ST Diversity in the Sequel Trilogy (see warning on page 11)

Oh, you took me seriously.
Sorry, my fault.

 

I've heard enough **** on this thread to the point where my sarcasm meter has finally broken. It's gone. That's what the bigots have done to me. I am completely literal. Goodbye, sweet metaphor and simile, dearest sarcasm and allegory!

 

Oh but they skipped past all the much more talented actors and cast monotone Emilia Clarke just because she was the best actor for the job, of course.

 

I'm thinking about all the white dudes who are celebrating now that Rian AND the writers of GoT are getting SW trilogies...

 

They're finally getting their shot in Hollywood, after all these years.

 

God in Heaven D=, they're bringing in the Game of Thrones dudes to make a new trilogy. Last I heard of these guys they were planning on making a Confederate alt-history series; terrified of how that would turn out considering how GoT operates regarding diversity. Ugh, everyday Episode IX looks as if it'll be my last Star Wars movie as part of the fandom, though I would LOVE to be wrong.

 

What a wonderfully mean-spirited and completely unnecessary comment. Is there something wrong with being happy about talented storytellers like Benioff and Johnson getting to write Star Wars stories? Because you seem to imply that there’s some racial element to the reaction to this announcement, which is utter nonsense.

 

There's just a weird pattern with all these "talented storytellers." And Johnson, if you ask me, is a little bit overrated if his movie has that many >blatant< plot holes, inconsistencies and mischaracterizations. Then again, when all he does is blow off criticism it's easy to make himself look flawless or misunderstood.

As for the other two, I'm not a fan of their "Confederate" story that they wanted, nor am I a fan of how GoT treats certain characters, especially when it comes to diversity, and it's inconsistencies with women. And quite frankly, shock factor is something that's now a big concern with me when it comes to Star Wars.

And let's dispel with this fiction that if a POC or Woman had control over a SW series, there wouldn't be an abundance of race/gender cards pulled. It goes both ways.

 

No, not really. And yes, I know you want to insinuate that women and POC are being deprived of opportunities to make Star Wars movies, but there’s absolutely no direct evidence of that.

It seems you assume that every time a white, male creator has their project approved, you assume that there must be a woman or POC creator being deprived. Sorry, but that’s not how it works. Maybe if Jordan Peele or Katheryn Bigelow were turned down in favor of a white man, we could at least have this debate, but you have absolutely no evidence of that, so I suggest you stop.

Suit yourself. I think TLJ is the best Star Wars movie since Empire. That said, quality is subjective, of course.

Oh, excuse him for not engaging in intense debate with the faceless, decrepit mass of the Internet fanboys. Actually, he has responded to several criticisms and offered his own thoughts, but I don’t blame him for mostly ignoring the trolls.

The fact that there were a crap-ton of people who instantly claimed this show was racist (despite knowing nothing but the premise of a Confederate victory in the American Civil War), indicates how overly sensitive and knee-jerk our society has become on this issue. The Man in the High Castle featured a similar premise (an alt-history where the racists won) with no such reaction.

The are definitely problems with the portrayal of women in GOT. I won’t get into that because the blogosphere has pretty thoroughly dissected every detail of that topic.

However, this I can’t quite let slide. Complaints that a show largely set in a fantasy counterpart of medieval Europe is lacking in the “racial diversity” department are flat out absurd.

This debate is so tiring. I still have no idea why you chose to make a snide comment about “white dudes” being happy that D&D got signed on. You had to have known that such a comment was a provocation.

 

From Variety:
Star Wars’: 96% of Its Film Universe Writers and Directors Are White Men

 

To be fair the Head of the Story Group is a woman of colour and the Head of Lucasfilm is a female.

The finger needs to be pointed towards the investors of independent filmmakers who don't allow diversity to get to the point where they can be selected.

 

It's pointed out in the article:

 

Oh certainly I agree, there should be more diversity on the creative side, no doubt. But given the nature of the pitching process, you can't ask them to hire based upon ethnicity - maybe they didn't pitch the story they wanted to tell. This is solved by opening up the pool to more diversity, which is the issue of investors of first timers. That's how we get diversity.

 

Regarding Confederate:
http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/hbo-confederate-producers-exclusive-interview.html

 

I remember reading somewhere, and IDK how true this is so don't quote me, that Gareth Edwards wanted a different actress to play Jyn Erso as well, but was pressured into hiring Felicity Jones instead.

 

Us:
"Hey, could we get some new Star Wars directors that are either women or people of color? That'd be great. Hey, what's Taika Waititi doing? I'm sure he'd make a great--"
Lucasfilms: "Eeey, you guys want the showrunners from Game of Thrones? The dudes who turned a bunch of scenes that weren't rape and made them rape scenes? Or changed plotlines in order to get people raped? Or made a white woman surf on a sea of brown people? Or who tried to make some kind of alternate-universe show that would explore what happened if the Civil War ended in a stalemate? We got 'em!"

Me:

 

I mean, you can describe the game of thrones creators in those terms, or you could mention them in exclusively positive terms, too; that they’ve realised an expansive vision, created one of the most compelling TV shows ever, created some of the best villains (Male and female) and layered heroes, shown an ability to weave lore in with drama and action..

Neither would look at the whole picture. Maybe Benioff and Weiss pitched something that simply got Lucasfilm very excited? Maybe their series of films will be directed by diverse directors?

 

I will say that they're good at adapting other peoples' source materials. A lot of the problems they have came from when they diverged from source materials in the books. Dorne, Stannis, Arya, Winterfell, the Vale...

Also, they gave Rian Johnson his own trilogy and he didn't pitch anything to them. He didn't even really have an idea. So I don't know what D&D did to get their own stories.

 

Er, where on earth did you get that idea from? You think RJ/Lucasfilm have mutually agreed on him being in creative control of a trilogy without him having discussed his ideas with them?

“So I don’t know what D&D did”

I’ll give you a clue; it probably involved a combination of discussing and presenting their ideas, as well as contextualising their previous work to demonstrate why they think they’ll be a good fit.

 

https://screenrant.com/rian-johnson-star-wars-trilogy-story/
Here, Johnson says he literally didn't have anything in mind, other than "man, I want to keep my momentum going. How about a new trilogy with new places and characters? I don't have any plot in mind, other than the idea that we just do this." And they said yes.

So, at this point, I could imagine D&D walking up to Disney/Lucasfilm execs, then saying "give us our own trilogy". And Lucasfilm would look at HBO numbers, and just go "sure!"

 

That’s not what that article shows at all. It says he’s being tight lipped, mentions his enthusiasm, and implies that the story isn’t yet written. There’s a whole lot of “pitching” that isn’t just about story beats, so no, you’re barking up the wrong tree if you think there isn’t some agreement with LF about his creative direction/ideas for his trilogy.

Or, just y’know, take the worst possible reading of everything, in that tiresome way some on here have of reading to everything.

 

Kathleen Kennedy said “I have no idea what he is going to do” when someone at the Japan press conference asked her if she could tell anything about RJ's trilogy. She also said they were going to start story discussion in the beginning of 2018.

Sounds to me RJ got a trilogy without having to pitch anything.