[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Glad to see you back to at least let us know Star Wars stuff in this thread.

I thought the 3rd act of Rogue One was the best act of the whole Star Wars universe. The Darth Vader scene wasn't originally even in there? I hope Gilroy gets his chance to take on a whole series or movie.

Thanks for the kind words. Tony Gilroy is signed on as screenwriter for the entire series along with directing several episodes. He's not the Showrunner but it's his vision driving the series.

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Glad to hear D&D were fired. I heard that the cast and HBO were on board with doing an additional episode or two to flush out the last season story of GOT but D&D wanted to move on to Star Wars. Any truth to that rumor Dane?

From my understanding, there's no truth to that rumor. The final two seasons were shot simultaneously, while editing and music took more than a year after shooting. All of the actors, directors, et al had made further career plans and trying to do two more episodes well after shooting was over, sets broken down, etc. and so on, would have been ridiculously expensive. The new management at AT&T wouldn't have approved it, anyway. They're still figuring out their way, while Direct TV and HBO Max are already giving them fits.

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Sounds like Lucas films has got fat and happy in its old age. New blood is needed.

It's really more of a "too many cooks in the kitchen" situation. KK and the "Story Group" have one vision. Dave Filoni, who's been spread thin while working on Seasons 1 & 2 of The Mandalorian and the second and final season of Star Wars Resistance, has another.

And Lawrence Kasdan (more on that in a bit).

Originally Posted by banecat

They thought that was what people wanted

Not "they", Lawrence Kasdan. Kasdan has had an enormous influence on Lucasfilm and the sequels. He finagled his way into co-writing The Force Awakens with Abram, wrote Solo, had input on TLJ and on Rise of Skywalker. He's seen as an arrogant ass and he's directly responsible for Lord & Miller's firings. I heard directly from people at Disney that he completely freaked out on set because Lord & Miller were straying from the script that he wrote and that led directly to their firing.

Kasdan believes that he, and only he, understands Han Solo, mostly because he wrote Empire and ROTJ. Without his son's influence on Solo, it would have been a completely different movie because Jon is ALL into Star Wars, the EU, the animated series, the games - all of it. It was his idea for Darth Maul, the Maw, the crime syndicate (which was suppose to be Black Sun but was changed to Crimson Dawn due to Maul) and so on. So basically anything "cool" is Jon and the rehashed parts are Kasdan, although George Lucas did have input on Solo, on set and off.

Originally Posted by Mennonite

I don't even know who "R.J." is but I can't see how anybody but George Lucas could be blamed for killing Star Wars after Phantom Menace came out.

RJ is Rian Johnson, writer and director of Episode VIII. And while you have a valid gripe and opinion of the prequels, it's certainly not shared by young people, whose introduction to Star Wars was Episodes I, II and III, not IV, V and VI.

For example, we have Disney annual passes so we're at Disneyland at least a few days each month. Late last month, we had family in town so we headed to Disney at 7am and while the kids were doing rides in California Adventure, I went directly to Star Wars Land and the Millennium Falcon ride. I went as a "Single Rider" and rode it four times in less than an hour (it was awesome, too!). While in line, I spoke to dozens of people, most of whom said flat out that they're into Star Wars because of I, II and III.

Also, the lines were 2 hours or more for the Falcon and even longer for the Cantina. Add to that, there were no Fast Passes available, so people waited. For hours. The Rise of the Resistance ride is opening in January and I probably won't wait in line until late February or March because it'll be insane for a while.

Different strokes and all.

Originally Posted by notorious

I tried to get my 11 and 7 year old into Star Wars.


They don’t give a shit. You couldn’t pull me away from watching ROTJ for the 189th time when I was a kid.

It doesn’t grab kids’ imaginations anymore. Sad.

My kids, who are the same age as yours, are fully into it, as are most of their friends (and some are WAY into it). Lightsabers, costumes, video games, board games - you name it. They even got me two Resistance Fighter X Wing helmets for my birthday and my youngest wants the $700 dollar lightsaber.

I may have mentioned this before but my kids didn't connect with the movies until after they'd watched The Clone Wars and the Star Wars Rebels animated series. At that point, they were official Star Wars fans. My oldest still sleeps with her BB-8 stuffy toy.

--
Also, I think this might be out there already but Colin Trevorrow was fired from Episode IX not because of the weak box office of his last film, The Book of Henry, but because he wanted RJ to change two things about TLJ:

1. He wanted Luke to survive so that Luke & Leia could defeat the First Order together, as Jedi's.
2. He wanted Snoke alive.

He fought tooth and nail and lost the battle. He refused to rewrite his script and forced Lucasfilm to fire him. After asking another half a dozen directors to helm IX (remember that initially, RJ was going to write VIII AND IX), they all turned her down so she went back to Abrams.