Disney released a big promotion today featuring images, behind-the-scenes video and more for Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker through Vanity Fair, which includes a tidbit with Kathleen Kennedy mentioning how the Marvel approach won’t work for Star Wars.
The article spins things for Disney which decided to place the movies on hiatus in that it is a good thing, something normal and something that George Lucas did as well (the next Star Wars movie doesn’t get released for three more years by the Game of Thrones creators, which now has fans worried even more).
A lot of fans, including yours truly, have argued that Disney Star Wars is a complete disaster as the movies are now on hold because of the failure of Kennedy, Rian Johnson and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which led to further failure for the Han Solo movie (Johnson’s new trilogy is probably canceled, too). Some have argued the reason Han Solo performed so poorly at the box office and lost money is that it was released so close to The Last Jedi. I’ve countered that with the same argument doesn’t apply for Marvel, which releases multiple movies throughout the same year that are successful.
Disney Star Wars is a big mess
Now Kathleen Kennedy replies to the Marvel argument with the following (via Vanity Fair):
“I think there is a larger expectation that Disney has. On the other hand, though, I think that Disney is very respectful of what this is, and right from the beginning we talked about the fragility of this form of storytelling. Because it’s something that means so much to fans that you can’t turn this into some kind of factory approach. You can’t even do what Marvel does, necessarily, where you pick characters and build new franchises around those characters. This needs to evolve differently.”
So instead of admitting their approach to The Last Jedi and Han Solo was simply bad and a mistake, Kennedy actually says the Star Wars characters can’t hold a franchise and need to go a different route? So she thinks characters such as Han Solo (if written well), Obi-Wan, Boba-Fett, Yoda, Darth Maul et al can’t hold their own movies and that they need to be released years apart? So is that the reason why the Star Wars spinoff movies have been canceled? That those characters can’t hold a franchise? Not that you did a sh-tty job with The Last Jedi and Solo, that they aren’t any good, and that fans are upset and don’t want to see these sh-tty movies anymore?
I think the problem is that LucasFilm does not do the Marvel approach, which is having the leadership and someone like a “Kevin Feige” and a surrounding team that can put together quality filmmakers and actors that can make good films. Disney Star Wars has been a complete mess under Kathleen Kennedy, with major production problems and directorial changes which have led to poor performing films and a huge drop in merchandising and consumer products revenue, while the opposite has happened with Marvel — success!
You can’t even do what Marvel does?
Make good movies?* Yep! Agreed!
(*For the most part, as Captain Marvel was simply awful)
