What is going on at lucasfilm cancelled un canceling cancelled Star Wars films and announced new Star Wars films.

What is going on at lucasfilm cancelled un canceling cancelled Star Wars films and announced new Star Wars films. lucasfilm is exploding its not in a good place. 😦

We don’t know for certain, but yes, I get the impression that things aren’t running smoothly behind-the-scenes. We’ll see what happens, though.

I like that summary, of_Kaiburr_and_Whills, I think JD Dillard and Matt Owens were also making a SW film at one point, Kevin Feige too?

I wish Lucasfilm wouldn’t announce the films until they are greenlit, the script is done, been given the okay, and they are ready for production. It is the hope and anticipation that kills you! 😃

We are told by the more reliable and experienced movie people that these things happen all the time in the industry. There were lots of cancellations for live action TV projects when George was back in charge in the mid to late 2000’s. Covid and timing likely factored into Kenobi going from a film to series?

I still don’t understand why Rangers Of The Republic series couldn’t be retooled and reworked without the Cara Dune character, it was just too an appealing a series to me. Or is the Lando series still a possibility to make it to air?
 

If Lucasfilm do announce the rumored 3 new Star Wars films at Celebration, would anyone be that excited until they entered the production phase? Given the chances of them being cancelled in the future, like other projects have?

I think it at least partially reflects the fact that there is a general lack of direction because the initial “long term plan” didn’t pan out. My guess is that back around 2014/2015, Disney saw the Sequel Trilogy as a means to reboot Star Wars for a new generation and pave the way for endless stories to come. This may seem paradoxical, since The Force Awakens was obviously meant to appeal to OT fans, and early plans for “spin-off” movies all revolved around OT story-lines or characters. But evidence of a broader, long term move towards a “rebooted” version of Star Wars is apparent in the fact that Disney designed their expensive Star Wars theme parks around Sequel Trilogy elements and iconography, instead of doing the obvious thing like creating a real life Mos Eisley Cantina that charges like $49.99 for a space cocktail. They were betting that emphasis on the Sequels would pay off in the long term, as a new generation fell in love with the new rebooted form of Star Wars, paving the way for endless new stories for years to come.

But… it seems this just didn’t work out. After the strong performance of The Force Awakens, Disney saw diminishing box office returns and developed the perception (whether true or not, and amplified by the most prolific posters on the Internet) that Star Wars fans were bitterly divided. When the Solo spin-off movie resulted in a net loss, they perhaps interpreted this as confirmation of their perceptions of the fan base. (Also Episode 9 was just ridiculous.)

I think this left Lucasfilm/Disney in a position where they are extremely hesitant and undecided about the future direction of Star Wars. There seems to be this unspoken acknowledgement that they should steer clear of the Sequel Trilogy time period for the time being. Contrast this to back in the late 2000s when, despite vocal criticism of the Prequels, George Lucas didn’t care and just created more and more content set in the Prequel Trilogy era. Disney has opted to do the opposite and pursue the safer (from their perspective) route of mining nostalgia with OT-centric stories.

A lot of valid points being made here. For a long time now the business model for a lot of movie studios has been the constant drip feed of “content”. We used to get movies every 2-3 years and now they want 2-3 movies every year. It nearly went this way with Star Wars and the ‘stories’ spin-offs. Until it didn’t. Meanwhile the format transition into TV became a thing with the Disney monolith. So as a result you’re left with a bunch of studio suits who think they if interest wanes, even for just a second, their money will stop coming in.

But how to keep interest going? Well you can just keep announcing projects. Keep up the brand hype, keep those customer endorphins flowing. Don’t touch that dial, we have this and then this and this! Problem is behind the scenes a major studio isn’t a place artists and unsuspecting people dreaming of working on Star Wars can actually function… so you’ve got a crash now with dozens of things being announced and dozens of people finding out what life is like behind the curtain. Just look at Solo, and before that Ant-Man. The people I feel bad for are the ones that can’t actually afford to quit when the job sucks, like the visual effects animators.

I noped out with the sequel films with the force awakens some of the ingredients were there but not assembled right it felt like a knock off of Star Wars. some of the writing of the characters and I’m sorry I hated kylo ren he was a poor villain or conflict character or whatever he was supposed to be in that film. The only decent Star Wars they did was rogue one. I’m not giving solo the time of day it seems like it’s kinda of a mess. 😦

The damage done by the sequel trilogy has made them hesitant to do anything. The only direction they can go is backwards or so far in the future that there is no connectivity to the sequels.

I’d much rather them continue the show route, even though they have been hit or miss, they have a much better batting average than their movies. Only decent one is Rogue One, the rest are better left behind.

If they go forward with something Rey or any sequel trilogy related character movies, they’ll most likely bomb or barely make them back the money they spend on it. Didn’t we see decline in revenue as each movie came out? That decline would only continue if they moved forward with the sequel timeline.

They’ve mostly avoided the sequel trilogy since, and even though the Mandoverse seems to be moving in the direction of possibly connecting to the sequels, we’ll have to wait and see. If they decide to connect Mandoverse to the Sequels, it’ll only sink everything the Mandoverse has built.

I’ll only really be interested in the next movie if it’s a significant departure or shift in direction from what they’d been doing. Basically, a “far past” or “far future” movie, like WitchDR said. If it turns out to be basically “Episode X,” though, then I’ll probably pass.

It’s sad because i don’t think it’s the fault of any of the actors these characters even in the last jedi could have been great if written right and also didn’t drop plot lines like the knights of ren. also solo could have been great if it didn’t add things that turned it into a parody the lando robot romance which was never hinted at in empire or jedi or the eu just that he was a smooth talker and other odd decisions like maul which I know he came back in the clone wars but his addition in the end felt like fan service and out of place. the whole film had problems. Rogue one had problems but they were very small in comparison to the other four films it was the closest film that came to og Star Wars despite the remaining problems the film had.

I definitely agree that Disney believes the sequel trilogy to be a failure, but I don’t think it’s 100% the truth. Yes, each of the sequel trilogy movies made progressively less money at the box office, but all of them made over 1 Billion dollars, 7 made 2 Billion, 8 made 1.3, and 9 made just over 1 billion. And if we’re talking about critical reception most everyone liked Force Awakens, those that dislike it are 100% in the minority, Last Jedi had a very mixed reception, but to say that most people hated it I think is a slight exaggeration. Tons of people hated the movie, but there’s also a sizeable amount of the fandom that loved the movie, and critics loved it as well. It’s only really Rise that almost everybody disliked. What I’m trying to say is that despite the perception that the sequel trilogy was a complete failure that’s not actually true, if we’re going to take it as a whole I’d say that reception is actually really mixed on the sequels. In fact, the current reception of the sequels is still much better than the reception that the prequels got at the time. What’s really driving the perception that the sequel trilogy was a failure is that Disney is refusing to do anything with the characters or time period of the sequels. People hated the prequel trilogy but Lucas pitched The Clone Wars and the show eventually became amazing, and the perception of the prequels improved. What I think Star Wars really needs is someone who isn’t afraid of doing things with the sequel trilogy’s characters or timeline. I think it’s mostly that they need new leadership as it’s clear that Kathleen Kennedy isn’t really cutting it as the lead on Star Wars. Outside of The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Mandalorian, and Arguably Last Jedi, everything else has either not gotten good critical reception, or been successful financially. Obi-Wan and Bobba Fet are critical failures despite getting excellent viewership, and their best stuff is The Mandalorian which is declining in popularity, and Andor which despite being acclaimed by most of its watched just didn’t get a big enough audience, I don’t think doing another sequel thing would hurt. Maybe during the Star Wars celebration when they announce the 3 movies they have in development something will actually happen, but they need new leadership I think

Rian Johnson’s trilogy looks like the only thing that was going to do something completely untethered from the main saga and would’ve probably avoided fan service as well, but such a project seems to be quietly shelved.

I’ve read so many comments online lamenting how the Sequels ruined Star Wars and all that. This is kind of funny to me, because I’m like, yeah welcome to the club. I don’t like the Sequels either but from my perspective, Star Wars was pretty much irrevocably damaged in 1999. Truthfully, at this point Star Wars is like 90% crap, with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back really standing out as the only truly great movies. But despite this, every now and then a small miracle occurs and we get something like Andor, which apparently was written by people from a different Universe where entertainment companies actually give a shit about story and writing. I still can’t believe that show is even real.

Channel72 said:

Star Wars was pretty much irrevocably damaged in 1999.

This is true. But people have short term memories when it comes to being fed the latest pop culture thing, so that is why we’re now facing the current state of things.

Would have loved Rian’s trilogy, and the old republic trilogy. Maybe even Rogue Squadron if Patty was able to prove the debacle that was Wonder Woman 84 wouldn’t be repeated. Beautifully shot movie, the script was kind of all over the place.

The problem is you are only as good as your last movie. If it flops Lucasfilm isn’t going to give you a shot at a Star Wars film. If it is controversial they will find a way to not move forward.

They’ve diluted it all too much now, so only something big will be good enough. You can’t really get back up the hype they had for an unknown cast in a new movie. So you’re left in a state where only a Rogue Squadron or an Obi-wan is enough. At least not for a long time.

They’ve cancelled a bunch of stuff and announced more new stuff. That could be cancelled. I wonder if it’s all just a big scam going on behind the scenes…