What Do YOU Think Star Wars Should Do Next? — Page 2

I get the sense that a lot of the writing flaws in these Disney+ Star Wars shows ultimately originate from top-down mandates to expand a 1.5 hour movie pitch into an 8 episode streaming series. At least, that explains why shows like the Kenobi and Boba Fett show are filled with narrative dead-ends, weird decision making, and characters spontaneously changing their minds as needed. But somehow these same writing problems also plagued Mando Season 3 and the Acolyte, which as far as I know were never originally pitched as a movie. So I have no idea what’s happening. I can’t even blame Filoni anymore because non-Filoni shows exhibit Filoni-esque symptoms in the writing. All I know is that good writers seem to be in very short supply, or something about the creative process at Lucasfilm is fundamentally broken. Basically just let Tony Gilroy do everything from now on and we should be okay.

RedLetterMedia recently suggested that a show like the Acolyte - or any High Republic show centering on the Jedi - could be formatted as a Star Trek style episodic show about a team of Jedi, or maybe just a master/apprentice duo, who travel around the Galaxy dispensing peace and justice, with plots based around localized, “problem of the week” style stories and ethical dilemmas, just like old school Star Trek. I realize Star Wars isn’t Star Trek, but the premise of the High Republic could really fit nicely with an episodic style. When I first read about the premise of the High Republic book series, way before the Acolyte aired, one of my first thoughts was “this sounds a lot like Star Trek”. Arguably, the old KOTOR games are somewhat made in this mold as well. You could also do this Andor style, with multiple 2 or 3 episode arcs centering on different independent story lines.

Cease production on everything other than The Essential Legends Collections. The Unabridged Audiobooks are the only thing I enjoy coming out of the Disney era.

I only came to this realization after not really feeling the subsequent releases (Mando, Ahsoka, Acolyte), but also not really feeling any kind of desire to “fix” them like I would. I wasn’t even disappointed. They just weren’t for me.

I wish I could say the same, but when the mistakes are so rudimentary I constantly feel like they should and could be fixed… in pre or post-production. Like anyone with half a brain see what’s wrong when the blunders are so obvious and these things could be solved so that all the shows are good but they never are. They can be good and still not for everyone, instead of just being a mess.

I’m also, of the opinion that most of the recent stuff isn’t even salvageable through “editing”. Most of the content is so empty to begin with that there is not much to enjoy after all the tight cutting anyway.

Fan_edit_fan said:

I’m also, of the opinion that most of the recent stuff isn’t even salvageable through “editing”. Most of the content is so empty to begin with that there is not much to enjoy after all the tight cutting anyway.

As someone who’s done edits of the shows, I couldn’t agree more.

At least the Prequels can be fixed with minor editing, but I can not say the same for any of the Disney content. The Prequels had a good story that was smothered with bad children’s humor, some bad dialogue, etc. All things that can be fixed with a few cuts. There’s no amount of fanediting that can fix the “first draft” level writing of these shows.

theprequelsrule said:

I am curious if there will ever come a point where the entire franchise gets a reboot. I couldn’t imagine such a thing a decade ago, but now…?

Is Star Wars still considered “too big” to do this? Too successful? Or is it a case of waiting for Lucas to die before such an idea could be entertained, morbid as that thought is?

It doesn’t need a reboot; the universe they have is big enough. They just have to focus on good stories and good characterisation. Time, place, tone, etc. can be anything. Problem is existing characters, Jedi vs Blah, and Galactic Civil War stuff keeps being the focus.

As I recently saw Funko toys (from the Obi-wan series) gathering dust in a local store I’m inclined to agree. However, I still think that a classic space opera style tone should be the priority. It can be gritty without being miserable, and fun without being juvenile. You know… like Star Wars.

Channel72 said:

I get the sense that a lot of the writing flaws in these Disney+ Star Wars shows ultimately originate from top-down mandates to expand a 1.5 hour movie pitch into an 8 episode streaming series. At least, that explains why shows like the Kenobi and Boba Fett show are filled with narrative dead-ends, weird decision making, and characters spontaneously changing their minds as needed. But somehow these same writing problems also plagued Mando Season 3 and the Acolyte, which as far as I know were never originally pitched as a movie. So I have no idea what’s happening. I can’t even blame Filoni anymore because non-Filoni shows exhibit Filoni-esque symptoms in the writing. All I know is that good writers seem to be in very short supply, or something about the creative process at Lucasfilm is fundamentally broken. Basically just let Tony Gilroy do everything from now on and we should be okay.

RedLetterMedia recently suggested that a show like the Acolyte - or any High Republic show centering on the Jedi - could be formatted as a Star Trek style episodic show about a team of Jedi, or maybe just a master/apprentice duo, who travel around the Galaxy dispensing peace and justice, with plots based around localized, “problem of the week” style stories and ethical dilemmas, just like old school Star Trek. I realize Star Wars isn’t Star Trek, but the premise of the High Republic could really fit nicely with an episodic style. When I first read about the premise of the High Republic book series, way before the Acolyte aired, one of my first thoughts was “this sounds a lot like Star Trek”. Arguably, the old KOTOR games are somewhat made in this mold as well. You could also do this Andor style, with multiple 2 or 3 episode arcs centering on different independent story lines.

That is a good idea but episodic stories like that are much less popular than serialized stuff now. It’s very close to the Jedi Apprentice series of books, which are about Qui Gon and Obi Wan having episodic Jedi adventures on different planets with different dilemmas. They’re kids’ books and I read them as a kid, but it could easily be done with an adult show, or just more adult books.

rocknroll41 said:

There was a time when I was against the idea of “they should just do gritty stuff like Rogue One and Andor and the EU and nothing else,” but even I’m starting to gravitate towards that mindset now. I think prioritizing all ages (kids) is no longer a viable option. Kids today barely have the attention span for a tiktok video now, let alone a movie, and nobody buys toys anymore.

And it’s not like The Acolyte was for kids…nobody is sure who that show was supposed to be catered to…just bad fanfic turned into a 180 million dollar reality.

I’m fine with comics and animation if they can keep the quality up. They need to refine live action and only make good shows or movies, not just content to fill a slot in either their theatrical slate or streaming. Too much of something too fast, is too much. They are lucky if half of it is middle tier quality. Never mind they have canceled half of what was planned. The brand was already watered down by the prequels, Disney has pumped the Star Wars well pretty much dry. And have no plans to slow down anytime soon.

NFBisms said:

If I had to be earnest, I think Andor is the best Star Wars media probably ever produced? It’s perfect. So I will always be grateful for that.

Andor definitely rivals Empire Strikes Back in terms of quality and tone. Comparing the two is probably futile – they’re such radically different productions. Andor has some flaws - I particularly didn’t really appreciate the flashback sequences showing Andor as a child living among some lost tribe of children like Peter Pan or whatever. But that’s such a minor complaint in retrospect - the show is like a 9.999 out of 10. It lacks the “dark fantasy” vibe of Empire Strikes Back, but it has its own unique dystopian vibe going for it that was really lacking in the OT.

I only came to this realization after not really feeling the subsequent releases (Mando, Ahsoka, Acolyte), but also not really feeling any kind of desire to “fix” them like I would. I wasn’t even disappointed. They just weren’t for me.

Yeah, me too. I often find myself wanting to mentally fix movies that captivate me, including the Original Star Wars Trilogy. But yeah, this latest stuff from Disney+ is not even captivating enough to inspire me to want to fix it, it’s just all mostly ephemeral trash designed to maintain subscriptions. Andor was just uniquely special, and I’m kind of shocked it even exists.

Vladius said:
That is a good idea but episodic stories like that are much less popular than serialized stuff now. It’s very close to the Jedi Apprentice series of books, which are about Qui Gon and Obi Wan having episodic Jedi adventures on different planets with different dilemmas. They’re kids’ books and I read them as a kid, but it could easily be done with an adult show, or just more adult books.

Arguably, Mando Season 1 was sort of episodic. There was a through-line with baby Yoda weaved through the entire season, but it was a “soft” through-line, unlike more heavily serialized shows. Many episodes were more or less self-contained. Ironically, people at the time complained about this, labeling it “side quest of the week” or something. But in retrospect, Mando Season 1 is widely regarded as one of the better Disney+ productions, or at least one of the few productions that isn’t bafflingly terrible.

There’s a fine line to be drawn between a series where the through-line is so captivating that “side quest” episodes register as “filler” content designed to pad out the series to meet some production quota, and a series that has a very “soft” through-line that doesn’t completely dominate expectations about each episode. I usually become impatient with “filler” episodes with series that have a prominent through-line, often based around some compelling mystery established in the first episode. But I’m also a big fan of classic shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, where every episode is mostly self-contained, but there are also “soft” through-lines woven through the series, showing up from time to time, usually in Season finales. But these “soft” through-lines were never prominent enough to make the individual episodes come across as “filler”. It also doesn’t hurt that many of those classic individual episodes were high quality masterpieces written by veteran sci-fi writers.

Honestly, I just don’t expect much from the franchise at this point. I would like special editions of the prequels with improved CGI and deleted scene, more Tales of the Jedi focused on PT-OT era characters and I think that’s it.

Channel72 said:

RedLetterMedia recently suggested that a show like the Acolyte - or any High Republic show centering on the Jedi - could be formatted as a Star Trek style episodic show about a team of Jedi, or maybe just a master/apprentice duo, who travel around the Galaxy dispensing peace and justice, with plots based around localized, “problem of the week” style stories and ethical dilemmas, just like old school Star Trek. I realize Star Wars isn’t Star Trek, but the premise of the High Republic could really fit nicely with an episodic style. When I first read about the premise of the High Republic book series, way before the Acolyte aired, one of my first thoughts was “this sounds a lot like Star Trek”. Arguably, the old KOTOR games are somewhat made in this mold as well. You could also do this Andor style, with multiple 2 or 3 episode arcs centering on different independent story lines.

yeah, that’s what I would like as well. Set it in the distant future or distant past and with minimal use of known characters.

Superweapon VII said:

After further consideration, I’ve realized I also want a Ziro the Hutt movie directed by John Waters.

Only if they use AI to resurrect Divine as a Jedi Master and/or Sith Lord, preferably done in a way that shows very poor taste.

rocknroll41 said:

Great write-up Acbagel!

Unfortunately I don’t think simply making “a little something for everyone” (i.e. different things for different people) is enough to unite the fandom, as each group generally seems to think Star Wars should only be made for their tastes specifically (even if not everyone admits it). Doesn’t help also that a ton of YouTubers nowadays make an entire living from hating Star Wars, no matter what it does.

Of all the groups you mentioned, I’m in the one that you described as “not very protective, fine with whatever direction Disney takes.” I honestly think at this point they should just keep doing whatever they’re doing, cause people will get mad no matter what. There was a time when even ESB was divisive, ffs!

Yeah I agree with this also. But Lucasfilm/Disney also need to have the balls to stick with projects or story direction. Don’t crib notes from fans. Sure learn from mistakes but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Key example: Solo.
The movie was perfectly fine. Did it set the world on fire? No. Were there other key issues that also effected it’s performance? Absolutely. But don’t set up an ongoing story and then abandon it because “shit happens”. Learn the right lessons and fix the errors. Make the next one a banger. Ensure the next in the Solo series is unmissable.

It’s the same now with the Acolyte. It was a bit hit/miss but there’s more story to be told. Learn the right lessons. Fix the main issues. Whether it’s pacing, character development, production quality, whatever. But back in your story. At the end of the day we just want good, well told stories that we can reflect on with satisfaction.

Channel72 said:

Vladius said:

This entire site exists because of complaining and hating on the Lucas special editions and the prequels and trying to fix them. If you put up all the same stuff everyone here said like 10 or 15 years ago and added some clickbait headlines and thumbnails you people would call them Hateful Toxic YouTube Grifters.

You’re probably right.

The Prequel/Special-Edition debates of the late 90s through early 2010s were way more heated than most people seem to remember. But one major difference between those debates and debates about modern Star Wars was that with the Prequel debates there was no real political dimension. The debates really were almost entirely about quality, or how well the Prequels lived up to the potential dramatic greatness implied in the OT. Whereas nowadays, before we even get to discussions about the actual quality of a new Star Wars movie/show, we often have to first wade through layers of political discourse, usually with all nuance thrown out the window. Also, anything with a political dimension invariably induces people to take sides based on political allegiances first and other considerations second.

As for what I’d like to see: basically just Andor Season 2. After that I don’t care what happens.

Underrated post.

Vladius said:

Channel72 said:

I get the sense that a lot of the writing flaws in these Disney+ Star Wars shows ultimately originate from top-down mandates to expand a 1.5 hour movie pitch into an 8 episode streaming series. At least, that explains why shows like the Kenobi and Boba Fett show are filled with narrative dead-ends, weird decision making, and characters spontaneously changing their minds as needed. But somehow these same writing problems also plagued Mando Season 3 and the Acolyte, which as far as I know were never originally pitched as a movie. So I have no idea what’s happening. I can’t even blame Filoni anymore because non-Filoni shows exhibit Filoni-esque symptoms in the writing. All I know is that good writers seem to be in very short supply, or something about the creative process at Lucasfilm is fundamentally broken. Basically just let Tony Gilroy do everything from now on and we should be okay.

RedLetterMedia recently suggested that a show like the Acolyte - or any High Republic show centering on the Jedi - could be formatted as a Star Trek style episodic show about a team of Jedi, or maybe just a master/apprentice duo, who travel around the Galaxy dispensing peace and justice, with plots based around localized, “problem of the week” style stories and ethical dilemmas, just like old school Star Trek. I realize Star Wars isn’t Star Trek, but the premise of the High Republic could really fit nicely with an episodic style. When I first read about the premise of the High Republic book series, way before the Acolyte aired, one of my first thoughts was “this sounds a lot like Star Trek”. Arguably, the old KOTOR games are somewhat made in this mold as well. You could also do this Andor style, with multiple 2 or 3 episode arcs centering on different independent story lines.

That is a good idea but episodic stories like that are much less popular than serialized stuff now. It’s very close to the Jedi Apprentice series of books, which are about Qui Gon and Obi Wan having episodic Jedi adventures on different planets with different dilemmas. They’re kids’ books and I read them as a kid, but it could easily be done with an adult show, or just more adult books.

But I’d argue that the episodic nature of Mando S1 & S2 and to a lesser degree, Clone Wars and Andor are part of what makes them so successful.