Mike86

Oh come on I think you know that’s ridiculous no matter how much you disliked the film.

tanman

I don't know. I won't use quite such strong words but when you read his interviews and reasoning for certain things he really does come off like he made choices with characters and plot just to be different for difference sake.

Mike86

He wanted to make a different film but it wasn’t because he hates the franchise and wanted to stroke his ego and ruin it going forward. That’s just silly. He took a chance and some people didn’t like it, some did.

DaveyJoe

Nobody sets out to destroy a billion dollar franchise and their career at the same time. That's ludicrous. We need another Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment for the people trying to remake TLJ.

tanman

Yeah I agree with that part. But at the same time I think he made doing something different such a high priority and at the cost of the plot and the characters. He did it just to be different.

melasnus

Agreed.
These 2 JWs are pretty bad.

Kal-El

Or maybe, as he himself has said, the only way for the franchise to continue is to try something different. We can only dip in the nostalgia well so many times.

Josh-da-man

But the sequel trilogy isn't doing anything different.

The Last Jedi ended with a new Empire in power and the rebellion reborn. It's basically a reboot.

Is that the vision for Star Wars moving forward? A perpetual conflict between a ruthless Empire and a ragtag rebellion?

Jay G.

Well, there's only so much wiggle room considering that First Order vs Rebellion was set up in TFA. However, TLJ, through the character DJ, did note this loop.

The differences were largely with the characters though, and how they interacted with each other. Kylo was set up to be Vader redux in TFA, but ended up killing his master and staying dark. Rey was set up to apprentice under Luke in TFA, but Luke refused and Rey had to forge her own path and even teach the supposed master a lesson.

Jason

They were the resistance, not the rebellion.

I think they should have taken the story at least 200 years into the future. Rey could have discovered she's the distant descendant of Luke Skywalker or something. All the original cast and everything related to them would be long gone. A completely clean slate. The New Jedi Order Luke tried to establish would be long gone and the Force would be basically forgotten. Then the Force could truly awaken.

Jay G.

Like it makes a difference.

You going all "God Emperor of Dune" on us?

Disney wanted the original cast to return. The majority of the audience wanted the original cast to return. George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney on the premise of a sequel trilogy with the original cast already signed on.

mcnabb

While I agree that JJ gets a good share of the blame for this Trilogy being the OT part 2 (unoriginal) in terms of having another Resistance vs First Order macro story, and Rey vs Kylo Ren micro story. I think TLJ ends and we are right on that same path: Rey is the 'next' one who has the task of setting up the new Rebellion and Kylo Ren is the leader of the new Empire (they just got rid of the middle man with Snoke).

So that is where I just don't understand when I hear the narrative that TLJ took the franchise in a whole new direction as TFA and TLJ are still on that path that we took heading into ROTJ with a few left turns.

Now where Rian Johnson could have really taken the franchise in a different direction for Episode 9 was if Rey took Kylo Ren's offer after he killed Snoke. Then we are treading in uncharted waters. What is Rey's motives for doing this? Is this just a smokescreen to take out Kylo Ren and cut the head of the snake altogether? Is she corrupted by the darkside (as Luke referenced earlier in the movie) and taking Kylo Ren's offer was a rash/naive decision?

If Episode 9 begins with Rey and Kylo Ren ruling the galaxy and Poe/Rose/Finn play one angle to get her back, while Hux plays another angle of having a cue attempt on them, then we have something very interesting for this franchise we haven't seen before (Just think if Luke took Vader's offer in ESB, then ROTJ is alot different). Right now it's just Resistance vs First Order again, and Rey vs Kylo Ren again, and that isn't much different then the OT, IMO.

JTH182

I'm still holding out hope that Snoke is Plagueis, and he comes back for episode 9. This would make things interesting as now Kylo has betrayed him, and the resistance is still battling Kylo and the First Order. Thus, we would have three sides doing battle.

I know that's not the most popular idea, but at least it would bring things full circle, while still being a little different from the other movies.

tanman

There's a difference between taking something in a new direction and just doing something different. He clearly did the later. Instead of developing the characters into something different and unexpected he just wrote them that way. Didn't take anything in previous movies to develop them along a natural arc. He just simply made choices in the script just to be different and then left no plan or care at all for what happens in the next movie.

Jay G.

That's a matter of opinion. Plenty of people liked the new direction he took the series, and I don't think he did any of the things "just" to be different.

However, I feel the discussion of TLJ's merits should be left to the TLJ review thread. This thread is supposed to be a discussion of the next movie.

DaveyJoe

The Star Wars movies that shook up the formula the most are the prequels, for what it's worth.

TGM

definitely would've been cool to have a battle hardened Luke and his army of Jedi along with Snoke and his army of Sith + Kylo Ren (fuck the rule of 2 which never made any sense to me) work together to fight a 3rd party enemy, at least in one or two of the sequel trilogy, then, after they were vanquished they turn against one another. But instead we get a rehashed Death Star v3.0, Star Wars via madlibs at the whim of each director. Ugh.

Damed

Kathleen Kennedy reportedly putting everything on JJ

https://www.cosmicbooknews.com/star-wars-rian-johnson-trilogy-canceled

Jay G.

That article is just a bunch of speculation based on a pretty vague quote from production designer Neil Lamont:

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/245...-spin-off-film
So, production design on a spinoff, one that featured Tatooine, has been halted, but Lamont thinks there's a chance the project could come back. It seems much more likely this is the rumored Obi-Wan spin-off movie than the Rian Johnson trilogy, and it doesn't seem to be fully cancelled.

mewmartigan

Wow, that is a terrible article and the title is the definition of clickbait. It quotes something vague, then extrapolates in 30 different directions and takes harmless quotes to be something more.

Serkis saying "sure, it would be cool if Snoke were back in IX" does not mean, "Rian Johnson made a terrible decision killing my character and I hope IX can retcon that piece of trash movie".


An unnamed source says IX is already "DOA"? That's quite a statement to not follow up on in your article.

GoldenJCJ

Right. Why would the author of that article think that a movie featuring Tattooine be Rian Johnson’s trilogy that has specifically been described as taking place completely apart from the Skywalker saga of Star Wars films. Wouldn’t it be safe to assume that Jonhson’s new trilogy won’t take place anywhere we’ve seen before?

I haven’t really been keeping up with Star Wars news but it sounds like the cancelled spin-off was a Mos Eisely movie. This must have been super early in pre-production as Rian Johnson’s trilogy, Obi-Wan, and Boba Fett have all been discussed a lot more than a Mos Eisley movie.

joe_b

Location shooting with Boyega, Isaac and Chewie:

Jay G.

joe_b

Dominic Monaghan joins the cast:

https://deadline.com/2018/08/star-wa...ms-1202451972/

Reminds me of the old joke title of the Episode VII thread: "(D: J.J. Abrams) S: The cast of Lost, Felicity".

Ranger

Grant said he's not playing Thrawn. Oh well.

Monaghan... Interesting...