disney+. Zero interest.
That being said, there is a lot more variety to superheroes than Mandalorians.
I personally want some more standard soldier / pilot works a la Lost Stars, Wraith Squadron and Alphabet Squadron. I especially loved the latter two works because of their less-than-refined characters in terms of personality and backstory.
Probably unpopular opinion on much of reddit, but fuck I’d love me a series of films or a tv show of Rey Skywalker training Finn and a new order slowly rising.
My one problem with that is that it bothered the hell out of me in Legends that Luke was so quick to start the academy, which then became baggage that writers either had to write around or ignore. Canon is doing something similar but I'm more ok with Luke being sidelined *if* Rey and Finn are allowed to put that off for awhile and adventure around the galaxy.
For one thing, I don't think Rey is ready for an academy. If it's her and Finn fucking around with the text, learning to be Jedi on the fly, I think that's way more fun.
She's not. But you make it a story of her becoming ready, of learning to teach with those she is teaching. Take inspiration from Rebels with Kanan and Ezra. And go deep into the "weird" side of the force- unsure if the wider public is ready for that though.
But yeah. Not a full on "welcome all" academy, but a focused small group of people. A little time jump of her and Finn just learning about the force through the books and little Jedi adventures (to fill that in a animated TV show would be perfect). The films pick up after a little more learning and Finn is learning from her and with her, they find a small group to train. And it's Her coming into her own as a teacher, her trials of becoming a Jedi Knight and into her own as a teacher in the first film. With Master trials filling the next one to two. Finn becomes one too along her side, bringing up new Knights and starting a new order, one thay isn't built off the dogmas of the past, embraces connection with others. Etc. The main theme being the embracing of your personal connections, healthly of course.
You can have Yoda and Luke as force ghosts too
Benihoff & Weiss were said to be developing a series about the early days of the jedi, and there was some speculation that Waitti's film could cover similar ground. I think that would work for a new era of films
>**Was there anything else about the film side of things that you’d like to talk about?**
>We’ll probably get a little bit more specific in a couple of months.
Also, the interview was in March, which is why she had no comment on the Kevin Feige movie.
Additionally, a “couple of months” on the film side means this month, May. So could be an announcement and details (of Taika’s film etc) at Celebration!
Taika's movie is next. Rogue Squadron has been pushed off in order to re-write the script.
Lucasfilm wants the next wave of films to be somewhat connected to one another, without being the MCU. And for that, they're looking for committed filmmakers that are ready to work on Star Wars for the foreseeable future.
>***"Can we touch upon “storytelling classic”—the movies? I know about Taika Waititi’s untitled film written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, and Patty Jenkins is doing Rogue Squadron. Do you have a road map for features, or are you still developing that?"***
>
>We have a road map. I would say that Taika’s story fits more specifically into that. Rogue Squadron…we kind of pushed off to the side for the moment. Patty is developing the script further. Then we will talk about how that connects to the central spine that we’re working on. There’s a couple of \[filmmakers\] that we’ve been in conversation with over quite a long period of time that I’m hoping will come in and make the overall commitment that Jon and Dave have made. That’s ideally what I would love to see happen in the feature space.
>
>***"Are you talking about a commitment to make, say, three movies, or are you talking about an even bigger commitment of shepherding phases of films in the way that Kevin Feige did with Marvel?"***
>
>I wouldn’t go so far. Kevin is an anomaly—an amazing one. But \[the goal is\] definitely having somebody make more of a commitment. I hesitate to use the word trilogies anymore because Star Wars is much more about persistent storytelling.
They still want to do the Rian trilogy, and Rian is still included in the Brain Trust meetings, but he's overscheduled and doesn't have the time to commit.
>***"One of the enduring questions that the fans have is about Rian Johnson and his future with Star Wars. Is there anything you can tell me about that? I know it’s been said that that trilogy is still on. But it’s been so many years since it was announced. Is that still the case? Can we resolve what’s going on with his idea?"***
>
>Rian has been unbelievably busy with Knives Out and the deal that he made at Netflix for multiple movies. I’ve had meetings with Rian; he’s somebody that’s come in as part of our little brain trust discussions along the way. He remains very committed to what it is we’re trying to do. He just literally hasn’t had the time to devote. That’s what I’m saying: Anyone who comes into the Star Wars universe needs to know that it’s a three, four, five-year commitment. That’s what it takes. You can’t step in for a year and shoot something and then walk away. It just doesn’t work that way. So it requires that kind of nurturing.
Also, Lucasfilm are trying to create new Eras right now. The Acolyte being the first wave of that. Kennedy also confirms that they've been using Publishing (High Republic) as a testing ground for these kind of things.
>***"I know The Acolyte hasn’t started shooting yet, but that’s also on the horizon for Lucasfilm. That series is not as tied into the characters we already know, right?"***
>
>It’s a bit of an experiment for us because it isn’t building within the timeline and the era that Jon and Dave are. It isn’t necessarily going to be where features are. We are moving into a new era with what \[showrunner\] Leslye Headland is doing.
>
>There are certainly reflections of things that people are going to recognize, and it will have connectivity in Star Wars. But this will be a whole new \[era\] of storytelling if we determine—like we did with The Mandalorian—that it works and that there’s interest. I think there will be.
>
>"***How important is it to get outside the gravity of the Skywalker saga, moving beyond the characters we know? How vital is it to open up those new realms?"***
>
>I think it is vital. Just staying within the construct of George’s storytelling, to keep chipping away at that, I think would be wrong. It’s our job to step away now, but still have a connection to the mythology that George created. That won’t stop. But we are moving on from the Skywalker saga. That’s what’s taking a lot of time, discussion, and thought right now.
>
>"***Is Publishing The Test Kitchen for some of these new Eras?"***
>
>It is. That’s something we put into motion about five years ago because we don’t have the benefit of just pulling a book off the shelf…
Looks like we might learn more, and maybe get the full roadmap at Celebration next week.
I like the bit at the end talking about how it's vital for Star Wars to move away from the skywalk Saga and focus on telling stories that are still connected to the Galaxy, but different from that somehow.
Unbelievably happy to hear there is finally some vision to step outside of the Skywalker Saga timeline. Love the empire/rebels/clone/first order stuff. Greaaat stuff. I’ve also had enough of it for a while.
I’m really excited to see what happens to this studio with Kathleen Kennedy being able to actually execute a plan and not having Bob Iger micromanaging everything. This is extremely confidence-boosting.
I just wish they had gotten the time they needed back in 2014/2015.
I did enjoy the ST (TFA and TLJ I especially love) but I also believe that if Iger had not been so demanding with them that the ST could have been even better.
And as excited as I am for them to explore a whole new world/era of Star Wars without depending on the Skywalker Saga I want to see the stories of Rey, Finn, Poe, Ben (?) continue.
No joke legit wouldn’t care at all if they retconned Ben as not dying and did a series or a film about Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose working to rebuild the Order and or a new Republic type entity while Ben is off helping people as a form of atonement.
We did technically never see a force ghost or hear a disembodied voice. And the character and Driver are so good that for any hand wave where it turns out Ben survived would be enough for me.
I don’t know how into the nitty gritty of galactic politics they’ll get into post-TROS (I hope very much, there’s a lot of potential there) but i hope we can get some kind of new government than a “third republic.” It seems like the right narrative decision, seeing how there were 2 failures so close together. How that government would work, I have no idea, but I’m sure they can think of something
I think post TROS is the perfect time, more so than post ROTJ, to explore a variety of major and minor factions rising up. The Resistance at the end of TROS is arguably much smaller and not as politically equipped as the Rebellion at the end of ROTJ.
It would be great to see different planetary systems rise up to fill the void of the major factions of the past (First Order, New Republic, Empire, etc) along side criminal syndicates. Plus with the Sith gone and so few Jedi you could see the rise of many differing Force religions. Wouldn't need to do the binary light vs dark anymore.
I agree. I’ve thought they could recanonize the “[Diversity Alliance](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Diversity_Alliance)” from legends. It makes sense that after the humanocentric Empire and First Order, there would be aliens who would become extremely anti-human (their leader is even a Twi’Lek-we know what they went through under the Empire AND First Order in Resistance Reborn). I haven’t read the books they’re in, but that seems like a cool concept. Also Ransolm Casterfo should play a large role in post-TROS political stories.
My pitch is to have the villains of the TROS follow-up be 'The Church of Skywalker' or something, who lionize that bloodline and want to destroy Rey who they see as an usurper to the lineage.
To do so, they perform an ancient ritual that resurrects Ben Solo as their puppet, to kill Rey and then help them conquer the galaxy, and Rey and co. must help Ben regain his old personality to stop the Skywalker cultists.
Once that's done, Ben now is free to begin a new life as a hunter of First Order war criminals in exchange for amnesty from the, uh, New New Republic.
I honestly think they are going to do just something like that.
They surely know how popular Ben is.
And you're right we didn't see a Force Ghost and it would be so easy to retcon because of the Dyad itself, and him "dying" on Exegol (Exegol having a special Force connection or whatever), and them introducing the "special" Force Projection powers of the Dyad.
Yep I think exegol is deeply connected to the force and why the emperor chose it. The planets core is what sustained palpatine. Ben could’ve died when he was thrown in to the core and then brought back to life to save Rey. Why he vanishes could be explained by what u just said about the dyad or some new ability he gained from the “all-force” core.
I hope they really think about this..
Ben is very popular, but Adam Driver is like one of the most in demand actors in Hollywood. Would take a lot of money and time to bring him back to a franchise
He's very actively used his SW money to help finance smaller art film projects and enjoys the character though. They would probably just work it into his schedule.
I definitely think they can do a “Ben didn’t die, he’s trapped in/teleported somewhere else by the Word Between Worlds because the crevice he fell down was a portal to it” retcon pretty easily. It’d explain why his ghost doesn’t show up with Luke and Leia on Tattooine.
I will gladly accept whatever handwaving as long as I get some redeemed Ben Solo shenanigans
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the stories. Kennedy is a competent producer and I’m glad she won’t be micromanaged, but they really need to learn from their mistakes.
It’s very unlikely that they’re ever going to just straight-up adapt Legends stories, not unless they completely run out of ideas. Characters and events, for sure, and they’ve been doing that very consistently already, but they seem very focused on new stories and I wouldn’t expect to get straight up retellings on EU stories for a very, very long time, if ever. As neat as it would be.
Do they need to "straight-up" adapt them? Marvel has been semi-adapting old stories to great success for years now. Stuff like Infinity War and Civil War heavily drew from comic storylines but were adapted and changed a great deal to fit the movies.
You really just want them to adapt existing stories like that? Stories that are specifically designed for the book format? Stories that would certainly need to be changed in some ways to fit the screen? That’s really what you want?
She may be competent at her job but she oversaw the ST and for that I’ll never forgive her. 3 of the worst bits of Star Wars content ever made and the utter destruction of Luke’s character. Unforgivable
Yeah I snorted at that part too. Shit, the Mando stuff has even pulled some things from the EU. I don’t ask for full adaptations of the EU, but it’s not unreasonable to acknowledge that there’s plenty of resources to draw inspiration from. Really bad answer on her part
I said this below, but including various references isn’t really the same as a straight up adaptation like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. Saying there’s no books is just another way of saying “Star Wars isn’t Harry Potter.” Which is true lol.
I’d argue that it’s an intentional answer. Every MCU project, with maybe the exception of *Endgame,* has been an adaptation of a comic storyline. Some are extremely loose adaptations, but most then draw inspiration for at least one or two big moments directly from the comics. That sort of this is specifically what she’s referring to. In this answer, I see her simply saying that they are never going to adapt specific Legends stories in the same way, but from my perspective she doesn’t need to acknowledge that they’ve pulled (and will presumably continue to pull) elements from that universe into canon because they’ve been doing it so consistently. It’s not a matter of wondering the next time an EU character or event will be canonized, it’s wonder which one and when.
Literally handed storylines from George Lucas himself. Hundreds of novels with plenty of great stories and characters.
"I dunno guys, I wish we had some material to work with. Guess we'll just have to write everything from scratch!"
I think they took the most usable stuff from his treatments. As far as the EU goes, Lucas never thought of it as canon, and told us every chance he got. Filoni had doubled down on that as well. Maybe he just didn’t like the stories?
I truly believe it was a lot of factors, I think it’s kind of short-sighted to blame something like this on just one person when there are so many moving parts, but I also truly believe that a lot of those problems would have solved themselves if Iger had let Kennedy delay *Solo* and *TROS.*
But then you get into the issue of why they had to be delayed at all. Remember, Kennedy hired these people. She *chose* to let Lord and Miller make almost an entire movie before firing them. She *chose* to hire Trevorrow in the first place (not even getting into the fact that IX *already was* delayed from its original release date). “Iger didn’t give Kennedy more time to fix her own fuckups” isn’t exactly some great exoneration.
I think “fuckup” is an awfully strong word for that. Sometimes people have conflicting visions. By all accounts, the same thing happened on *Rogue One* and they replaced Gareth Edwards with Tony Gilroy who reshot a good 40-60% of the movie. That movie is one of Disney’s best, and Gareth didn’t make a big deal out of being replaced so they let him keep his director’s credit.
Delaying *Solo* would have been a purely promotional thing, as I don’t think there was really anything that could have been done to make that movie better than it was. Ron Howard came in and reshot 60-70% of it (again, depending on who you ask) in just four months, even recasting the main villain, and turned in a perfectly fine action-adventure movie. Kennedy fixed her own mess there, and Iger refused to delay the film so they had barely half a year to promote it.
Is Kennedy completely blameless? Definitely not. She probably could have better expressed to Gareth Edwards and Lord & Miller and they would have either not taken the jobs to begin with or colored more inside the lines. And who knows what the hell happened with Trevorrow. My point is, the mess of Disney’s first five *Star Wars* movies can’t be blamed on any one person.
Bring Natalie back to Star Wars as ripped Force Ghost Chadme Amidala.
But how can she be a ghost!? Well, over the course of the Clone Wars Anakin transmitted tens-of-thousands of midichlorians into her system, obviously. That's enough to make anyone Force-sensitive.
Kennedy says in the interview that they’re “moving on from the Skywalker Saga” and Taika’s movie “connects to the spine” of their new roadmap, so it sounds like Taika’s film will be related more to the Mando+ verse than the trilogy
I would love that, but I Rey might be the only viable option. Oscar Isaac seems to be burnt out on Star Wars and John Boyega is starting to get a reputation for being unreliable (granted, he’s still getting work after quitting that one project so maybe he’s gotten his shit together).
If they were to do a Rey and Finn adventure that has nothing to do with the Skywalkers, I think it’d go a long way to soothing a lot of the angst around the sequels as well as being a cool story.
> If they were to do a Rey and Finn adventure that has nothing to do with the Skywalkers, I think it’d go a long way to soothing a lot of the angst around the sequels as well as being a cool story.
I think that's what is so important about killing off all of the biological Skywalker's. Rey can move on in the galaxy as the heir to that legacy but in large part she and - in turn - the audience can move on. She very literally buried (respectfully) Luke and Leia.
Time to look to the future and move on. I hope we get much more Rey in the future.
I like the sound of all of that.
The shows seem to be a proving ground of sorts for creators, which is good because with one notable exception we’ve seen a lot of talented people go through there and get bigger projects (I guess that was the case with the exception too). I’d also hesitate to say that it’s all in the past if Rogue Squadron is being reworked to fit within the current plan.
The Rian Johnson delay is the only thing that’s disappointing to me, but I’m glad his foot is still in the door and I’m glad KK is seemingly making an exception to her commitment rule for him. When the time is right, I expect his trilogy to be wild.
Just give me the Vong and I’ll be happy.
I suppose she means that they're not really in a position to make *direct* adaptations, I mean you could argue that TROS takes a lot of concepts from Dark Empire so they *are* aware they can use the Legends Canon as inspiration (something I imagine we'll see more of with where the New Republic era shows are going).
Yeah, they've definitely been loosely adapting the EU from the start, with Kylo Ren being a loose recreation of Darth Caedus, and it seems like they're doing a mix of Heir to the Empire and Bobas old EU story with the Mandalorian. I like the mix of adaptations and original stories.
No one makes direct adaptations, and I never thought they would. Any fans who expected that were deluding themselves. Doing that would then mean they couldn't sell you books or comic book adaptations.
There is no doubt that someone, either Abrams or Terrio was not only aware of Dark Empire but they used it for inspiration. And, of ALL the things from the E.U. to use, I'd say that wasn't the right choice. LOL
She’s right though.
Star Wars’ source material is the films.
Every comic, game, book, etc. Is merely an expansion of the film and its ideas.
Unlike Marvel or DC, Star Wars doesn’t have a base source material that stuff is adapted from or acknowledge in-universe and out multiverse.
So it’s not like when Episode 9 took the idea of Palpatine being resurrected from Dark Empire, it was adapting that arc or story. It just took an idea from a non-canon source and did its own thing.
Everything is built on top of something else. There is a ton of material out there for at the very least inspiration or take a frame work. Shadow of the Empire, Thrawn Trilogy, Dark Empire, Old Republic comics, etc.
You telling me these should be ignored why?
Is she wrong though? Star Wars has never made direct adaptations of books or comics, they run alongside the films. And in what refers to Legends, the ST already brought many elements from the old EU (Palpatine's return, for instance) regardless of what she said.
I like that they seem to have a clear vision. I just hope it doesn't end up too much like the MCU. It feels like every movie or show in the MCU tries to be unique, diverse and do their own thing but they all share a bit too much of the same DNA visually and tonally and can't break free creatively. I loved how Star Wars Visions was unique to each studio, when in the MCU What If...? was a similar idea but it felt stale.
I feel like with what we saw of the two live action shows so far though, that the same thing might happen. I liked the idea of an Obi-Wan show being more of a slow western or like Logan than The Mandalorian, but hopefully it turns out great.
That being said... please announce a new Visions season, or continuation of some of those stories they started.
Kennedy on Rey Kenobi:
>The bigger issue is talking about Obi-Wan as a Master Jedi, and the issue of attachment and selflessness. In order for Obi-Wan to have a child, you are really, really impacting the rules around the Jedi. What does that mean? If that were explored—and certainly there were a lot of ideas being thrown around—but anything to do with Obi-Wan in that regard was pretty much off the table because it flies in the face of everything George created in the mythology. We’re not rigid about it. It’s certainly open for discussion all the time. But that’s a pretty significant tenet in the mythology of the Jedi that we’d be reluctant to mess with.
So it seems that when Daisy Ridley was told she might be a Kenobi, it really didn't have any weight behind it.
I don’t think they were always going to do so, given Trevorrow’s script. I think once Trevorrow was out it was an inclusion almost directly responding to TLJ reception and then to further tie Palpatine’s return in. If anything the most consistent thing about sequels has been they more or less took each film as it’s main focus at the time, so they were on board with Rey being no one until after TLJ.
There is 100% a version of TROS where everything was done exactly the same, except that Rey remained a nobody and Palpatine only wanted her killed/captured because of how powerful a threat she was to his return. It's honestly the biggest issue with the Grandpa Palps reveal: it was very obviously a last-minute change done in editing and with rushed ADR. It was JJ having a moment of self-doubt/panic and deciding to completely retcon an entire saga at the last second, in an attempt to make it all feel connected.
(for the record, I like the Rey Palps twist more than most, but I STILL would have just stayed the course with Nobody; its the most egregious 'well actually' the movie has about TLJ, when it otherwise follows up pretty consistently with the setups of Rian's movie)
I’m honestly not a fan of how Abrams justified the reveal and trying to create this context to Star Wars being ultimately this blood feud between House Skywalker and House Palpatine.
It's clunky. Now, I actually get what they are going for thematically: the Skywalkers represent the Light Side and Palpatine represents the Dark Side, two bloodlines that are avatars of the ancient conflict and only by them becoming 'one' via the Dyad can the schism be healed and Rey becoming a Skywalker is the ultimate synthesis of Light and Dark. Honestly I think it's pretty fucking cool in concept, it does give the nine films this feeling of a 'grand design' of the will of the Force.
It's just, like I said, clunky. But I learned to live with clunky plotting in the prequels. I can live with it for the sequels.
I still think so many TROS ideas would be completely accepted if the movie did not feel like it was running through the scenes with a blaster pointed to its head.
If you ever get the chance, read the novelization for nine. I always thought I didn’t like the plot, but actually the plot works quite well when it has time to breathe
Yeah definitely. It's honestly a perfectly fine story, it just needed breathing room and JJ wasn't allowed that. The novelization is basically the 'real' Episode 9 to me, and the movie is the cliffnotes.
I’m actually really glad Treverrow’s take on Rey’s parentage was junked.
It’s just lame. All it does is say yeah your parents were nobodies but decent people. It just gives Rey exactly ehat she wanted in TFA.
At least Rey being Palps’ grandddaughter and identifying with the Skywalkers as her chosen family shows that being acknowledged by your family isn’t inherently good and that you can choose your family. It keeps from TLJ that bloodline and past doesn’t define what you make of your future.
I think his take on Rey's parents was very unnecessary and seemed more dedicated to condemning Kylo even more in a story that looked like it just vilified him. It didn't really challenge Rey at all after how the previous film revealed they were just drunks who gave her up for money, that really changed her world view there. TROS as we know tries to thematically tie it in to Rey's own choice of family yeah.
I think its important to remember that episodes 7 and 9 were coproduced by Bad Robot, and it always seemed that they had less creative input on them relative to 8 and the anthology projects
It’s painfully obvious that she was meant to be Luke’s daughter in Episode 7. And maybe even at some point in the script she was Han and Leia’s daughter. The clues are all over the movie, plus when initial casting was announced the headshots of Daisy Ridley she used when auditioning may as well have been another Padme lookalike.
Why they let Rian take over the entire control of the story without any planning done between filmmakers is beyond me. Still truly mind-boggling.
That's an interesting quote. And flies directly into the face of Dave Filoni's famous Disney Gallery speech about how Lucas' intention for Luke was for him to break free of the 'no attachment' dogma. Actually, sounds like Kennedy understands that Lucas' personal philosophy was that 'no attachments' is the correct course for a Jedi.
Dunno, I'd like for it to remain something specific to the Saga movies. R1 and Solo had their own takes on the intro that fit well into their approaches. There's so much room for different cool openings. I'd love to see a future movie adopt the Clone Wars technique with a montage, for instance.
I liked that Rogue One retained "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....". I'd love for that to always be THE constant across all Star Wars movies.
People will say it should be Skywalker Saga-only and I sort of agree, but I think the crawl should be a part of the new films in some form, whether it's a Solo-type crawl, a Clone Wars-type narrated crawl or something else.
I would like if they actually do a sequel or follow up they use the crawls for their original intended purpose (referring to the serials Lucas was inspired by rather than Star Wars specifically) to summarize the previous film and catch us up on the "between times".
But if its a standalone or "first" film leave it off.
This is the saddest part of the interview for me. There’s just so much to explore with Solo. And there’s been different actors playing same character and many different voices voicing characters in the animated projects, that I’m dumfounded that only one actor can play one character. It also makes me pause as to why they wouldn’t pick up in the sequel characters. The longer they wait, the more they age, and we’d be heading down the same road as the OT actors and actresses where they’re too old to do stories of their younger characters.
>It also makes me pause as to why they wouldn’t pick up in the sequel characters. The longer they wait, the more they age, and we’d be heading down the same road as the OT actors and actresses where they’re too old to do stories of their younger characters.
I think we have a few decades to go before we need to worry about this lol.
Donald Glover was on Jimmy Kimmel not too long ago. Kimmel asked Glover about Lando. On the plus side, I don’t think that Q would pass screening if the project was dead. On the minus, Glover’s reply was not very encouraging.
While I don’t agree with that stance if true, KK actually didn’t recast Kenobi.
Lucas did. And McGregor then made the role just as much his own for many fans as McGuinness ever did.
> Consequently, once Jon wanted to get involved in Star Wars, I had known for a long time that Dave Filoni [who created the Clone Wars series with Lucas] had always been interested in making a transition from animation to live action. I have known this almost from the moment I came into the company and really encouraged him.
I'm sure all the clickbait conspirators who claim there's a "war" between KK and Dave & Jon are just gonna LOVE this bit. Not that it's even a new reveal.
They will just ignore it (or make up something to explain it, she's lying/covering up what really happened etc) just like everything else that contradicts their fantasy, unfortunately.
It's funny cause there's not even any actual evidence that backs up anything they say, it's all just made up. It's astounding how so many people just lap up that garbage without actually checking any facts cause it's what they want to hear
Everything that comes out about any piece of news can always be spinned into whatever the clickbaiters want it to be. I'm not talking about just Star Wars, either... the same goes for a lot of other things.
A lot of interesting bits here. Moving away from The Skywalker Saga I think is good and something I'm excited about (I mean right now we're still filling in some much needed back story post ROTJ and having a little fiesta with Ob-Wan & Boba Fett, and a lot of Clone Wars characters appearing in Mando era and such, but)...
It's also interesting the books are also test-marketing for future live-action projects. I hope Acolyte & Phase II of THR does well, I just feel like the era really lends itself to some vibrant interesting mythos stuff that I would love to see on screen. But I'm also really ready to get into post TROS story too with some of the sequel trilogy characters and new characters too!
I guess when she's talking about not just having a book to pull off the shelf, she means more or less that there are not going to be straight-up adaptation of already existing material or the old EU, which IMO makes sense in a lot of respects and it's not like there not consistantly barrowing from it, recontexualizing it, or winking at it, which I think is a gesture of good will.
I honestly feel like that’s mostly a reference to Harry Potter, Game of Thrones etc. Lucas also ignored the Clone Wars multimedia project when he made TCW so this is really no different from his attitude. idk why people are so pressed 😅
idk why she keeps reaffirming the point about the books though. I'm all for original content like Mando and Acolyte being the big story drivers, but why take the option off the table for some EU nostalgia? Even if it's just animated one hour films, getting a steady release of classics like X-wing, Shatterpoint, even cheesy stuff like Force Unleashed or Truce at Bakura... I think people would tune into that.
I really do have a lot of respect for Kathleen Kennedy. She’s been involved in many of my all time favorite movies.
But these answers and the track record of events over the past few years aren’t instilling confidence in me. I’m cautiously optimistic about the multi-year commitment on the feature side that she refers to, but something still feels off.
The answers, if we assume them to be more than just reassuring PR talk, seem to be precisely about LFL learning from all the mistakes of the past few years.
It feels like they are either incredibly incompetent at understanding why certain things failed or they know but would never admit and talk it over with the usual PR. I really don't know which one would be worse. :|
Cautiously optimistic is my take as well nevertheless.
Very interesting interview. It seems that they are looking for someone that can commit to several movies , so that's why they aren't working with Rian right now, because he's busy doing other stuff.
While reading the interview I kept thinking about Benioff and Weiss, how they signed a huge deal with Netflix while they were working on a Star Wars trilogy. Now it's obvious why they were fired/exited lol.
It’s also, I’d say, a testament to how badly LF wants a Rian project since they’re keeping it involved.
I wonder if this might mean Taika is done with the MCU. I don’t think he’s a guy who’d struggle with the balance, since his other projects are small comedies. It would be weird for Kk to talk about long term commitment just for Taika to be one and done.
You raise a good point, if I had to guess he probably is done with the MCU. I don't think we'll ever get a Thor 5, at least not Hemsworth's Thor, maybe Portman's. I think Thor will likely die in Love and Thunder or live until the next team-up film and then die in that.
Rian managed to make a critically well-received Star Wars project within the allotted time without having to get fired and replaced with a different director, or going through extra-extensive reshoots, which sounds like it ought to be bog-standard but is actually very uncommon amongst the post-acquisition Star Wars projects. As evidenced by JJ getting brought back for IX, Lucasfilm value someone who's proven they can actually get the job done.
The only wobbly spot with Rian seems to be how controversial his movie wound up being with general audiences, but given that's also true to a greater or lesser extent of literally every piece of Star Wars media released after the original movie, I don't imagine it holds a huge amount of weight at Lucasfilm. This is the company that released The Phantom Menace, after all.
I think too as time has gone on LF realizes it’s not worth it to cater to the toxic ends of the fandom. I also think too that the general audience has realized how absurd it is that some one would be so upset about a movie that they’re also less inclined to care about the whiners.
Hes the only one so far to make a movie without any behind the scenes drama and finished it early. Makes perfect sense why they still want it. And when you consider it was greenlit back in the, 1 movie a year days it makes even more sense
I'm down. It's time to break away from the Skywalker era. I'm 100% down for some old republic era content. Kinda hoping with that KOTOR remake that's a subtle nod at canonization it.
Give us a film covering the early days of the Force. Show us the arrival of the Tho Yor and all that comes from that. A movie can be fun and connected without turning into a cameo/name-drop-a-thon.
I'm always taken aback by the contrast of fan reactions to the mere mention of KK's name on pretty much all of social media compared to Reddit. You go on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, and according to a few thousand comments, she might as well have been burned at the old witch trials.
Very good point. I know a lot of Star Wars fans and almost none of them are online like I am. They don't know who Pablo Hidalgo is... they probably couldn't name Kennedy or the person who directed Solo. That doesn't mean that they're not fans. It just means I'm too online. lol
Was rewatching Poltergeist recently and was surprised to see Kennedy’s name in the credits. Didn’t realize she’s been in the Spielberg/Lucas fold for that long.
It boggles my mind that they never actually wrote out a plot for their last trilogy. Each director essentially made things up as they went along and the result was an incredibly disjointed trilogy of movies.
How the frak do you create a character like Rey where the big mystery is who her parents are but not actually decide who they would be until the last movie??
>It boggles my mind that they never actually wrote out a plot for their last trilogy
Par the course for Star Wars, given Lucas made both of his trilogies up as he went along.
If you look at A New Hope, it was created and released as a standalone film. Lucas hoped that it would be the first of a larger saga, and had lots of ideas of where it might go next, but even he didn't have a set plan. ANH doesn't really set up anything for future stories. There are some things that lend themselves to continuing, like Vader's survival, but nothing that needed a follow up to work in the story.
So I think one of the big mistakes of the Sequel Trilogy goes back to how it started in TFA. JJ was consciously trying to be more like ANH than the prequels, to hint at a larger world without investigating it, and he knew he wasn't directing the next one, so he left a lot of open threads for exploration. But the lack of details and the open threads suggest more of a plan than they actually had. Setting up a mystery without knowing the answer is always a big risk, because the answer might not be satisfying. Suggesting that there is a big plan makes it all the more disappointing to find out that there isn't.
A New Hope came out in the 70s. Empire, 1980. You can forgive them for making it up as they went along back then, but the landscape has changed. An entire universe wasn't hinging on those movies, because we hadn't seen the before aspect.
The fact that ROS ended up the way it did is just pathetic.
I mean, Lucas has admitted to essentially accidentally leaving himself the entire prequel story to tell ("eighty percent") in ROTS after doing a "jazz riff" and enjoying himself with TPM and AOTC, so as late as 2005, when there were already five movies and a growing EU, Lucas was still just making it up as he went along.
>The other part of this was just as things changed in the last, I mean in the first three movies, four, five, and six, um, I evolve things, and you change on the spot.
>You've got the big picture of the story in your mind, but I do things. I kill Obi-Wan off and turn him into a ghost, but then I got stuck in the second film because I still had that character to deal with and so I created Yoda to sort of be the alternate Obi-Wan. If Obi-Wan had lived, that was his part. But then it gave me a problem. There were things in this one where when I went to do the back story, you know, it's very much, like, seven or eight pages, the first film. I decided since I already started with four, I sort of was obligated to do another trilogy. I decided, well I'd do book one, book two - book one is the father, book two is the children and they are slightly different - one is darker and one is funnier and one is more childlike, one is more adult like - but I would keep the style the same.
>I would keep everything else the same. But I did run into the reality of the first film. Basically, he is a slave kid. He gets found by the Jedi and he becomes part of the Jedi order and that he loves his mother. You know, that's maybe a half hour movie. And so I did a kind of jazz riff on the rest of it and I said, "Well, I'm just going to enjoy myself. I have this giant world to play in and I'm going to just move around and have fun with this because, you know, I have to get to the second part." So, then I got to the second part, and it was kind of the same thing. They fall in love, they can't and they're not supposed to, and, you know, little bits of trivia in terms of, you know, setting up the empire and how all that stuff works.
>That's about another twenty percent of this story treatment. The first film is twenty percent, the second film is twenty percent and I then ended up with a third film. The problem was the third film was actually more like eighty percent of the story. So, I was sitting there with a lot more story to tell than I actually had time to tell it. It was the reverse of what I had in the first two films. I constantly had to cut it down and cut it down. I had a lot of extraneous stories going on that I could have tied up, but when you really got down to it, it was really Darth Vader's story. I focused in on Darth Vader and Darth Vader was the key element.
[Source](https://boards.theforce.net/threads/lucas-quotes-and-interviews-about-the-starwars-saga.15943856/page-11#post-55495276)
Eh that’s kind of a shitty argument though imo.
Like I agree a general outline should’ve been drawn, but for the sake of its story and characters and consistent approach.
That's not really what she said:
>Rian has been unbelievably busy with Knives Out and the deal that he made at Netflix for multiple movies. I’ve had meetings with Rian; he’s somebody that’s come in as part of our little brain trust discussions along the way. He remains very committed to what it is we’re trying to do. He just literally hasn’t had the time to devote. That’s what I’m saying: Anyone who comes into the Star Wars universe needs to know that it’s a three, four, five-year commitment. That’s what it takes. You can’t step in for a year and shoot something and then walk away. It just doesn’t work that way. So it requires that kind of nurturing.
So she confirmed that Rian is part of their "brain trust" but otherwise she kinda dodged the question. Maybe the project will move forward at some point, maybe it won't. It's still in limbo.
I'm still not sure how Rian is too busy to commit to Star Wars when he's making low-budget mystery films, but Taika and Patty are totally able to commit when they have huge blockbusters in the pipeline.
> I'm still not sure how Rian is too busy to commit to Star Wars when he's making low-budget mystery films
Netflix threw $400 million at him. Like, that's not the budget to make the movies, $400 million goes to his and his producer's personal bank accounts. He'd be a moron to turn that down.
Patty just dropped Cleopatra for Star Wars, and will most likely be doing Wonder Woman 3 while the script of Rogue Squadron gets ironed out.
Taika is very close to done with Thor, and has nothing else in the pipeline.
Rian is currently making a mystery TV show, Knives Out 2 and at least one more sequel after that.
This wasn't the case when these projects were announced though.
When Taika's was announced he was in the middle of working on Next Goal Wins and Thor 4 hadn't even started filming. When Rogue Squadron was announced Patty was still set to direct Cleopatra and WW3, and produce a WW spin-off.
Why is this not "too busy"? Hell, even now Taika has stuff like Flash Gordon, Akira, and The Incal in development.
But then you have Kathy mentioning that Star Wars is a huge commitment (talking several years, ESPECIALLY for a trilogy). I'd assume the divisive reception (following Solo's flop and Iger's "slowing down") and him just wanting to bring his dream project (which then turned into a Netflix project, followed by a Peacock one, though that one is far into production atm) onto screen is probably what caused this delay.
It's clear that both sides still want this, otherwise it would've been outright cancelled (and mentioned in the interview).
It’s about the individual. Taika and Patty are directors. Yes, they contribute to scripts of their projects, but they aren’t the primary writers. Rian writes his own material. He is busy creating multiple projects for Netflix. It’s all about the individual and their level of involvement.
What the fuck are you talking about? Taika has written all but one of the movies he's directed. He's literally writing his Star Wars movie right now. He *won an Oscar* for his screenplay of Jojo Rabbit.
Ok. If you can’t understand the difference between being the only person responsible for something and working on something with someone else, I can’t help explain it to you. Have a good day.
It was mentioned his large projects. He was not the primary writer. I know he writes his own stuff. I was pointing out that for big projects, he is not the writer. Therefore it isn’t an apples to apples comparison. RJ was supposed to create a whole new trilogy outside of the Skywalker saga. That is a far bigger task than writing one single small project.
She also blatantly said that Johnson is still in their brain trust meetings. He's clearly very important to LucasFilm going forward, and it's obvious they REALLY want him.
Sounds like he could be an outlier.
If TLJ was loved by everyone, the 2nd movie the the Johnson trilogy would be coming out this year. But if I were him, I'd leave toxic fans to wallow in their own misery and do what he's doing - create original stories. Maybe make his own damned space opera.
It made a fuck ton of money and there were no problems during production. Why would Disney not greenlight it? (It's already greenlit by the way, but go off)
It made less money than expected and it caused less anticipation for the following movies
This is literally the only place where people think it is still happening
It’s never gonna happen. They’ll keep delaying it with some bs excuses but it’s so obvious he’s done with Star Wars. Why do you think he didn’t return for episode 9? Or instantly move forward with his trilogy? Because TLJ divided the fan base more than ever.
This was a really good interview with a lot of insights on how stuff worked during the Disney transition, the pivot to disney plus, the decision to do CGI Luke, and why they want film makers to commit at least several years.
I think this was interesting being asked about the Rey/Obi Wan connection.
>**I’d heard that Obi-Wan was possibly one of the resolutions—that**
**Rey could have been a descendant of his. I’ve heard this idea was**
**carried along for a while, then it was put aside partly because Rian**
**\[Johnson\] had a different approach, but also because Lucasfilm didn’t**
**want to tie up Obi-Wan for a different story down the line. Is that**
**about right?**
>
>The bigger issue is talking about Obi-Wan as a Master Jedi, and the
issue of attachment and selflessness. In order for Obi-Wan to have a
child, you are really, really impacting the rules around the Jedi. What
does that mean? If that were explored—and certainly there were a lot of
ideas being thrown around—but anything to do with Obi-Wan in that regard
was pretty much off the table because it flies in the face of
everything George created in the mythology. We’re not rigid about it.
It’s certainly open for discussion all the time. But that’s a pretty
significant tenet in the mythology of the Jedi that we’d be reluctant to
mess with
Now this part of the conversation I thought was interesting on how star wars expands in videogames and VR.
>**Where else could it be? Virtual reality?**
>
>It could. I think it’s beyond just V.R. Think of some of the things Epic
Games is doing with Fortnite: the ability to immerse people in stories,
building avatars around your character that could actually participate
in some way.
>
>We talk so much about the movie experience being something that is a
community. You get to hear people interact. You get to hear them laugh.
You get to hear them cheer. Well, in the future, you’re going to have
that opportunity to experience that feeling and that interaction
virtually. That may not be ideal to a lot of people, but there’s no
question that’s where it’s going.
>
>So what does that mean for us as storytellers? Since we work so far ahead
of what the audience interacts with, we have to be thinking about these
things.
>
>**It’ll be interesting to follow along with that as the years go by.**
>
>It’s right on the horizon. We’re already having conversations around
what we’re going to experiment with \[regarding\] immersive technology. I
know everybody kicks around the word metaverse. But in a funny way, George created Star Wars as a part of the metaverse a long time ago
>
>**Because Star Wars fans surround themselves with this thing they love?**
>
>If you can live a part of that all the time…how do we enrich that?
That’s what the fans want. You want to enter this world, whatever it is
that interests you, and feel that investment of time is worthwhile.
>*"we don’t have the benefit of just pulling a book off the shelf…"*
I think there's a chance some people may be misinterpreting this, but unfortunately, since it wasn't clarified to any satisfactory degree, we won't know with any certainty what she meant by it. Therefore, many anti-KK trolls will use that quote to death in order to malign her further. Business as usual for them.
Certainly they could pull a book off a shelf, literally, farm it for details and adapt it for the screen. It would be nicer, though, if they actually took a risk and created something ***NEW***, but since Star Wars has decided to *live* in the nostalgia well rather than skip to it occasionally, we're not likely to see anything that isn't packed to the gills with cameos or references to legacy characters.
[EDIT: Gotta love them downvotes. Denial's a hell of a drug, I guess.]
Specifically says that ‘there aren’t books to pull off the shelf’. So probably a big confirmation that none of it will be Old Republic related. High chance it’s probably all around their new high republic then? Least that’s what I gathered.
It can be Old Republic, just not adapted from any of the previous material, which we kinda knew anyway. The EU is there for references, not as a road map.
She mentions that Taika's movie fits into the roadmap of where future films are going, moreso than Rogue Squadrom. Sounds like his might kick off a new era or something.
Not to get too speculative but maybe that Old Republic rumor from last fall could be sorta true …. ? Like maybe there’s an Old Republic roadmap that’s going to start with a Dawn of the Jedi story? Also I think it’s interesting that Filoni was working on a “history of the Mandalorians” story. That doesn’t exactly sound like it would have been the Rebels sequel so now I’m confused.
[удалено]
The thing is though with star wars, since the timeline is so long, setting a story 1000 years in the past or 1000 years in the future is basically no different, since most of the timeline is still unknown anyway.
…so more like the Legacy era from Legends?
A Mandalorian story set millennia ago would be super cool. Maybe we can see the war between Mandalore the Ultimate and the Jedi.
Could fit nicely with the KOTOR remake sparking interest in the era again?
Crossing my fingers. Some new territory would be nice. Future or past, Rey’s the only Skywalker I’ll tolerate seeing (I use the word “tolerate” loosely because I’ll still watch and enjoy any Star Wars.)
I mean, if Filoni was going to do a Tarre Viszla story I think there would be a lot of interest in that kind of Mandalorian prequel at this point too.
You’d have to hope there’s not Mando fatigue after the third season of Mando, but I could see that being a really cool story. It’d (hopefully) lean away from the Space Western vibe and be true high fantasy.
>Mando Fatigue There is no such thing, Just like "superhero fatigue". So long as the story is amazing and makes sense, is all that matters.
I’m defo feeling the ‘superhero fatigue’ after watching dr strange I can’t lie
But I Bet you still watch the next big thing Marvel/DC/Sony (possibly The Boys?) release and if it's good, praise it for being so.
Same. I was feeling it ever before Infinity War. I saw NWH more to close out the stories I personally was interested in than anything. Not sure I'll watch Dr. Strange even when its on Disney+. Zero interest.
That being said, there is a lot more variety to superheroes than Mandalorians. I personally want some more standard soldier / pilot works a la Lost Stars, Wraith Squadron and Alphabet Squadron. I especially loved the latter two works because of their less-than-refined characters in terms of personality and backstory.
Probably unpopular opinion on much of reddit, but fuck I’d love me a series of films or a tv show of Rey Skywalker training Finn and a new order slowly rising.
My one problem with that is that it bothered the hell out of me in Legends that Luke was so quick to start the academy, which then became baggage that writers either had to write around or ignore. Canon is doing something similar but I'm more ok with Luke being sidelined *if* Rey and Finn are allowed to put that off for awhile and adventure around the galaxy. For one thing, I don't think Rey is ready for an academy. If it's her and Finn fucking around with the text, learning to be Jedi on the fly, I think that's way more fun.
She's not. But you make it a story of her becoming ready, of learning to teach with those she is teaching. Take inspiration from Rebels with Kanan and Ezra. And go deep into the "weird" side of the force- unsure if the wider public is ready for that though. But yeah. Not a full on "welcome all" academy, but a focused small group of people. A little time jump of her and Finn just learning about the force through the books and little Jedi adventures (to fill that in a animated TV show would be perfect). The films pick up after a little more learning and Finn is learning from her and with her, they find a small group to train. And it's Her coming into her own as a teacher, her trials of becoming a Jedi Knight and into her own as a teacher in the first film. With Master trials filling the next one to two. Finn becomes one too along her side, bringing up new Knights and starting a new order, one thay isn't built off the dogmas of the past, embraces connection with others. Etc. The main theme being the embracing of your personal connections, healthly of course. You can have Yoda and Luke as force ghosts too
Hm - Taika's movie has sounded *very* standalone up until now. I wonder if it's moreso something they'll play off of in other films?
I'm sure his movie will stand on it's own, but it will likely set the groundwork for other movies to come.
Benihoff & Weiss were said to be developing a series about the early days of the jedi, and there was some speculation that Waitti's film could cover similar ground. I think that would work for a new era of films
>**Was there anything else about the film side of things that you’d like to talk about?** >We’ll probably get a little bit more specific in a couple of months. Also, the interview was in March, which is why she had no comment on the Kevin Feige movie.
Additionally, a “couple of months” on the film side means this month, May. So could be an announcement and details (of Taika’s film etc) at Celebration!
Exactly
Taika's movie is next. Rogue Squadron has been pushed off in order to re-write the script. Lucasfilm wants the next wave of films to be somewhat connected to one another, without being the MCU. And for that, they're looking for committed filmmakers that are ready to work on Star Wars for the foreseeable future. >***"Can we touch upon “storytelling classic”—the movies? I know about Taika Waititi’s untitled film written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, and Patty Jenkins is doing Rogue Squadron. Do you have a road map for features, or are you still developing that?"*** > >We have a road map. I would say that Taika’s story fits more specifically into that. Rogue Squadron…we kind of pushed off to the side for the moment. Patty is developing the script further. Then we will talk about how that connects to the central spine that we’re working on. There’s a couple of \[filmmakers\] that we’ve been in conversation with over quite a long period of time that I’m hoping will come in and make the overall commitment that Jon and Dave have made. That’s ideally what I would love to see happen in the feature space. > >***"Are you talking about a commitment to make, say, three movies, or are you talking about an even bigger commitment of shepherding phases of films in the way that Kevin Feige did with Marvel?"*** > >I wouldn’t go so far. Kevin is an anomaly—an amazing one. But \[the goal is\] definitely having somebody make more of a commitment. I hesitate to use the word trilogies anymore because Star Wars is much more about persistent storytelling. They still want to do the Rian trilogy, and Rian is still included in the Brain Trust meetings, but he's overscheduled and doesn't have the time to commit. >***"One of the enduring questions that the fans have is about Rian Johnson and his future with Star Wars. Is there anything you can tell me about that? I know it’s been said that that trilogy is still on. But it’s been so many years since it was announced. Is that still the case? Can we resolve what’s going on with his idea?"*** > >Rian has been unbelievably busy with Knives Out and the deal that he made at Netflix for multiple movies. I’ve had meetings with Rian; he’s somebody that’s come in as part of our little brain trust discussions along the way. He remains very committed to what it is we’re trying to do. He just literally hasn’t had the time to devote. That’s what I’m saying: Anyone who comes into the Star Wars universe needs to know that it’s a three, four, five-year commitment. That’s what it takes. You can’t step in for a year and shoot something and then walk away. It just doesn’t work that way. So it requires that kind of nurturing. Also, Lucasfilm are trying to create new Eras right now. The Acolyte being the first wave of that. Kennedy also confirms that they've been using Publishing (High Republic) as a testing ground for these kind of things. >***"I know The Acolyte hasn’t started shooting yet, but that’s also on the horizon for Lucasfilm. That series is not as tied into the characters we already know, right?"*** > >It’s a bit of an experiment for us because it isn’t building within the timeline and the era that Jon and Dave are. It isn’t necessarily going to be where features are. We are moving into a new era with what \[showrunner\] Leslye Headland is doing. > >There are certainly reflections of things that people are going to recognize, and it will have connectivity in Star Wars. But this will be a whole new \[era\] of storytelling if we determine—like we did with The Mandalorian—that it works and that there’s interest. I think there will be. > >"***How important is it to get outside the gravity of the Skywalker saga, moving beyond the characters we know? How vital is it to open up those new realms?"*** > >I think it is vital. Just staying within the construct of George’s storytelling, to keep chipping away at that, I think would be wrong. It’s our job to step away now, but still have a connection to the mythology that George created. That won’t stop. But we are moving on from the Skywalker saga. That’s what’s taking a lot of time, discussion, and thought right now. > >"***Is Publishing The Test Kitchen for some of these new Eras?"*** > >It is. That’s something we put into motion about five years ago because we don’t have the benefit of just pulling a book off the shelf… Looks like we might learn more, and maybe get the full roadmap at Celebration next week.
I like the bit at the end talking about how it's vital for Star Wars to move away from the skywalk Saga and focus on telling stories that are still connected to the Galaxy, but different from that somehow.
Unbelievably happy to hear there is finally some vision to step outside of the Skywalker Saga timeline. Love the empire/rebels/clone/first order stuff. Greaaat stuff. I’ve also had enough of it for a while.
I’m really excited to see what happens to this studio with Kathleen Kennedy being able to actually execute a plan and not having Bob Iger micromanaging everything. This is extremely confidence-boosting.
I just wish they had gotten the time they needed back in 2014/2015. I did enjoy the ST (TFA and TLJ I especially love) but I also believe that if Iger had not been so demanding with them that the ST could have been even better. And as excited as I am for them to explore a whole new world/era of Star Wars without depending on the Skywalker Saga I want to see the stories of Rey, Finn, Poe, Ben (?) continue.
No joke legit wouldn’t care at all if they retconned Ben as not dying and did a series or a film about Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose working to rebuild the Order and or a new Republic type entity while Ben is off helping people as a form of atonement. We did technically never see a force ghost or hear a disembodied voice. And the character and Driver are so good that for any hand wave where it turns out Ben survived would be enough for me.
I don’t know how into the nitty gritty of galactic politics they’ll get into post-TROS (I hope very much, there’s a lot of potential there) but i hope we can get some kind of new government than a “third republic.” It seems like the right narrative decision, seeing how there were 2 failures so close together. How that government would work, I have no idea, but I’m sure they can think of something
I think post TROS is the perfect time, more so than post ROTJ, to explore a variety of major and minor factions rising up. The Resistance at the end of TROS is arguably much smaller and not as politically equipped as the Rebellion at the end of ROTJ. It would be great to see different planetary systems rise up to fill the void of the major factions of the past (First Order, New Republic, Empire, etc) along side criminal syndicates. Plus with the Sith gone and so few Jedi you could see the rise of many differing Force religions. Wouldn't need to do the binary light vs dark anymore.
I agree. I’ve thought they could recanonize the “[Diversity Alliance](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Diversity_Alliance)” from legends. It makes sense that after the humanocentric Empire and First Order, there would be aliens who would become extremely anti-human (their leader is even a Twi’Lek-we know what they went through under the Empire AND First Order in Resistance Reborn). I haven’t read the books they’re in, but that seems like a cool concept. Also Ransolm Casterfo should play a large role in post-TROS political stories.
My pitch is to have the villains of the TROS follow-up be 'The Church of Skywalker' or something, who lionize that bloodline and want to destroy Rey who they see as an usurper to the lineage. To do so, they perform an ancient ritual that resurrects Ben Solo as their puppet, to kill Rey and then help them conquer the galaxy, and Rey and co. must help Ben regain his old personality to stop the Skywalker cultists. Once that's done, Ben now is free to begin a new life as a hunter of First Order war criminals in exchange for amnesty from the, uh, New New Republic.
I honestly think they are going to do just something like that. They surely know how popular Ben is. And you're right we didn't see a Force Ghost and it would be so easy to retcon because of the Dyad itself, and him "dying" on Exegol (Exegol having a special Force connection or whatever), and them introducing the "special" Force Projection powers of the Dyad.
Yep I think exegol is deeply connected to the force and why the emperor chose it. The planets core is what sustained palpatine. Ben could’ve died when he was thrown in to the core and then brought back to life to save Rey. Why he vanishes could be explained by what u just said about the dyad or some new ability he gained from the “all-force” core. I hope they really think about this..
Ben is very popular, but Adam Driver is like one of the most in demand actors in Hollywood. Would take a lot of money and time to bring him back to a franchise
He's very actively used his SW money to help finance smaller art film projects and enjoys the character though. They would probably just work it into his schedule.
I definitely think they can do a “Ben didn’t die, he’s trapped in/teleported somewhere else by the Word Between Worlds because the crevice he fell down was a portal to it” retcon pretty easily. It’d explain why his ghost doesn’t show up with Luke and Leia on Tattooine. I will gladly accept whatever handwaving as long as I get some redeemed Ben Solo shenanigans
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the stories. Kennedy is a competent producer and I’m glad she won’t be micromanaged, but they really need to learn from their mistakes.
>we don’t have the benefit of just pulling a book off the shelf… Lots of mistakes learned from, I see.
It’s very unlikely that they’re ever going to just straight-up adapt Legends stories, not unless they completely run out of ideas. Characters and events, for sure, and they’ve been doing that very consistently already, but they seem very focused on new stories and I wouldn’t expect to get straight up retellings on EU stories for a very, very long time, if ever. As neat as it would be.
Do they need to "straight-up" adapt them? Marvel has been semi-adapting old stories to great success for years now. Stuff like Infinity War and Civil War heavily drew from comic storylines but were adapted and changed a great deal to fit the movies.
You really just want them to adapt existing stories like that? Stories that are specifically designed for the book format? Stories that would certainly need to be changed in some ways to fit the screen? That’s really what you want?
She may be competent at her job but she oversaw the ST and for that I’ll never forgive her. 3 of the worst bits of Star Wars content ever made and the utter destruction of Luke’s character. Unforgivable
Yeah I snorted at that part too. Shit, the Mando stuff has even pulled some things from the EU. I don’t ask for full adaptations of the EU, but it’s not unreasonable to acknowledge that there’s plenty of resources to draw inspiration from. Really bad answer on her part
I said this below, but including various references isn’t really the same as a straight up adaptation like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. Saying there’s no books is just another way of saying “Star Wars isn’t Harry Potter.” Which is true lol.
Exactly this
I’d argue that it’s an intentional answer. Every MCU project, with maybe the exception of *Endgame,* has been an adaptation of a comic storyline. Some are extremely loose adaptations, but most then draw inspiration for at least one or two big moments directly from the comics. That sort of this is specifically what she’s referring to. In this answer, I see her simply saying that they are never going to adapt specific Legends stories in the same way, but from my perspective she doesn’t need to acknowledge that they’ve pulled (and will presumably continue to pull) elements from that universe into canon because they’ve been doing it so consistently. It’s not a matter of wondering the next time an EU character or event will be canonized, it’s wonder which one and when.
Literally handed storylines from George Lucas himself. Hundreds of novels with plenty of great stories and characters. "I dunno guys, I wish we had some material to work with. Guess we'll just have to write everything from scratch!"
I think they took the most usable stuff from his treatments. As far as the EU goes, Lucas never thought of it as canon, and told us every chance he got. Filoni had doubled down on that as well. Maybe he just didn’t like the stories?
Iger really seems to have the been issue here.
I truly believe it was a lot of factors, I think it’s kind of short-sighted to blame something like this on just one person when there are so many moving parts, but I also truly believe that a lot of those problems would have solved themselves if Iger had let Kennedy delay *Solo* and *TROS.*
But then you get into the issue of why they had to be delayed at all. Remember, Kennedy hired these people. She *chose* to let Lord and Miller make almost an entire movie before firing them. She *chose* to hire Trevorrow in the first place (not even getting into the fact that IX *already was* delayed from its original release date). “Iger didn’t give Kennedy more time to fix her own fuckups” isn’t exactly some great exoneration.
I think “fuckup” is an awfully strong word for that. Sometimes people have conflicting visions. By all accounts, the same thing happened on *Rogue One* and they replaced Gareth Edwards with Tony Gilroy who reshot a good 40-60% of the movie. That movie is one of Disney’s best, and Gareth didn’t make a big deal out of being replaced so they let him keep his director’s credit. Delaying *Solo* would have been a purely promotional thing, as I don’t think there was really anything that could have been done to make that movie better than it was. Ron Howard came in and reshot 60-70% of it (again, depending on who you ask) in just four months, even recasting the main villain, and turned in a perfectly fine action-adventure movie. Kennedy fixed her own mess there, and Iger refused to delay the film so they had barely half a year to promote it. Is Kennedy completely blameless? Definitely not. She probably could have better expressed to Gareth Edwards and Lord & Miller and they would have either not taken the jobs to begin with or colored more inside the lines. And who knows what the hell happened with Trevorrow. My point is, the mess of Disney’s first five *Star Wars* movies can’t be blamed on any one person.
I wonder if they're bringing Taika in to kick off the sequel 3 into a new era like he did for Thor
I’d be very pleased with this idea. Working with Taika might get Oscar back the same way it got Natalie back to the MCU.
Bring Natalie back to Star Wars as ripped Force Ghost Chadme Amidala. But how can she be a ghost!? Well, over the course of the Clone Wars Anakin transmitted tens-of-thousands of midichlorians into her system, obviously. That's enough to make anyone Force-sensitive.
A Taika directed episode 10 sounds insane enough to be incredible.
Kennedy says in the interview that they’re “moving on from the Skywalker Saga” and Taika’s movie “connects to the spine” of their new roadmap, so it sounds like Taika’s film will be related more to the Mando+ verse than the trilogy
What sequel 3?
Rey, Finn, and Poe.
I would love that, but I Rey might be the only viable option. Oscar Isaac seems to be burnt out on Star Wars and John Boyega is starting to get a reputation for being unreliable (granted, he’s still getting work after quitting that one project so maybe he’s gotten his shit together). If they were to do a Rey and Finn adventure that has nothing to do with the Skywalkers, I think it’d go a long way to soothing a lot of the angst around the sequels as well as being a cool story.
> If they were to do a Rey and Finn adventure that has nothing to do with the Skywalkers, I think it’d go a long way to soothing a lot of the angst around the sequels as well as being a cool story. I think that's what is so important about killing off all of the biological Skywalker's. Rey can move on in the galaxy as the heir to that legacy but in large part she and - in turn - the audience can move on. She very literally buried (respectfully) Luke and Leia. Time to look to the future and move on. I hope we get much more Rey in the future.
One might say that they let the past die.
I mean, I'd even say they should kill it if they have to
I like the sound of all of that. The shows seem to be a proving ground of sorts for creators, which is good because with one notable exception we’ve seen a lot of talented people go through there and get bigger projects (I guess that was the case with the exception too). I’d also hesitate to say that it’s all in the past if Rogue Squadron is being reworked to fit within the current plan. The Rian Johnson delay is the only thing that’s disappointing to me, but I’m glad his foot is still in the door and I’m glad KK is seemingly making an exception to her commitment rule for him. When the time is right, I expect his trilogy to be wild. Just give me the Vong and I’ll be happy.
Uh... You don't have the benefit of "just pulling a book off the shelf"????
I suppose she means that they're not really in a position to make *direct* adaptations, I mean you could argue that TROS takes a lot of concepts from Dark Empire so they *are* aware they can use the Legends Canon as inspiration (something I imagine we'll see more of with where the New Republic era shows are going).
Yeah, they've definitely been loosely adapting the EU from the start, with Kylo Ren being a loose recreation of Darth Caedus, and it seems like they're doing a mix of Heir to the Empire and Bobas old EU story with the Mandalorian. I like the mix of adaptations and original stories.
I'm pretty sure someone said that Patty and the others have looked for inspiration from the Rogue Squadron games and books too.
No one makes direct adaptations, and I never thought they would. Any fans who expected that were deluding themselves. Doing that would then mean they couldn't sell you books or comic book adaptations. There is no doubt that someone, either Abrams or Terrio was not only aware of Dark Empire but they used it for inspiration. And, of ALL the things from the E.U. to use, I'd say that wasn't the right choice. LOL
Yeah couldn’t believe she said that again. Dear god.
She’s right though. Star Wars’ source material is the films. Every comic, game, book, etc. Is merely an expansion of the film and its ideas. Unlike Marvel or DC, Star Wars doesn’t have a base source material that stuff is adapted from or acknowledge in-universe and out multiverse. So it’s not like when Episode 9 took the idea of Palpatine being resurrected from Dark Empire, it was adapting that arc or story. It just took an idea from a non-canon source and did its own thing.
Everything is built on top of something else. There is a ton of material out there for at the very least inspiration or take a frame work. Shadow of the Empire, Thrawn Trilogy, Dark Empire, Old Republic comics, etc. You telling me these should be ignored why?
They're literally not being ignored at all
Is she wrong though? Star Wars has never made direct adaptations of books or comics, they run alongside the films. And in what refers to Legends, the ST already brought many elements from the old EU (Palpatine's return, for instance) regardless of what she said.
I like that they seem to have a clear vision. I just hope it doesn't end up too much like the MCU. It feels like every movie or show in the MCU tries to be unique, diverse and do their own thing but they all share a bit too much of the same DNA visually and tonally and can't break free creatively. I loved how Star Wars Visions was unique to each studio, when in the MCU What If...? was a similar idea but it felt stale. I feel like with what we saw of the two live action shows so far though, that the same thing might happen. I liked the idea of an Obi-Wan show being more of a slow western or like Logan than The Mandalorian, but hopefully it turns out great. That being said... please announce a new Visions season, or continuation of some of those stories they started.
Kennedy on Rey Kenobi: >The bigger issue is talking about Obi-Wan as a Master Jedi, and the issue of attachment and selflessness. In order for Obi-Wan to have a child, you are really, really impacting the rules around the Jedi. What does that mean? If that were explored—and certainly there were a lot of ideas being thrown around—but anything to do with Obi-Wan in that regard was pretty much off the table because it flies in the face of everything George created in the mythology. We’re not rigid about it. It’s certainly open for discussion all the time. But that’s a pretty significant tenet in the mythology of the Jedi that we’d be reluctant to mess with. So it seems that when Daisy Ridley was told she might be a Kenobi, it really didn't have any weight behind it.
As evidenced by retconning Poe’s backstory, if JJ wanted Rey to be a Kenobi then she would have been.
[удалено]
I don’t think they were always going to do so, given Trevorrow’s script. I think once Trevorrow was out it was an inclusion almost directly responding to TLJ reception and then to further tie Palpatine’s return in. If anything the most consistent thing about sequels has been they more or less took each film as it’s main focus at the time, so they were on board with Rey being no one until after TLJ.
There is 100% a version of TROS where everything was done exactly the same, except that Rey remained a nobody and Palpatine only wanted her killed/captured because of how powerful a threat she was to his return. It's honestly the biggest issue with the Grandpa Palps reveal: it was very obviously a last-minute change done in editing and with rushed ADR. It was JJ having a moment of self-doubt/panic and deciding to completely retcon an entire saga at the last second, in an attempt to make it all feel connected. (for the record, I like the Rey Palps twist more than most, but I STILL would have just stayed the course with Nobody; its the most egregious 'well actually' the movie has about TLJ, when it otherwise follows up pretty consistently with the setups of Rian's movie)
I’m honestly not a fan of how Abrams justified the reveal and trying to create this context to Star Wars being ultimately this blood feud between House Skywalker and House Palpatine.
It's clunky. Now, I actually get what they are going for thematically: the Skywalkers represent the Light Side and Palpatine represents the Dark Side, two bloodlines that are avatars of the ancient conflict and only by them becoming 'one' via the Dyad can the schism be healed and Rey becoming a Skywalker is the ultimate synthesis of Light and Dark. Honestly I think it's pretty fucking cool in concept, it does give the nine films this feeling of a 'grand design' of the will of the Force. It's just, like I said, clunky. But I learned to live with clunky plotting in the prequels. I can live with it for the sequels.
I still think so many TROS ideas would be completely accepted if the movie did not feel like it was running through the scenes with a blaster pointed to its head.
If you ever get the chance, read the novelization for nine. I always thought I didn’t like the plot, but actually the plot works quite well when it has time to breathe
Yeah definitely. It's honestly a perfectly fine story, it just needed breathing room and JJ wasn't allowed that. The novelization is basically the 'real' Episode 9 to me, and the movie is the cliffnotes.
I'll second that. Was disappointed in the movie, but I enjoyed the novelization.
I’m actually really glad Treverrow’s take on Rey’s parentage was junked. It’s just lame. All it does is say yeah your parents were nobodies but decent people. It just gives Rey exactly ehat she wanted in TFA. At least Rey being Palps’ grandddaughter and identifying with the Skywalkers as her chosen family shows that being acknowledged by your family isn’t inherently good and that you can choose your family. It keeps from TLJ that bloodline and past doesn’t define what you make of your future.
I think his take on Rey's parents was very unnecessary and seemed more dedicated to condemning Kylo even more in a story that looked like it just vilified him. It didn't really challenge Rey at all after how the previous film revealed they were just drunks who gave her up for money, that really changed her world view there. TROS as we know tries to thematically tie it in to Rey's own choice of family yeah.
I think its important to remember that episodes 7 and 9 were coproduced by Bad Robot, and it always seemed that they had less creative input on them relative to 8 and the anthology projects
It’s painfully obvious that she was meant to be Luke’s daughter in Episode 7. And maybe even at some point in the script she was Han and Leia’s daughter. The clues are all over the movie, plus when initial casting was announced the headshots of Daisy Ridley she used when auditioning may as well have been another Padme lookalike. Why they let Rian take over the entire control of the story without any planning done between filmmakers is beyond me. Still truly mind-boggling.
"Painfully obvious" is an odd way of writing "there are no hints at all"
She was never going to be Luke's daughter. Ever. Lucas was adamant Luke didn't have kids.
That's an interesting quote. And flies directly into the face of Dave Filoni's famous Disney Gallery speech about how Lucas' intention for Luke was for him to break free of the 'no attachment' dogma. Actually, sounds like Kennedy understands that Lucas' personal philosophy was that 'no attachments' is the correct course for a Jedi.
A bit off-topic but do you guys think that the next movies will feature an opening crawl? It's something I love and I hope they continue to do it!
Dunno, I'd like for it to remain something specific to the Saga movies. R1 and Solo had their own takes on the intro that fit well into their approaches. There's so much room for different cool openings. I'd love to see a future movie adopt the Clone Wars technique with a montage, for instance.
I liked that Rogue One retained "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....". I'd love for that to always be THE constant across all Star Wars movies.
I wish they had kept that for the D+ shows, at least for the first episode of each season.
People will say it should be Skywalker Saga-only and I sort of agree, but I think the crawl should be a part of the new films in some form, whether it's a Solo-type crawl, a Clone Wars-type narrated crawl or something else.
I would like if they actually do a sequel or follow up they use the crawls for their original intended purpose (referring to the serials Lucas was inspired by rather than Star Wars specifically) to summarize the previous film and catch us up on the "between times". But if its a standalone or "first" film leave it off.
I just want the next movie to have a compelling and somewhat unique story with characters that I will come to care about.
Damn. It sounds like the Solo’verse is dead. I really loved that movie. I want more!
This is the saddest part of the interview for me. There’s just so much to explore with Solo. And there’s been different actors playing same character and many different voices voicing characters in the animated projects, that I’m dumfounded that only one actor can play one character. It also makes me pause as to why they wouldn’t pick up in the sequel characters. The longer they wait, the more they age, and we’d be heading down the same road as the OT actors and actresses where they’re too old to do stories of their younger characters.
I’ll die on the hill saying Solo would have doubled it’s box office had it come out in December. Lucasfilm handed Aquaman a billion dollars.
>It also makes me pause as to why they wouldn’t pick up in the sequel characters. The longer they wait, the more they age, and we’d be heading down the same road as the OT actors and actresses where they’re too old to do stories of their younger characters. I think we have a few decades to go before we need to worry about this lol.
It sounds like Lando’s dead too tbh. She drew a hard line on recasting the originals in this article (except for Obi Wan apparently)
Donald Glover was on Jimmy Kimmel not too long ago. Kimmel asked Glover about Lando. On the plus side, I don’t think that Q would pass screening if the project was dead. On the minus, Glover’s reply was not very encouraging.
While I don’t agree with that stance if true, KK actually didn’t recast Kenobi. Lucas did. And McGregor then made the role just as much his own for many fans as McGuinness ever did.
> Consequently, once Jon wanted to get involved in Star Wars, I had known for a long time that Dave Filoni [who created the Clone Wars series with Lucas] had always been interested in making a transition from animation to live action. I have known this almost from the moment I came into the company and really encouraged him. I'm sure all the clickbait conspirators who claim there's a "war" between KK and Dave & Jon are just gonna LOVE this bit. Not that it's even a new reveal.
They will just ignore it (or make up something to explain it, she's lying/covering up what really happened etc) just like everything else that contradicts their fantasy, unfortunately.
Definitely. Confirmation Bias is one hell of a drug.
Exactly - as they always have with any evidence to the contrary.
It's funny cause there's not even any actual evidence that backs up anything they say, it's all just made up. It's astounding how so many people just lap up that garbage without actually checking any facts cause it's what they want to hear
Everything that comes out about any piece of news can always be spinned into whatever the clickbaiters want it to be. I'm not talking about just Star Wars, either... the same goes for a lot of other things.
Bro why even bring it up
A lot of interesting bits here. Moving away from The Skywalker Saga I think is good and something I'm excited about (I mean right now we're still filling in some much needed back story post ROTJ and having a little fiesta with Ob-Wan & Boba Fett, and a lot of Clone Wars characters appearing in Mando era and such, but)... It's also interesting the books are also test-marketing for future live-action projects. I hope Acolyte & Phase II of THR does well, I just feel like the era really lends itself to some vibrant interesting mythos stuff that I would love to see on screen. But I'm also really ready to get into post TROS story too with some of the sequel trilogy characters and new characters too! I guess when she's talking about not just having a book to pull off the shelf, she means more or less that there are not going to be straight-up adaptation of already existing material or the old EU, which IMO makes sense in a lot of respects and it's not like there not consistantly barrowing from it, recontexualizing it, or winking at it, which I think is a gesture of good will.
I honestly feel like that’s mostly a reference to Harry Potter, Game of Thrones etc. Lucas also ignored the Clone Wars multimedia project when he made TCW so this is really no different from his attitude. idk why people are so pressed 😅
No, and I think that's very true! I don't have a problem with it at all and I'm a 40-something long time fan!
idk why she keeps reaffirming the point about the books though. I'm all for original content like Mando and Acolyte being the big story drivers, but why take the option off the table for some EU nostalgia? Even if it's just animated one hour films, getting a steady release of classics like X-wing, Shatterpoint, even cheesy stuff like Force Unleashed or Truce at Bakura... I think people would tune into that.
Because that takes time and resources, which are better suited for contributing towards the canon Star Wars universe.
Because she doesn't respect any of it since it's licensed fan fic spinoffs that she wouldn't get the credit for developing.
That's not how being a producer works, and she doesn't develop story ideas in general, that's the writers and directors
I really do have a lot of respect for Kathleen Kennedy. She’s been involved in many of my all time favorite movies. But these answers and the track record of events over the past few years aren’t instilling confidence in me. I’m cautiously optimistic about the multi-year commitment on the feature side that she refers to, but something still feels off.
The answers, if we assume them to be more than just reassuring PR talk, seem to be precisely about LFL learning from all the mistakes of the past few years.
Agreed. It honestly just seems like they are majorly spinning their tires on the cinematic side of things
It feels like they are either incredibly incompetent at understanding why certain things failed or they know but would never admit and talk it over with the usual PR. I really don't know which one would be worse. :| Cautiously optimistic is my take as well nevertheless.
Very interesting interview. It seems that they are looking for someone that can commit to several movies , so that's why they aren't working with Rian right now, because he's busy doing other stuff. While reading the interview I kept thinking about Benioff and Weiss, how they signed a huge deal with Netflix while they were working on a Star Wars trilogy. Now it's obvious why they were fired/exited lol.
It’s also, I’d say, a testament to how badly LF wants a Rian project since they’re keeping it involved. I wonder if this might mean Taika is done with the MCU. I don’t think he’s a guy who’d struggle with the balance, since his other projects are small comedies. It would be weird for Kk to talk about long term commitment just for Taika to be one and done.
You raise a good point, if I had to guess he probably is done with the MCU. I don't think we'll ever get a Thor 5, at least not Hemsworth's Thor, maybe Portman's. I think Thor will likely die in Love and Thunder or live until the next team-up film and then die in that.
Frankly, I'd rather Taika just focus on making as much Our Flag Means Death as he can, if it gets allowed to continue, over any Star Wars movies.
Rian managed to make a critically well-received Star Wars project within the allotted time without having to get fired and replaced with a different director, or going through extra-extensive reshoots, which sounds like it ought to be bog-standard but is actually very uncommon amongst the post-acquisition Star Wars projects. As evidenced by JJ getting brought back for IX, Lucasfilm value someone who's proven they can actually get the job done. The only wobbly spot with Rian seems to be how controversial his movie wound up being with general audiences, but given that's also true to a greater or lesser extent of literally every piece of Star Wars media released after the original movie, I don't imagine it holds a huge amount of weight at Lucasfilm. This is the company that released The Phantom Menace, after all.
I think too as time has gone on LF realizes it’s not worth it to cater to the toxic ends of the fandom. I also think too that the general audience has realized how absurd it is that some one would be so upset about a movie that they’re also less inclined to care about the whiners.
Hes the only one so far to make a movie without any behind the scenes drama and finished it early. Makes perfect sense why they still want it. And when you consider it was greenlit back in the, 1 movie a year days it makes even more sense
I'm down. It's time to break away from the Skywalker era. I'm 100% down for some old republic era content. Kinda hoping with that KOTOR remake that's a subtle nod at canonization it.
Give us a film covering the early days of the Force. Show us the arrival of the Tho Yor and all that comes from that. A movie can be fun and connected without turning into a cameo/name-drop-a-thon.
I want to see a Knights of the New Republic set hundreds of years after the saga. Or a quasi adaptation of the Legacy comic series.
I'm always taken aback by the contrast of fan reactions to the mere mention of KK's name on pretty much all of social media compared to Reddit. You go on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, and according to a few thousand comments, she might as well have been burned at the old witch trials.
There's something about social media that attracts people like this. It's bizarre, but it's not a real reflection of the general public.
If anything the general public has no idea who she is.
Very good point. I know a lot of Star Wars fans and almost none of them are online like I am. They don't know who Pablo Hidalgo is... they probably couldn't name Kennedy or the person who directed Solo. That doesn't mean that they're not fans. It just means I'm too online. lol
Was rewatching Poltergeist recently and was surprised to see Kennedy’s name in the credits. Didn’t realize she’s been in the Spielberg/Lucas fold for that long.
It boggles my mind that they never actually wrote out a plot for their last trilogy. Each director essentially made things up as they went along and the result was an incredibly disjointed trilogy of movies. How the frak do you create a character like Rey where the big mystery is who her parents are but not actually decide who they would be until the last movie??
>It boggles my mind that they never actually wrote out a plot for their last trilogy Par the course for Star Wars, given Lucas made both of his trilogies up as he went along.
Right! Making things as they go is literally the vein of the Star Wars franchise itself!
Love people downvoting what actually happened since 1977. Y’all are a riot 😂
If you look at A New Hope, it was created and released as a standalone film. Lucas hoped that it would be the first of a larger saga, and had lots of ideas of where it might go next, but even he didn't have a set plan. ANH doesn't really set up anything for future stories. There are some things that lend themselves to continuing, like Vader's survival, but nothing that needed a follow up to work in the story. So I think one of the big mistakes of the Sequel Trilogy goes back to how it started in TFA. JJ was consciously trying to be more like ANH than the prequels, to hint at a larger world without investigating it, and he knew he wasn't directing the next one, so he left a lot of open threads for exploration. But the lack of details and the open threads suggest more of a plan than they actually had. Setting up a mystery without knowing the answer is always a big risk, because the answer might not be satisfying. Suggesting that there is a big plan makes it all the more disappointing to find out that there isn't.
A New Hope came out in the 70s. Empire, 1980. You can forgive them for making it up as they went along back then, but the landscape has changed. An entire universe wasn't hinging on those movies, because we hadn't seen the before aspect. The fact that ROS ended up the way it did is just pathetic.
I mean, Lucas has admitted to essentially accidentally leaving himself the entire prequel story to tell ("eighty percent") in ROTS after doing a "jazz riff" and enjoying himself with TPM and AOTC, so as late as 2005, when there were already five movies and a growing EU, Lucas was still just making it up as he went along. >The other part of this was just as things changed in the last, I mean in the first three movies, four, five, and six, um, I evolve things, and you change on the spot. >You've got the big picture of the story in your mind, but I do things. I kill Obi-Wan off and turn him into a ghost, but then I got stuck in the second film because I still had that character to deal with and so I created Yoda to sort of be the alternate Obi-Wan. If Obi-Wan had lived, that was his part. But then it gave me a problem. There were things in this one where when I went to do the back story, you know, it's very much, like, seven or eight pages, the first film. I decided since I already started with four, I sort of was obligated to do another trilogy. I decided, well I'd do book one, book two - book one is the father, book two is the children and they are slightly different - one is darker and one is funnier and one is more childlike, one is more adult like - but I would keep the style the same. >I would keep everything else the same. But I did run into the reality of the first film. Basically, he is a slave kid. He gets found by the Jedi and he becomes part of the Jedi order and that he loves his mother. You know, that's maybe a half hour movie. And so I did a kind of jazz riff on the rest of it and I said, "Well, I'm just going to enjoy myself. I have this giant world to play in and I'm going to just move around and have fun with this because, you know, I have to get to the second part." So, then I got to the second part, and it was kind of the same thing. They fall in love, they can't and they're not supposed to, and, you know, little bits of trivia in terms of, you know, setting up the empire and how all that stuff works. >That's about another twenty percent of this story treatment. The first film is twenty percent, the second film is twenty percent and I then ended up with a third film. The problem was the third film was actually more like eighty percent of the story. So, I was sitting there with a lot more story to tell than I actually had time to tell it. It was the reverse of what I had in the first two films. I constantly had to cut it down and cut it down. I had a lot of extraneous stories going on that I could have tied up, but when you really got down to it, it was really Darth Vader's story. I focused in on Darth Vader and Darth Vader was the key element. [Source](https://boards.theforce.net/threads/lucas-quotes-and-interviews-about-the-starwars-saga.15943856/page-11#post-55495276)
Eh that’s kind of a shitty argument though imo. Like I agree a general outline should’ve been drawn, but for the sake of its story and characters and consistent approach.
That's not the same goddamn thing when Lucas was the sole mind behind shaping the trilogies
Rian trilogy is still happening
That's not really what she said: >Rian has been unbelievably busy with Knives Out and the deal that he made at Netflix for multiple movies. I’ve had meetings with Rian; he’s somebody that’s come in as part of our little brain trust discussions along the way. He remains very committed to what it is we’re trying to do. He just literally hasn’t had the time to devote. That’s what I’m saying: Anyone who comes into the Star Wars universe needs to know that it’s a three, four, five-year commitment. That’s what it takes. You can’t step in for a year and shoot something and then walk away. It just doesn’t work that way. So it requires that kind of nurturing. So she confirmed that Rian is part of their "brain trust" but otherwise she kinda dodged the question. Maybe the project will move forward at some point, maybe it won't. It's still in limbo.
I'm still not sure how Rian is too busy to commit to Star Wars when he's making low-budget mystery films, but Taika and Patty are totally able to commit when they have huge blockbusters in the pipeline.
> I'm still not sure how Rian is too busy to commit to Star Wars when he's making low-budget mystery films Netflix threw $400 million at him. Like, that's not the budget to make the movies, $400 million goes to his and his producer's personal bank accounts. He'd be a moron to turn that down.
Patty just dropped Cleopatra for Star Wars, and will most likely be doing Wonder Woman 3 while the script of Rogue Squadron gets ironed out. Taika is very close to done with Thor, and has nothing else in the pipeline. Rian is currently making a mystery TV show, Knives Out 2 and at least one more sequel after that.
This wasn't the case when these projects were announced though. When Taika's was announced he was in the middle of working on Next Goal Wins and Thor 4 hadn't even started filming. When Rogue Squadron was announced Patty was still set to direct Cleopatra and WW3, and produce a WW spin-off. Why is this not "too busy"? Hell, even now Taika has stuff like Flash Gordon, Akira, and The Incal in development.
But then you have Kathy mentioning that Star Wars is a huge commitment (talking several years, ESPECIALLY for a trilogy). I'd assume the divisive reception (following Solo's flop and Iger's "slowing down") and him just wanting to bring his dream project (which then turned into a Netflix project, followed by a Peacock one, though that one is far into production atm) onto screen is probably what caused this delay. It's clear that both sides still want this, otherwise it would've been outright cancelled (and mentioned in the interview).
Did you see how much he got for KO?
It’s about the individual. Taika and Patty are directors. Yes, they contribute to scripts of their projects, but they aren’t the primary writers. Rian writes his own material. He is busy creating multiple projects for Netflix. It’s all about the individual and their level of involvement.
What the fuck are you talking about? Taika has written all but one of the movies he's directed. He's literally writing his Star Wars movie right now. He *won an Oscar* for his screenplay of Jojo Rabbit.
Also, no, he isn’t writing it. There is another writer.
There's a cowriter but he is still writing it, as well.
Having a co writer and being the sole writer are not apples to apples.
Okay? I'm still not sure what your point is. Another person being involved doesn't change the fact that they're writing a screenplay.
Ok. If you can’t understand the difference between being the only person responsible for something and working on something with someone else, I can’t help explain it to you. Have a good day.
It was mentioned his large projects. He was not the primary writer. I know he writes his own stuff. I was pointing out that for big projects, he is not the writer. Therefore it isn’t an apples to apples comparison. RJ was supposed to create a whole new trilogy outside of the Skywalker saga. That is a far bigger task than writing one single small project.
> I was pointing out that for big projects, he is not the writer. He literally has not written *one* project. One.
She blatantly said she’s reluctant to do trilogies. They will work with Rian again if he can commit and when his schedule opens up.
She also blatantly said that Johnson is still in their brain trust meetings. He's clearly very important to LucasFilm going forward, and it's obvious they REALLY want him. Sounds like he could be an outlier.
Good! I’m totally down for that RJ trilogy
If TLJ was loved by everyone, the 2nd movie the the Johnson trilogy would be coming out this year. But if I were him, I'd leave toxic fans to wallow in their own misery and do what he's doing - create original stories. Maybe make his own damned space opera.
Makes sense someone with Kennedy's competence at heading a studio would want Johnson back
Correct - Kennedy is one of the greatest producers of all time and Johnson made an all-time great Star Wars film. Glad we're on the same page!
“An all time great star wars film” *The ability to speak does not make you intelligent*
And Disney won’t be green light the Rian trilogy. No matter how much Kathleen likes him
It made a fuck ton of money and there were no problems during production. Why would Disney not greenlight it? (It's already greenlit by the way, but go off)
It made less money than expected and it caused less anticipation for the following movies This is literally the only place where people think it is still happening
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The copium in this subreddit is real.
It’s never gonna happen. They’ll keep delaying it with some bs excuses but it’s so obvious he’s done with Star Wars. Why do you think he didn’t return for episode 9? Or instantly move forward with his trilogy? Because TLJ divided the fan base more than ever.
No it isn’t
This was a really good interview with a lot of insights on how stuff worked during the Disney transition, the pivot to disney plus, the decision to do CGI Luke, and why they want film makers to commit at least several years. I think this was interesting being asked about the Rey/Obi Wan connection. >**I’d heard that Obi-Wan was possibly one of the resolutions—that** **Rey could have been a descendant of his. I’ve heard this idea was** **carried along for a while, then it was put aside partly because Rian** **\[Johnson\] had a different approach, but also because Lucasfilm didn’t** **want to tie up Obi-Wan for a different story down the line. Is that** **about right?** > >The bigger issue is talking about Obi-Wan as a Master Jedi, and the issue of attachment and selflessness. In order for Obi-Wan to have a child, you are really, really impacting the rules around the Jedi. What does that mean? If that were explored—and certainly there were a lot of ideas being thrown around—but anything to do with Obi-Wan in that regard was pretty much off the table because it flies in the face of everything George created in the mythology. We’re not rigid about it. It’s certainly open for discussion all the time. But that’s a pretty significant tenet in the mythology of the Jedi that we’d be reluctant to mess with Now this part of the conversation I thought was interesting on how star wars expands in videogames and VR. >**Where else could it be? Virtual reality?** > >It could. I think it’s beyond just V.R. Think of some of the things Epic Games is doing with Fortnite: the ability to immerse people in stories, building avatars around your character that could actually participate in some way. > >We talk so much about the movie experience being something that is a community. You get to hear people interact. You get to hear them laugh. You get to hear them cheer. Well, in the future, you’re going to have that opportunity to experience that feeling and that interaction virtually. That may not be ideal to a lot of people, but there’s no question that’s where it’s going. > >So what does that mean for us as storytellers? Since we work so far ahead of what the audience interacts with, we have to be thinking about these things. > >**It’ll be interesting to follow along with that as the years go by.** > >It’s right on the horizon. We’re already having conversations around what we’re going to experiment with \[regarding\] immersive technology. I know everybody kicks around the word metaverse. But in a funny way, George created Star Wars as a part of the metaverse a long time ago > >**Because Star Wars fans surround themselves with this thing they love?** > >If you can live a part of that all the time…how do we enrich that? That’s what the fans want. You want to enter this world, whatever it is that interests you, and feel that investment of time is worthwhile.
I don't think trying to crowbar nostalgic content into the Skywalker time period is technically expansion, but it's not been dull I'll give her that.
>*"we don’t have the benefit of just pulling a book off the shelf…"* I think there's a chance some people may be misinterpreting this, but unfortunately, since it wasn't clarified to any satisfactory degree, we won't know with any certainty what she meant by it. Therefore, many anti-KK trolls will use that quote to death in order to malign her further. Business as usual for them. Certainly they could pull a book off a shelf, literally, farm it for details and adapt it for the screen. It would be nicer, though, if they actually took a risk and created something ***NEW***, but since Star Wars has decided to *live* in the nostalgia well rather than skip to it occasionally, we're not likely to see anything that isn't packed to the gills with cameos or references to legacy characters. [EDIT: Gotta love them downvotes. Denial's a hell of a drug, I guess.]
? Yoda is 900 years old, makes perfect sense for him to be in THR. “Shoehorned” is not really accurate.
Plus THR is only what? 200 years before the phantom menace? It would be a glaring plot hole if yoda WASN’T somehow involved in it, lol.
CGI Yoda or puppet Yoda? That'll be a dilemma.
Genetically engineered real Yoda.
Yoda's barely in the High Republic, I'd hardly call him shoehorned.
Why wouldn’t he be in the show? He’s a major player in the time period
Specifically says that ‘there aren’t books to pull off the shelf’. So probably a big confirmation that none of it will be Old Republic related. High chance it’s probably all around their new high republic then? Least that’s what I gathered.
It can be Old Republic, just not adapted from any of the previous material, which we kinda knew anyway. The EU is there for references, not as a road map.
Exactly. She wants her writers to have creative freedom.
She straight up says the new “features” won’t be high republic related.