The other day I came across a tweet that said something to the effect of: “It’s crazy that a new Star Wars movie comes out in four months and nobody knows about it.” One of the first replies to that tweet was: “I’m a rabid Star Wars fan and I have no idea what movie you’re talking about.”
And the thing was, I didn’t know what movie he was talking about either! I knew they wrapped that Ryan Gosling Star Wars movie but I didn’t know it was coming out this early! I did a quick google search and realized he wasn’t tweeting about that movie. He was tweeting about The Mandalorian and Grogu. Indeed, I’d completely forgotten about that film. And I guess it’s coming out this summer!
That’s pretty insane. Because I’m a hardcore Star Wars fan and I didn’t know that. Imagine what that means for the casual Star Wars fan. Or just movie fans. There’s no way they know about this movie. And that is the biggest indictment on the Kathleen Kennedy era of Star Wars. That nobody looks forward to Star Wars movies anymore. Kathleen Kennedy did what was once thought impossible: She created Star Wars apathy.
But now she’s gone.
And she’s being replaced by Dave Filoni.
How do I feel about this?
A change was needed, for sure.
Is Filoni my ideal choice? No.
But the more I meditate on this new development, the more I realize there is no good choice. Think about it for a second. Who could actually lead Star Wars back to prominence? Back to relevance? Back to being the best franchise in the world?
There’s literally no one. Come up with a name if you think I’m wrong. Maybe Favreau. His stuff is good but it definitely has a ceiling.
The only person who has any chance of reviving the franchise would be Lucas himself. But he’s too old. He wouldn’t have the energy to turn this giant Mon Calamari Star Cruiser around.
But the reason I bring him up is that the big thing we learned during the Disney Star Wars experiment was that George Lucas’s warped mind is the only thing that can create a Star Wars movie that actually feels like a Star Wars movie. Every other one of these movies and shows ended up feeling like Star Wars cosplay — some rando with a pen superimposing his lesser Star Wars-y mind on top of the Star Wars blueprint. And it never quite felt right.
This brings us to why Filoni got the job. He got the job because everybody says his mind is the closest to George Lucas of anyone. And I think that’s accurate. Which is a good thing. But Filoni also didn’t come up in this business as a filmmaker. He came up as this Star Wars historian – basically a giant Star Wars nerd. And he moved up in Lucasfilm specifically because George Lucas liked him. Arguably because Filoni was a big champion of the prequels at a time when the prequels were getting hammered. In school, we used to call these people brownnosers.
So, I don’t think Filoni has enough imagination to head Star Wars. He just knows it really well. But I also don’t know if that matters. This promotion implies he won’t be directing any of the films. But what if he does? If Dave Filoni makes a Star Wars movie, it’s going to be received as the worst Star Wars movie ever made. Not in a Rian Johnson controversial way. It will just be perceived as boring and poorly made. So I’m hoping he’ll have nothing to do with the filmmaking.
What I do like about Filoni taking over is that it creates a clear reset at Lucasfilm. Kathleen Kennedy’s biggest issue was she’d driven all of the best properties within Star Wars (the legacy trilogies, Solo, Obi-Wan, Boba Fett) into the ground. There was nowhere left to go with them and so she just stopped making movies. The ONLY reason she made these recent movies (Starfighter and Mandalorian) was because Disney brass said she had to make something. But if they hadn’t mandated that, she would’ve chickened out on making anything because everything she was making was bombing.
By Filoni taking over, it allows for this new slate of movies to begin. Maybe we even get Episodes 10, 11, and 12, which was always part of Lucas’s plan. That’s something Kennedy never would’ve gotten away with. And if that sounds like a dreadful idea to you, keep in mind that Filoni is still very close to Lucas. And so we would get more of a Lucas version of 10, 11, and 12, than a Kennedy version. I’m not saying it’ll be good, guys. I’m past hoping for good. Moving forward, I just want interesting. I want unexpected. And Lucas still has some weird Star Wars ideas that he was never able to implement. It might be wild to see those ideas.
Indeed, Star Wars needs to take more risk if it wants to become relevant again. The thing is, Kennedy would argue that they did take risks. The one-off Rogue One that didn’t have any Jedi and all the heroes died in the end was a risk. I agree with that.
But where the real risk was supposed to happen was in the TV shows. That’s where they planned to experiment with different Star Wars formats. And yet, none of it felt experimental at all. It all felt pretty cookie-cutter. And that era of Star Wars was unfortunately plagued with a Hollywood that lost its mind for five years and decided that every lead had to be a woman and that diversity was more important than storytelling. Those were the things that were sold as “risky” instead of where the risk really should’ve been: which was in the storytelling itself. You cannot write something good without taking some risk.
And I don’t claim that writing Star Wars stories is easy. I actually think it’s one of the most difficult writing assignments in Hollywood. But that’s why you don’t want to limit the storytelling by enforcing pointless handicaps that don’t need to be there. Let writers do what they do best – write. Let them cook. And you’re going to get a lot better stuff than you got during that awful Disney + era.
I wish I knew what Filoni was thinking for his slate. Filoni is a guy who’s known for one thing besides his Lucas friendship: His love for the prequels. He wrote and directed all those prequel cartoons. His one Disney Star Wars show – Ashoka – is a prequel show. Whenever he directed Mandalorian episodes, his big contribution was fitting in old prequel easter eggs, like a Naboo Starfighter, into the story. I don’t know how much he understands Star Wars outside of the prequels.
And this guy is in charge of the creative future of Star Wars storytelling?
DEEEEEEEEP BREATH – EXHAAAAAAAAAALE
I think for sure we’re going to get a new trilogy announcement. I don’t know if it will be 10, 11, and 12 or a whole separate trilogy.
If I were Filoni, my first order of business would be to find a new next level villain. If I had to go deep into Star Wars future and have generations pass to find that character, that’s what I would do. Because Star Wars isn’t Star Wars until the galaxy is in fear. And the big mistake the new trilogy made was that it never established that fear. If we don’t fear that the galaxy is in danger, then we’re not worried for any of the people in it.
What do you think comes next for Star Wars?
