ST Do you think Lucasfilm waited too long to make the Sequel Trilogy?

Disney executives were worried about Podracing flags, Babu Frik becoming "the next Jar Jar" and Hayden Christensen as Anakin in a physical appearance but were like "Hey, lets bring back the Ewoks for a final scene in TROS! People will go crazy for that!"

The weird overt prequelphobia is such a goofy direction on their part. And probably a big reason why I can never accept the ST as anything more than a RLM fan checklist for what a SW movie is.

 

those fears were created by OTT fan hate of the prequels.. do you get the irony?

 

No, they moved too soon. They wanted to get some return quickly on that huge purchase, which is understandable, but they didn't have everything worked out. After the OT and PT continuity disasters, I assumed they knew what direction they were heading. But they were making it up as they went, Rian changed JJ's direction, then JJ panicked and ran back to Darth Sidious at the last minute.

 

This is bugging me, so I had to look it up, and:

https://www.newstatesman.com/cultur...star-wars-how-george-lucas-came-create-galaxy

So SW77 cooking time, in a dutch oven, basted every hour with butter, succulent and tender:
May 1977 - January 1973 = 4 years 4 months.

And TFA microwave time, where it boils over and explodes all over the inside and leaves that grease residue on the vents:
December 2015 - October 2012 = 3 years 2 months.

 

I think George Lucas could have and should have done the ST , he could have released a movie in 2015 , 2018 and 2021 meaning he will have finished it all up at the age of 77 then retired and sold to Disney at that time and I find it odd that he complained about Disney's ST when he a the chance to do it all himself and if he really wanted to sell to Disney then he should have made them sign a binding deal that a condition of sale it that Disney adapt Lucas's ST treatments.....

 

If Disney had created the Mandalorian first and used two or three seasons to build up hype for the Sequel Trilogy, imagine what it could have done. TFA would probably be near Endgame money wise. They would have had more time to arrange all the storylines and work everything out in advance, what a shame.

 

I think fans have the free will to dislike what they dislike, and that if a studio takes those issues to heart and uses their own free will to write something that I think isn't consistent, I think that's their choice.

I think Rose is a dumb character. That doesn't make ignoring Rose after she's set up in one movie consistent writing.

 

Nope. If anything, I'd say TFA was rushed out. Star Wars was never meant to be a set of assembly line products like the MCU with release dates set years in advance. Not that the MCU is bad -- that's just not how the series was approached before that at all.

 

Quoted for truth. If Lucasfilm/Disney had no solid and meaningful story for the ST to run with, they should have just developed something more standalone ala Rogue One or The Mandalorian before touching a trilogy (to get audiences back into Star Wars) and that would/could of allowed them time to develop a more meaningful sequel trilogy.

@godisawesome
Hi both... I think you're both right. In the PT, Lucas had to devise a production model where Lucasfilm/ILM could produce 3 films, in a relatively short turnaround, when the technology for producing it (digital) was still largely 'experimental' in terms of its wholesale application. What Lucas and ILM achieved from 1999, was to 'industrialise' that kind of filmmaking, and make it accessible to most studios... and by default, that lends itself to a more 'factory' kind of production model, where production never actually stops... they just move onto the next thing... in this case the next SW episode (and sometimes even in parallel). However, what I would say is that Lucas did not rush the writing and conceptual process of the PT. These were concepts and stories he'd conceived of, and refined, over decades. And whilst they were always subject to change, during production, there was a clear direction of travel for where the story, characters and concepts were going... and Lucas clearly afforded himself the time to develop those absolutely fundamental facets. Disney/Lucasfilm didn't afford itself that time for the ST (IMHO)... and regardless of the relative merits of those involved, the sequels were always going to struggle when there wasn't a discernible story worthy of exploring.

 

I get what your saying but I think the Mandalorian is better than the ST because they got the right people to do the job - if the Mandalorian had come out first it may not be as good as it is now cause Disney learnt a lesson or 2 from the ST's failures......

 

I've thought Rogue One maybe should've been the first release in order to get the OT nostalgia out of the way and pave the way for a ST that's more its own thing, but even then I can't really blame them for going with Episode VII first. The Disney lead off had to feel like a "real" continuation after all, and in that respect I think a continuation of the Skywalker/Force saga with the original cast back was essential. Can't really fault the performance and reception of TFA, after all, even if it's not quite my preferred up of tea. Leading off with a smaller scale series about a Boba Fett looking dude and a Baby Yoda, yeah, I don't see that making the splash TFA managed.

 

Another major factor was that Disney was all too eager to get a Star Wars Land up and running at each of their parks. Which meant the movies had to be tailored to market it. Disney was more concerned with turning Star Wars into an attraction than in making quality films.

And then when you look at some of the internal factors among the ST production staff that resulted in it turning out the way it did, it's no wonder Star Wars as a franchise is barely hanging on by a thread via The Mandalorian.

 

And yet The Mandalorian generally seems to be more well received with fans and critics alike... and Baby Yoda (Grogu) is probably the most iconic ‘new’ character since Darth Maul. Also, and you allude to it in your post, Lucasfilm made a huge mistake (IMO) with the OT3. They shouldn’t have been included at any price...and certainly not just for the sake of continuity or nostalgia. As it stands, we have the OT 3, who are not serviced at all well (IMHO), and a new set of characters whom are not developed nearly enough... which is a fundamental issue of the ST.

 

TFA was well received by fans and was pretty much a mega hit at the box office. TLJ was a critical darling and still made quite a bit of money. As much as I would’ve preferred a different ST approach there’s no denying it had massive appeal to many. Sure, ROS was a bit of a downturn, but hey, it’s my favorite Disney SW so that one wins as well.

I just don’t see the logic of replacing a hugely successful ST blueprint with a very different type of project even if the latter had its success as well. Different writing, more cohesive plotting is one thing. Scrapping the whole thing or delaying it for years quite another.

 

I'd challenge the notion that the ST blueprint was 'successful', because I think Lucasfilm have clearly had to change strategy with their SW content (and that started before Covid). Sure TFA was popular with both audiences and critics. However, TLJ and TROS were incredibly divisive... and that's two thirds of the trilogy... and I would never deny that the ST has lots of fans, nor that it made money... but that's not the same thing.

Point being, when Disney aquired Lucasfilm they were starting with a clean slate... They didn't have to do a straight sequel, neither did they have to do a sequel that featured the OT 3. They could have followed the MCU model of interconnected standalone movies featuring different leads. They could have gone forward or backward in time. They could have, you know, given time to the 'creatives' to devise suitable stories/concepts for a ST etc. But ultimately they went with (IMHO) what would make them the fastest possible return... rather than opting for something that would put the franchise on a better footing.

Obviously it's easier to say this in hindsight.... which I would fully acknowledge.... but I always return to the point frequently made i.e. green lighting/bank rolling a trilogy of films, without a singular creative vision, without an overarching 'good' story/concepts, and without a clear direction of travel, is a recipe for creative issues/constraints and production fire fighting... and I think has left the franchise in a place where audiences/fans are less (generally speaking) interested in what happens after IX than they are in what happened before/during etc. and I think that's a direct reflection on the quality of the ST, and more fundamentally, the Lucasfilm strategy (or lack of) for a ST trilogy.

 

The biggest thing to me is that the ST lost half of its box office in two films. People seem to forget that TLJ's opening weekend was 90% of TFA's, the hype was absolutely still there. It then had a colossal second weekend drop and some of the worst December box office legs of all time. These are not signs that something is well received. I remember expectations for TLJ being something like 1.5-1.6 billion and that was seen as nearly a sure thing. Now we have TROS that just barely passed 1 billion and there wasn't even a toyline for it that I can remember. TFA made a ton of money, but since TLJ, everything has been down. The Mandalorian has luckily brought Star Wars back to the forefront of media culture and I'm seeing an increasing amount of articles stating that it has created a more meaningful story than the Sequels did.

 

Anecdotally I’ve seen a lot about baby Yoda being cute but I haven’t seen much at all regarding the actual plot of the show driving any significant conversation. I remain incredibly skeptical that it was the obvious way to begin Disney’s live action run of Star Wars over the ST.

 

A big reason TFA was so successful is that people were far more willing to overlook its faults because we assumed that those things would be expanded on in the subsequent installments. Then RO came out and took everybody by storm, and people assumed that would be the direction SW was going for the foreseeable future. It's easy to look back now and say how horrible TFA was. But back when TFA and RO were all we had to go on, Star Wars hype was at an all time high. That was truly a narrow moment in time that will never happen again. Because then it just dropped off a cliff immediately after the release of TLJ, and the ST ultimately did more damage to the franchise that won't be forgotten no matter how good any productions might be in the future.

What they should have done is plan for six films. Where the ST would predominantly flesh out the Skywalker timeline, while also introducing us to a new set of characters. And then the trilogy that came after that would focus exclusively on those new characters, and they would have quite a bit more leeway to take in any direction they wanted. Surely they had the resources to plot out six films. But I guess that made too much sense, and they thought it best to rush in these new characters as the next big thing. But in doing so, they literally lost the plot.

 

I would have rather had no RO and Gareth Edwards had a crack at Episode 8......

 

You honestly believe that all the buzz around The Mandalorian is specific to only ‘Baby Yoda’? Really?

 

In my personal SW circles and the online venues I frequent there isn’t much buzz at all. Hence “anecdotally.”

On the other hand, even though I’m not a huge fan I’ve watched TLJ the most out of the Disney stuff purely because of friends and family wanting to see Luke’s story.

 

With the right creators SW in general can be salvaged. I think Disney will put the Mando creatives at the helm and let them work their magic. The ST has no evergreen characters, and SW in general needs to build up their most iconic individuals or create new evergreen characters like Mando. They released the ST pretty soon after Disney's purchase of the ip. But compared to Marvel, SW has nowhere near the amount of characters that can hold their own franchise.
How many characters is the SW roster can headline their own trilogy? Not many.

 

Well I don’t know what ‘SW circles’ you frequent, but clearly Mando is the biggest/most popular thing to happen to Star Wars in a while, and regardless of your own personal views on it (and I don’t think the show is perfect), I’m not sure it helps the conversation by denying it’s clear popularity amongst fandom and general audiences alike...