ST JJ Abrams directing Episode IX Discussion

I imagine that TROS is being edited at Bad Robot just as TFA was, whereas Rogue One and TLJ were cut at Lucasfilm, and Solo was cut at Disney.

 

Pretty much. Just Abrams' comfort zone, nothing wrong with him using his home base facilities rather than somewhere else. Lucasfilm's still ponying up the dough & resources & has final judgement calls on everything, thankfully.

 

Speaking of editing

 

I'm cautiously optimistic for JJ. I'm not thrilled with a ton of rollbacks on things TLJ did (like the lightsaber, Kylo's mask, etc) but if there's a legitimate, justifiable reason for it, I can get onboard. I think JJ's going to have to make a difficult choice on what this movie's goal is. Are they trying to get back into the general good graces of fans and deliver fan service moments at the expense of the narrative holdings its own weight and acting like a conclusion to the last two movies' worth of stories? We shall see.

 

I have opposite opinions of the editing of both TFA and TLJ. TFA has very good macro pacing, but certain individual scenes feel overly cutty, whereas TLJ has some funky structural pacing, but many individual scenes are really well cut. Given that TROS is presumably more linear like TFA, I'll be curious as to how the structure of it paces out. The runtime could be indicative.

 

Time travel from a Rebels perspective is very interesting, especially if you go with the later episodes of the show and Ezra saving Ashoka and learning he can't do the same with Kanan without altering everything. I'd be okay with them doing this with Rey. Plus I was interested in what Palptaines ultimate goal in wanting access to that was but we never really got because of time constraints, to see that story play out and finish would be nice.

 

I think you replied in the wrong thread, PK

 

Clearly, I did. How the heck did that happen!

 

The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some would say unnatural....including posting in the wrong thread.

 

I think JJ is going to go wild in this film, make this thing truly his own. After all the crap he got about TFA being a rehash, and seeing the tizzy folks got in after TLJ, JJ is probably like **** it you can't please these fans, so i'm going bonkers. If the fans are going to ***** no matter what, I might as well just make this thing how I see fit. He pretty much confirmed this in the VF article. I find it funny so many folks online think that this is just going to be a safe space adventure film, but in reality it will be probably be the most crazy Star Wars film we have ever seen. I have to give JJ credit here, go out swinging for the fences!!!

 

To quote the Supreme Leader JJ created.

"We shall see......We shall see......"

Vanishes in the Hologram.

But in all seriousness I wanna hope JJ swings for the fences, and I'm sure he realizes what people think of TFA. However I'll just have to see it for myself to see what he does and if he making those swings.

 

Possibly an unpopular opinion, but I'm starting to wonder whether keeping Colin Trevorrow would have been a better idea, given that apparently he had plans for Luke post-TLJ and Mark Hamill seemed satisfied until mid-2017 when Trevorrow's request was reportedly refused. I'm not fully decided on that though, I'll have to wait until I seeTROS to make a full judgment on Trevorrow's dismissal.

 

Blasphemy!!!

 

Everyone's seen Jurassic World.

"Well there's yer problem!" say the Mythbusters guys. He can't have been left to continue.

 

The new characters need to be front and center in the final film of this trilogy. I love Luke, but he doesn’t need a big role in this film. This is about the new generation.

 

I'd say it's not really about the "new" generation at all so far. It's been all about legacy. As it stands now the final movie would have made more sense being about Luke and Leia in the forefront along with the legacy of Sidious and Vader pervading with the new generation basically being guided along by that. They get scenes to illuminate that and do the action but basically they are not in their own world but living in the shadow of the world that came before them that still dominates the galaxy.

This is the problem with making the "future" a retread of the past in everything from narrative points and situations to design iconography. If the Star Wars galaxy was actually in the future and had moved forward with new characters that simply weren't there to be far too close reminders of the story that already happened previously then that would be different. That isn't what happened.

I don't think it matters at all. The key similarity between JJ, RJ and CT is basically the same to one degree or another. Their movies don't really make any much sense when you spend any time examining them. Characters and story are cast aside in a second for "something cool" or emotional or simply because they want something to happen when they want it to and that's that. They have minimal interest in actually spending time working either the characters or the story into positions that would make the events they want to have happen actually work.

It's one of those perplexing situations where the exact sort of thing that Lucas did in his movies is exactly what these guys don't have all that much interest in. Lucas himself didn't actually either as he's indicated many times in the past but he still went ahead and did it because he knew he had to for the sake of the characters and story to work best.

 

I think Rey will battle Kylo they will struggle and she defeats him, but Palpatine is to mutch for her and she needs help from Kylo and the force ghost and together with combined force powers and acts of love, Palpatine losses and Rey's victorious. Rey will be the hero but former heros can be their to aid her and her story. Rey's the protagonist no one will take away from her story. Kylo will be redeemed and put in force ghost therapy.

 

This was never reported or rumored anywhere that has any sort of track record.

It was made up fan wish-fulfillment in online communities that hated TLJ and it spread and got picked up youtube clickbait farms who don't realize/care that it wasn't an actual rumor but just speculation like Grace Randolph. It was never a real rumor.

 

I would have liked to see CT direct a SW film. I loved JW, more that Jurassic Park. My friends laugh at me when I say this.

 

With good reason.

But hey - I think Star Trek the Motion Picture is an overlooked masterpiece so what do I know.

 

While I'm certainly curious as to what exactly Trevorrow's Episode IX would have been, (especially since Kennedy said they had a story in place before Fisher passed), I'd still take Abrams over him.

 

I'm curious to see if Trevorrow will get a writing credit like Arndt did for TFA.

 

Unfortunately some variation on that seems the most likely. One can hope that isn't the case. Rey has defeated Ren two movies in a row so the more emotionally impactful event would be for Ren to finally defeat Rey. In some way this allows Sidious to regain power. After that there are ways to play it but the one that best fits with Ren is similar to ideas in the early drafts of ROTJ where when Vader destroys the Emperor maybe not so much to save Luke but for his own selfish reasons and revenge. It would depend on the way you play it. You could even work it where Rey realizes that she can't defeat Sidious but Ren can so she sacrifices herself to do so.

Rey has no story yet so it depends if they are actually going to give her one. Even if they do will it be anything more than perfunctory?

 

By Abrams' own account, they started over on the script after Trevorrow left.

 

@Qui-Riv-Brid

You may have a point regarding the directors (Not sure about Trevorrow), but I don’t think this trilogy had spent enough time and effort on legacy characters, except maybe Han. Han’s death could have served the narrative, but the results have yet to be seen in any form.

I’m all for the next generation coming forward and taking the torch being passed down, but Luke and Leia have had very little effect on the trilogy’s story.

Luke’s purpose in TLJ was not to train Rey or to be the hero that he was built up to be, but to give Rey someone to turn against in favor of Kylo, without really giving Luke any sort of leg to stand on or even all but very little humanization.


Leia, for her part, had no impact on VII except to somewhat reconcile with Han so that we know why he is going to try and redeem Kylo.

In The Last Jedi, her role is to provide an emotional catalyst for Luke to return with what little character arc he had, which was cut short by his death.

So to me, the legacy characters have been cast aside in favor of the new ones.

Obviously they’d have to take a backseat eventually, but all three of them were teased greater arcs that were never followed through on.