I’m sorry guys.
But I can’t.
I said I was going on a Star Wars hiatus, that I wouldn’t talk about Star Wars for a while.
But here we are, once again, with more Star Wars drama! The Obi-Wan show has effectively been shut down. This show has literally been in development for the last five years. First as a movie, then a TV show. Either way, they finally announced that it was going forward, they finally set a date for shooting. But it wouldn’t be a Kathleen Kennedy Star Wars production unless somebody was getting fired.
In this case, she didn’t fire the director, which is her usual M.O. She fired everybody else.
Now I don’t have enough of an inside scoop to know what’s going on here. But I can make a solid educated guess. Disney was hoping Rise of Skywalker was going to make 1.6 billion dollars. Instead, it’s going to make 1.1 billion dollars. Whenever expectations aren’t met at a major studio EVERYBODY FREAKS THE F#@% OUT. Everyone starts doubting. Everyone starts covering their a$$. And any project that has a connection to the tainted product gets major budget cuts.
This would be in line with reports that they’re trying to cut six episodes down to four.
But the weirdest thing about all of this is that Obi-Wan was supposed to be a movie. That was the original idea. It was going to be the next standalone Star Wars film after Solo. But then Solo bombed so they made it a TV show. Now there’s no rule out there that movie concepts can’t be re-imagined into TV shows or vice versa. But something about the way this project has been ripped apart, reconfigured, ripped apart again, rearranged, gives off the impression that it’s a big giant mess. And they don’t know how to fix it.
It’s funny. One of the things I’ve picked up on these producer meetings is how terrified people are to say yes. If you don’t say yes, you can’t f&%# up. You can only f&$% up if you say yes and it turns out bad. So there’s a strong incentive from everyone to say no. And that fear only grows greater the closer you are to production. That’s why so many projects get right up to the starting line only to fall apart a day before they begin. Or, in Obi-Wan’s case, AFTER they begin.
If you cancel Obi-Wan (which it’s looking like is going to happen) the PR hit isn’t as bad as if you made it and it sucked.
But I mean, where is Star Wars going at this point? They are so far in the woods, so far from the nearest trail, that they’ve given up trying. They’re literally STOPPING EVERYTHING, standing in the middle of the forest, and hoping someone shows up and rescues them. But I got news, Star Wars. JJ isn’t coming to the rescue anymore. Nor is Baby Yoda. Taika’s good for a few cute headlines and that’s it. What is your freaking PLAN. You’ve never had one and it’s finally caught up to you.
Just sit down and come up with a plan, then follow it. That’s why Marvel is the biggest franchise in history right now. They literally told you their 10 year plan 10 years ago. Everybody laughed at them but they followed it and here we are.
The irony is that I never wanted an Obi-Wan series in the first place. It doesn’t make sense. He came to Tatooine to watch over Luke. Why would he leave him here and go off on adventures? Doesn’t that defeat the whole point of the job he was given. Yoda didn’t say, “Watch over the boy… unless you get bored and feel like killing a few gundarks in the Outer Rim.”
But, at this point, he’s the last of the original franchise stars you can use. I don’t know. Maybe Rian Johnson got back in Kathleen’s head. Kill the past, he said. Especially everything that has to do with that Obi-Wan show.
Is it just me or is this our big prelude to Kathleen Kennedy finally getting fired? It sure feels like it.
