Star Wars Expanded Universe Thread

[SCNCY]

So, in light of the saga films ending, where does Star Wars go from here? I think Kathleen Kennedy has to go. I think, despite how you might feel about the films individually, the saga trilogy as a whole is a terrible mess. It's clear there was a total lack of vision and KK gave the directors too much power. I get that maybe they were trying to do what the OT did by having different directors for every film, but what she/they missed was Lucas was still creatively calling the shots in the OT for all the films. It was painfully obvious a unifying vision was missing. On top of that many of the Star wars films under her direction have had massive production issues behind the scenes, some evident in the final product, some not. I wont even get in to how she set up the story group just to marginalize them during the making of the saga films.

The Star Wars franchise is more than strong enough to survive some blunders, and if Mando is any indication they just might kill it in the streaming realm. But still, I don't see how she can remain at the helm of the Star Wars movies, as it is clear leadership from the top has been a problem.

I think now that the Skywalker saga is done, I would anticipate them maybe doing knights of the old republic type of stuff. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see films on the creation of the Jedi order, the Jedi schism (creation of the Sith), the Mandalorian wars, and potentially the creation of the new republican (which we see fall a part in episode 1-3). There are a lot of years of history between all of that which is ripe for making new films. Personally, I would love to see an army of Jedi fighting an army of Sith.

I haven't seen episode 9 yet, but I agree that Kathleen Kennedy gave too much vision and control to the directors. While the first six films of the trilogy had different directors, as you said, Lucas still created the story and had the vision for it. While the prequels had bad acting and dialog in it, the overall story arc was good. The lack of a story arc hurt the latest trilogy (even through I haven't seen episode 9, based on 7 and 8, I feel confident this will continue in to 9).

Regarding the story arc, what really baffles me is that with the success Marvel was having at the time Disney purchased LucasFilm, you would have thought they would have planned out the trilogy and anthology films better and be connected in some way. I was confident at the time they would have done this, but for some stupid reason, they didn't. It's just mind boggling how stupid management can be sometimes.

 

[BryceC]

They need to install somebody who has the chops to kind of be in the mold of a TV showrunner for the SW universe. Or, they need to hire somebody to write all three stories in the next trilogy and then hire directors from there. Regardless I agree - there needs to be somebody casting a vision for the future of the franchise. I wish it was Filoni, but I'd be open to about anybody. Favreau would be great to direct and write in the series, we know he can do with with Iron Man and he's good with effects and especially effects that look real (IE Lion King). It's such a big commitment and the fanbase is so toxic I don't know who would do it though.

 

[CycloneWanderer]

Let's be honest, here. The 9 star wars movies are the Palpatine Saga.

 

[Triggermv]

Finally finished The Mandalorian yesterday which I really enjoyed throughout. My only critique would be that I wish it was somewhat less a serialized week to week adventure, and more an ongoing throughput story. However, at least the last couple episodes definitely did some tying together of many of the seemingly stand-alone episodes, which I appreciated. I loved the visuals and characters of this story throughout and I think this show is giving us a good further glimpse into the future of high-budget television. This entire show looked and felt like a movie and I'm anticipating the same thing from Disney+'s upcoming Marvel shows. Even my daughter was really enjoying The Mandalorian, and man was she a sucker for everything Baby Yoda. Between Baby Yoda and Baby Groot, Disney is killing it with kids on shows that otherwise aren't super kid shows/movies. Lastly, what this series also succeeded at was what I feel Disney's future path should look like outside of the saga trilogy, of telling exciting new separate stories, which do their own thing, but still tie well into the overall Star Wars Universe narrative. In fact, in the end, this was probably the best and most important thing this show accomplished.

 

[Triggermv]

Another thing The Mandalorian succeeded at was getting me even more hyped for the upcoming Obi-Wan Disney+ series with Deborah Chow at the helm. I now see why they chose her beings how I thought her two episodes of The Mandalorian were the two best episodes of the entire series. Touschee Deborah...... touschee. On the flip side, while still decently good episodes, I actually was surprised to find Dave Filoni's two episodes he directed to be my least favorite ones, most particularly his second one on Tatooine.

 

[BuffettClone]

Looks like a Darth Maul series is in the works for Disney+

https://insidethemagic.net/2019/12/rumored-darth-maul-show-backstory-tm1/

Edit:Changed to a more recent article.

 

[SCNCY]

Looks like a Darth Maul series is in the works for Disney+

https://insidethemagic.net/2019/12/rumored-darth-maul-show-backstory-tm1/

Edit:Changed to a more recent article.

This makes me very excited. I would really like to see what happened to Maul right after his arc in The Clone Wars (although, maybe we will get some more story with season 7). But I am really interested to see how Maul goes from Crime boss in Solo to the seemingly fragile person in Rebels.

 

[SCNCY]

Another thing The Mandalorian succeeded at was getting me even more hyped for the upcoming Obi-Wan Disney+ series with Deborah Chow at the helm. I now see why they chose her beings how I thought her two episodes of The Mandalorian were the two best episodes of the entire series. Touschee Deborah...... touschee. On the flip side, while still decently good episodes, I actually was surprised to find Dave Filoni's two episodes he directed to be my least favorite ones, most particularly his second one on Tatooine.

I don't think they were on Tatooine, I think it was another planet.

 

[BuffettClone]

I don't think they were on Tatooine, I think it was another planet.

There was one episode, "The Gunslinger" that was on Tatooine

 

[SCNCY]

There was one episode, "The Gunslinger" that was on Tatooine

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that episode. That was the one where him and the new bounty hunter were tracking down other bounty hunter.

I stand corrected.

 

[mapnerd]

Finally finished The Mandalorian yesterday which I really enjoyed throughout. My only critique would be that I wish it was somewhat less a serialized week to week adventure, and more an ongoing throughput story. However, at least the last couple episodes definitely did some tying together of many of the seemingly stand-alone episodes, which I appreciated. I loved the visuals and characters of this story throughout and I think this show is giving us a good further glimpse into the future of high-budget television. This entire show looked and felt like a movie and I'm anticipating the same thing from Disney+'s upcoming Marvel shows. Even my daughter was really enjoying The Mandalorian, and man was she a sucker for everything Baby Yoda. Between Baby Yoda and Baby Groot, Disney is killing it with kids on shows that otherwise aren't super kid shows/movies. Lastly, what this series also succeeded at was what I feel Disney's future path should look like outside of the saga trilogy, of telling exciting new separate stories, which do their own thing, but still tie well into the overall Star Wars Universe narrative. In fact, in the end, this was probably the best and most important thing this show accomplished.

I disagree. This is what I loved about the show.

 

[Triggermv]

This post has been going around lately talking of the behind-the-scenes nightmare JJ dealt with in producing ROS. Its also why #releasetheJJcut is trending right now. Oy vey..... talk about somewhat a disaster of a trilogy. While I enjoyed ROS for the most part, I too would prefer to see a JJ cut if this is true and there actually is one.

 

[Triggermv]

I disagree. This is what I loved about the show.

I've dealt with week-by-week serialized adventures for nearly every show on network television for about 30 years now, so I'm ready to mostly move on and leave that type of storytelling to the constraints of network TV and sitcoms. There is a reason network TV is a dying species and that is a big part of it. Some of it is okay with me if a series, but I thought they could have used less of it with The Mandalorian. I'd much prefer more of a 5-hour movie cut into 8-episode segments myself.

 

[BryceC]

This post has been going around lately talking of the behind-the-scenes nightmare JJ dealt with in producing ROS. Its also why #releasetheJJcut is trending right now. Oy vey..... talk about somewhat a disaster of a trilogy. While I enjoyed ROS for the most part, I too would prefer to see a JJ cut if this is true and there actually is one.

100% you can see there were wayyyyyyy too many hands in the cookie jar on ROS. That said, there's just too many storylines period starting in TFA. A lot of the problems from TLJ and ROS are because there are just too many characters are arcs. The big failing of TLJ in my mind is that they expanded the arcs, not began tightening them up.

ROS is almost incomprehensible in many ways - I only found out they were on Mustafar at the beginning because I read it outside the movie. I only realized Finn wasn't going to tell Rey he was romantically in love with her and that he had force sensitivity because I read it. That's just bad moviemaking, and it again just shows a lack of vision from the beginning.

 

[cyhiphopp]

100% you can see there were wayyyyyyy too many hands in the cookie jar on ROS. That said, there's just too many storylines period starting in TFA. A lot of the problems from TLJ and ROS are because there are just too many characters are arcs. The big failing of TLJ in my mind is that they expanded the arcs, not began tightening them up.

ROS is almost incomprehensible in many ways - I only found out they were on Mustafar at the beginning because I read it outside the movie. I only realized Finn wasn't going to tell Rey he was romantically in love with her and that he had force sensitivity because I read it. That's just bad moviemaking, and it again just shows a lack of vision from the beginning.

I think you're being a little overcritical about RoS. Does it make a huge difference that he was on Mustafar in the beginning? It's a nice detail, but not story breaking.
It was painfully obvious that Finn was going to tell Rey he loved her. Spelling it out for everyone would have been useless exposition for someone else to complain about.
And they also hit at him being force sensitive because he says something along the lines of "The Force turned me from evil" when he couldn't shoot civilians.

I didn't have any problem with either of those things.

There are a lot of people who, if they wanted to draw out the movies forever, they could explore their force sensitivity. The first one I ever suspected was Han Solo. His luck and piloting ability scream that he's an untrained force sensitive person. Also his combination with Leia leading to Kylo Ren and his immense power is also a good sign.
I'm guessing Poe Dameron could also be revealed as force sensitive. Anyone they describe as the best pilot in the galaxy should be a red flag there.

 

[BryceC]

It was painfully obvious that Finn was going to tell Rey he loved her. Spelling it out for everyone would have been useless exposition for someone else to complain about.

Except that's not what he was going to say according to the filmmakers.

 

[cyhiphopp]

Except that's not what he was going to say according to the filmmakers.

What was he going to say according to the filmmakers?

 

[Rogue52]

What was he going to say according to the filmmakers?

That he was force sensitive. This was confirmed in an interview with JJ Abrams.

 

[cyhiphopp]

That he was force sensitive. This was confirmed in an interview with JJ Abrams.

Interesting. That makes sense too. My first thought was unrequited romance.

I thought it was ok leaving it a mystery though.

 

[Triggermv]

That he was force sensitive. This was confirmed in an interview with JJ Abrams.

Granted, I only saw it once, but 100% my interpretation of what he was going to say was that he was force-sensitive when I was watching it. Therefore, when the filmmakers confirmed it later, I was not surprised. Maybe I missed something, but I didn't really see any of the romance stuff.