Originally Posted by Chiefspants
GIANT RANT INCOMING:
For having one of the most storied franchises in history, Disney really had zero plan of how to handle this franchise.
They cast aside thousands of pages of what was once considered source material (some of it treasured), and let J.J. Abrams plagiarize A New Hope with zero reflection on how that would shape the new series.
I actually don't mind The Last Jedi but among it's biggest flaws are that its clear that J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson had radically different interpretations of the new characters. The result is that J.J. Abrams, back for film 9 (he was never supposed to direct SW after film 7) felt the need to really, really reach for a new storyline (reviving a long-dead character), and this, if not handled carefully, could absolutely jeopardize one of the most iconic character journeys in the series (Anakin/Darth Vader).
Disney has been on the defensive too. Kathleen said they were always at a disadvantage because they had no "source material" (despite throwing away treasured novels when acquiring SW and no longer deeming it canon), and the reports that they were still filming four weeks before release indicates that Disney's recent comments could very well be damage control.
Luckily, The Mandalorian has paved the way for SW's obvious path forward - which is television filmed, written, and produced near the quality of some of TV's best in the last decade. The obvious difference are that these stories were storyboarded, planned out, and delivered in a writer's room, which never happened with the new movies. The fact that the writers of the movies did not sit down and deliver a 3 episode outline from the beginning is mind boggling - even moreso is that in Episode 7's script, JJ was obviously setting up for Luke Skywalker to be "Yoda like" in his mastery of the force. Rian threw all of that out by having Luke forget the force entirely (for Rian could not justify why a Luke so powerful would allow Han to die in Episode 7... which... is fair, and something J.J. obviously had not thought out when putting Luke inside his mystery box in the script). Another issue J.J. caused was that Poe Dameron (one of the most popular "new" characters heading into Ep. 8) was originally supposed to die 10 minutes into the first film. It was only when Oscar Isaac expressed his sadness that his character was dying so quickly (and likely, Disney realizing how ****ing good Isaac is as an actor) that they reversed course to make Oscar Isaac a regular cast member for the entire trilogy. The problem this created was that it overstuffed Ep. 8 and 9's plotlines, as it feels like it was tough for them to give both Poe and Finn something to do.
Honestly, the biggest sin of the revival was somehow not doing the most obvious thing the series needed to do... which was to reunite Luke, Leia and Han on the same screen. It seems like J.J. might be doing some weird force ghost voodoo in 9 (judging from the trailers) so it's possible he'll rectify this, it's just hard not to think that the final product could feel hollow at this point.
Ah well, Jon Favreau helped launch Marvel and seems to be following the same beats with The Mandalorian, so there's some new hope, as it were.
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