Here’s the HUGE gamble Disney is making:
Right now, the only thing I’m really looking forward to regarding Star Wars is Rian Johnson’s SW Trilogy, after all Johnson has earned my full trust with TLJ. I wish I could say I’m looking forward to The Mandalorian, but I don’t have Disney+.
Can anyone create a whole new SW experience that is still , … well, Star Wars?
There is no guarantee of success. Will mediocrity be enough? It’s the only way the film franchise can continue long-term so they’ll invest hugely in this while exploiting all other avenues to milk the franchise (TV, theme parks, comics, etc.).
Oh, in my opinion Rian Johnson is the wrong guy to do this next piece of work given the divisive reaction to his only entry. Need a uniter rather than someone always looking to subvert expectations.
JokerRulez
I don’t get why TLJ is so divisive.
TFA was such a huge letdown I had no expectations in regards to the following episode, and in fact I fully expected TLJ to be a remake of TESB in the same way TFA is a remake of the first SW. Once a friend confirmed it wasn’t like that I was genuinely excited, went to see the movie, and once the credits started rolling, left the cinema with a sense of euphoria.
I don’t think Johnson was trying to subvert expectations, he was trying to come up with the best story he could write and direct, which he did brilliantly.
But there’s your audience division right there: people that thought TFA was a lame rehash and people that loved TFA because it fed into their self importance as fans. RO did the same thing. Then TLJ came along and did it’s own thing and that part of the fandom lost their minds because it stopped telling them they matter.
I think you’re on to something there. TFA went hard on nostalgia, essentially offering up one beloved Star Wars thing after another for the audience to remember and enjoy. It especially made sure that everything felt the same, even if it didn’t quite make sense due to the passage of time. It essentially said ‘your relationship with this is important and valuable’. Then TLJ comes along and says ‘nope, actually you’re a naive idiot for expecting everything to remain as it was’. And this in theory could be really good, but the story still needs to do the work of winning over an audience primed by TFA to see meaning and power in Luke, Snoke, Ren, the lightsaber, etc, etc.
If the reasons for negating TFA ring hollow, it risks negating the meaning of the story itself. That’s what I think has happened here. For some people, the reasons for Luke’s exile are insufficient, the explanation of Rey’s power fails to convince, the futility of Finn’s sacrifice is shot through with ambiguity, and so the center fails to hold.