Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
#926
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
#928
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
J.J. Abrams, one of Hollywood’s most successful and prolific TV creators and filmmakers (Lost, Alias, Cloverfield, Star Trek), rarely participates in profiles or interviews that go beyond promoting a specific project. But just days after he returned from a months-long shoot on Star Wars: Episode IX, which he cowrote and directed, he sat down with Fast Company writers KC Ifeanyi and Nicole LaPorte in his office at Bad Robot, in Santa Monica, California. What follows is a transcript of the wide-ranging conversation that took place.
Fast Company: How does it feel to be back after being away so many months filming Star Wars: Episode IX?
J.J. Abrams: It’s great for me—especially, and I said this at the [all-hands] meeting, just to see all these faces. Some people [at the company] were here just when I was leaving, they just got here, and then a ton of people have shown up since I’ve been away. So to come back to this home, business home, professional home, and have a fairly high percentage of the people be brand new faces, it’s a surreal thing. Of course. I’ve known about it intellectually. I was prepared for it. But you show up, and all of a sudden there are these like flesh and blood people with life experiences and points of view and like, I’ll hear things before so I’ll kind of know a little bit about everyone, and then they’re all the interns, too. And then to get to see them in person and feel like, wow, this is really . . . Katie (McGrath, Abrams’s wife and co-CEO of Bad Robot) and all the department heads and Brian (Weinstein, Bad Robot’s president and COO), they’ve done such a good job bolstering the team, and it’s great to come back. I mean, obviously, the simple answer is, I’m just happy to see my family again. It’s been so long.
FC: How did it feel when you were suddenly brought on to direct Episode IX after Colin Treverrow departed while the film was still in development?
Abrams: I wasn’t supposed to be there. I wasn’t the guy, ya’ know? I was working on some other things, and I had something else that I was assuming would be the next project, if we’d be so lucky. And then Kathy Kennedy called and said, “Would you really, seriously, consider coming aboard?” And once that started, it all happened pretty quickly. The whole thing was a crazy leap of faith. And there was an actual moment when I nearly said, “No, I’m not going to do this.” I was trepidatious to begin with, getting involved, because I love Star Wars so much and felt like it was . . . . It was almost, on a personal level, a dangerous thing to get too close to something that you care that much about. And yet, with Force Awakens, I feel like we managed to introduce these new characters—for some people, new actors—and continue a story in a way that I thought had heart and humanity and humor and surprise. Though of course I’m aware that there are critics of that movie, it felt to me like we dodged a bullet. Like we got in there, we got to do something. And I left loving Star Wars as much as I did when I got there. Like, somehow, it was on a personal, selfish level something I was really happy to have done. Not just excited about doing but happy to have done. And to ask to have that happen again, I felt a little bit like I was playing with fire. Like, why go back? We managed to make it work. What the hell am I thinking? And there was a moment when I literally said, “No,” and Katie said, “You should do this.” And my first thought was, has she met someone? And then I thought, she’s usually right about stuff. And when she said it, I think that she felt like it was an opportunity to bring to a close this story that we had begun and had continued, of course. And I could see that even though the last thing on my mind was going away and jumping back into that, especially with the time constraints that we were faced with . . . .
FC: What were the time constraints?
Abrams: Because they had announced release dates, and everything works backwards.
FC: Was the schedule unusually fast?
Abrams: To have no script and to have a release date and have it be essentially a two-year window when you’re saying (to yourself), you’ve got two years from the decision to do it to release, and you have literally nothing . . . . You don’t have the story, you don’t have the cast, you don’t have the designers, the sets. There was a crew, and there were things that will be worked on for the version that preceded ours, but this was starting over. And because this was such a mega job, I knew at the very least I needed a cowriter to work on this thing, but I didn’t know who that cowriter would be. There was nothing. So the first thing I did was reach out to a writer who I’ve admired for years, Chris Terrio. who I didn’t really know, to say, “Listen, would you want to write Star Wars with me?” And he screamed.
FC: Out of terror or excitement?
Abrams: Probably a bit of both, but I think definitely excitement. And what I realized in that moment was, I hadn’t been aware until then that I needed to work with someone who would scream at the prospect of working on Star Wars. Because I had been through the process, and I was looking at brass tacks: This is what it’s going to take, this is the reality of it. And he was looking at it sort of childlike: Oh my God, I can’t believe we get to play in this world, which I needed to be reminded of. I needed that point of view, because that’s not where I was. Of course, I was excited about what we could do, but I was acutely aware of how little time we had to do a fairly enormous job.
So to answer your question, I went into it in an all-in leap of faith, aware that Katie was very supportive of this thing and felt it was the right thing. And so her divining rod of what’s real and what’s right was a comfort, despite her not being in London (where most of the shooting took place). And it was just an immediate immersion into the what-ifs of it all, which is the fun of it, but also the pressure of it. And I’m not complaining when I say this, but it was having to make decisions based on gut. When Damon Lindelof and I created Lost, we had essentially 12 weeks to write, cast, shoot, cut, and turn in a two-hour pilot with a big cast. And that was a crazy short amount of time. The benefit of that was, we didn’t have time to overthink. There wasn’t time to get studio notes that end up sometimes taking you in lateral positions and making you adjust things—death by a thousand cuts—to a place where something doesn’t resemble what it should be, and you can’t remember why you got there or how. So the good news was I was jumping in with a writer whom I admired enormously; with Kathy and Callum Greene, a producer whom I’d never met; Michelle Rejwan, who had been my assistant, and whom Kathy had hired to work with her as a producer. But it was a completely unknown scenario. I had some gut instincts about where the story would have gone. But without getting in the weeds on episode eight, that was a story that Rian wrote and was telling based on seven before we met. So he was taking the thing in another direction. So we also had to respond to Episode VIII. So our movie was not just following what we had started, it was following what we had started and then had been advanced by someone else. So there was that, and, finally, it was resolving nine movies. While there are some threads of larger ideas and some big picture things that had been conceived decades ago and a lot of ideas that Lawrence Kasdan and I had when we were doing Episode VII, the lack of absolute inevitability, the lack of a complete structure for this thing, given the way it was being run was an enormous challenge.
However, to answer your question—truly, finally—now that I’m back, the difference is I feel like we might’ve done it. Like, I actually feel like this crazy challenge that could have been a wildly uncomfortable contortion of ideas, and a kind of shoving-in of answers and Band-Aids and bridges and things that would have felt messy. Strangely, we were sort of relentless and almost unbearably disciplined about the story and forcing ourselves to question and answer some fundamental things that at the beginning, I absolutely had no clue how we would begin to address. I feel like we’ve gotten to a place—without jinxing anything or sounding more confident than I deserve to be—I feel like we’re in a place where we might have something incredibly special. So I feel relief being home, and I feel gratitude that I got to do it. And more than anything, I’m excited about what I think we might have.
Fast Company: How does it feel to be back after being away so many months filming Star Wars: Episode IX?
J.J. Abrams: It’s great for me—especially, and I said this at the [all-hands] meeting, just to see all these faces. Some people [at the company] were here just when I was leaving, they just got here, and then a ton of people have shown up since I’ve been away. So to come back to this home, business home, professional home, and have a fairly high percentage of the people be brand new faces, it’s a surreal thing. Of course. I’ve known about it intellectually. I was prepared for it. But you show up, and all of a sudden there are these like flesh and blood people with life experiences and points of view and like, I’ll hear things before so I’ll kind of know a little bit about everyone, and then they’re all the interns, too. And then to get to see them in person and feel like, wow, this is really . . . Katie (McGrath, Abrams’s wife and co-CEO of Bad Robot) and all the department heads and Brian (Weinstein, Bad Robot’s president and COO), they’ve done such a good job bolstering the team, and it’s great to come back. I mean, obviously, the simple answer is, I’m just happy to see my family again. It’s been so long.
FC: How did it feel when you were suddenly brought on to direct Episode IX after Colin Treverrow departed while the film was still in development?
Abrams: I wasn’t supposed to be there. I wasn’t the guy, ya’ know? I was working on some other things, and I had something else that I was assuming would be the next project, if we’d be so lucky. And then Kathy Kennedy called and said, “Would you really, seriously, consider coming aboard?” And once that started, it all happened pretty quickly. The whole thing was a crazy leap of faith. And there was an actual moment when I nearly said, “No, I’m not going to do this.” I was trepidatious to begin with, getting involved, because I love Star Wars so much and felt like it was . . . . It was almost, on a personal level, a dangerous thing to get too close to something that you care that much about. And yet, with Force Awakens, I feel like we managed to introduce these new characters—for some people, new actors—and continue a story in a way that I thought had heart and humanity and humor and surprise. Though of course I’m aware that there are critics of that movie, it felt to me like we dodged a bullet. Like we got in there, we got to do something. And I left loving Star Wars as much as I did when I got there. Like, somehow, it was on a personal, selfish level something I was really happy to have done. Not just excited about doing but happy to have done. And to ask to have that happen again, I felt a little bit like I was playing with fire. Like, why go back? We managed to make it work. What the hell am I thinking? And there was a moment when I literally said, “No,” and Katie said, “You should do this.” And my first thought was, has she met someone? And then I thought, she’s usually right about stuff. And when she said it, I think that she felt like it was an opportunity to bring to a close this story that we had begun and had continued, of course. And I could see that even though the last thing on my mind was going away and jumping back into that, especially with the time constraints that we were faced with . . . .
FC: What were the time constraints?
Abrams: Because they had announced release dates, and everything works backwards.
FC: Was the schedule unusually fast?
Abrams: To have no script and to have a release date and have it be essentially a two-year window when you’re saying (to yourself), you’ve got two years from the decision to do it to release, and you have literally nothing . . . . You don’t have the story, you don’t have the cast, you don’t have the designers, the sets. There was a crew, and there were things that will be worked on for the version that preceded ours, but this was starting over. And because this was such a mega job, I knew at the very least I needed a cowriter to work on this thing, but I didn’t know who that cowriter would be. There was nothing. So the first thing I did was reach out to a writer who I’ve admired for years, Chris Terrio. who I didn’t really know, to say, “Listen, would you want to write Star Wars with me?” And he screamed.
FC: Out of terror or excitement?
Abrams: Probably a bit of both, but I think definitely excitement. And what I realized in that moment was, I hadn’t been aware until then that I needed to work with someone who would scream at the prospect of working on Star Wars. Because I had been through the process, and I was looking at brass tacks: This is what it’s going to take, this is the reality of it. And he was looking at it sort of childlike: Oh my God, I can’t believe we get to play in this world, which I needed to be reminded of. I needed that point of view, because that’s not where I was. Of course, I was excited about what we could do, but I was acutely aware of how little time we had to do a fairly enormous job.
So to answer your question, I went into it in an all-in leap of faith, aware that Katie was very supportive of this thing and felt it was the right thing. And so her divining rod of what’s real and what’s right was a comfort, despite her not being in London (where most of the shooting took place). And it was just an immediate immersion into the what-ifs of it all, which is the fun of it, but also the pressure of it. And I’m not complaining when I say this, but it was having to make decisions based on gut. When Damon Lindelof and I created Lost, we had essentially 12 weeks to write, cast, shoot, cut, and turn in a two-hour pilot with a big cast. And that was a crazy short amount of time. The benefit of that was, we didn’t have time to overthink. There wasn’t time to get studio notes that end up sometimes taking you in lateral positions and making you adjust things—death by a thousand cuts—to a place where something doesn’t resemble what it should be, and you can’t remember why you got there or how. So the good news was I was jumping in with a writer whom I admired enormously; with Kathy and Callum Greene, a producer whom I’d never met; Michelle Rejwan, who had been my assistant, and whom Kathy had hired to work with her as a producer. But it was a completely unknown scenario. I had some gut instincts about where the story would have gone. But without getting in the weeds on episode eight, that was a story that Rian wrote and was telling based on seven before we met. So he was taking the thing in another direction. So we also had to respond to Episode VIII. So our movie was not just following what we had started, it was following what we had started and then had been advanced by someone else. So there was that, and, finally, it was resolving nine movies. While there are some threads of larger ideas and some big picture things that had been conceived decades ago and a lot of ideas that Lawrence Kasdan and I had when we were doing Episode VII, the lack of absolute inevitability, the lack of a complete structure for this thing, given the way it was being run was an enormous challenge.
However, to answer your question—truly, finally—now that I’m back, the difference is I feel like we might’ve done it. Like, I actually feel like this crazy challenge that could have been a wildly uncomfortable contortion of ideas, and a kind of shoving-in of answers and Band-Aids and bridges and things that would have felt messy. Strangely, we were sort of relentless and almost unbearably disciplined about the story and forcing ourselves to question and answer some fundamental things that at the beginning, I absolutely had no clue how we would begin to address. I feel like we’ve gotten to a place—without jinxing anything or sounding more confident than I deserve to be—I feel like we’re in a place where we might have something incredibly special. So I feel relief being home, and I feel gratitude that I got to do it. And more than anything, I’m excited about what I think we might have.
Also, the Star Wars Celebration panel for Episode 9 is scheduled for Friday, April 12, at 11am Chicago time. We should have a trailer, hopefully by noon!
#929
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
But it was a completely unknown scenario. I had some gut instincts about where the story would have gone. But without getting in the weeds on episode eight, that was a story that Rian wrote and was telling based on seven before we met. So he was taking the thing in another direction. So we also had to respond to Episode VIII. So our movie was not just following what we had started, it was following what we had started and then had been advanced by someone else. So there was that, and, finally, it was resolving nine movies. While there are some threads of larger ideas and some big picture things that had been conceived decades ago and a lot of ideas that Lawrence Kasdan and I had when we were doing Episode VII, the lack of absolute inevitability, the lack of a complete structure for this thing, given the way it was being run was an enormous challenge.
#930
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
That's exactly how I interrupted it. And it seems well established already that there was no overhaul cohesive thought gone into the arc of the trilogy.
#931
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
Shocking... and it should get Kennedy fired for having no plan (if true). This ST has taken my childhood passion and turned it into a "meh" moment.
I won't go into details as to some of the plot points I've read about Ep IX but it sounds ridiculous... like in drinking green, alien tt-milk ridiculous.
I won't go into details as to some of the plot points I've read about Ep IX but it sounds ridiculous... like in drinking green, alien tt-milk ridiculous.
#932
DVD Talk Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
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re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
Rian Johnson will single highhandedly destroy the franchise. And yes part of the blame goes to Disney over saturation.
#933
Member
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
Well he’s not going to ignore the events that occurred in Episode 8. He might have had a plan, but since JJ and Rian really didn’t collaborate that the story, his earlier ideas would have to be changed I’m sure. Yes, the way the new trilogy has been created wasn’t ideal for the filmmakers, no doubt. Why they thought having different directors was a good idea, I don’t know.
#934
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
Shocking... and it should get Kennedy fired for having no plan (if true). This ST has taken my childhood passion and turned it into a "meh" moment.
I won't go into details as to some of the plot points I've read about Ep IX but it sounds ridiculous... like in drinking green, alien tt-milk ridiculous.
I won't go into details as to some of the plot points I've read about Ep IX but it sounds ridiculous... like in drinking green, alien tt-milk ridiculous.
#935
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
Again, I thought JJ was supposed to do the overall skeleton for the trilogy and then hand things off to Johnson to fill in the pieces. Now they're saying that JJ just did 7 and left nothing after?
#936
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I don't understand what the point of the story group is if they are letting these guys write their own storylines? Shouldn't the story group be writing/developing the overall story/arc/narrative (Just like George Lucas did with the OT), and than the directors inject their style of how they want the movie to be executed? That is my beef with this whole process, is that they let the directors be autonymous with each movie. I have no problem with Rian Johnson's style/execution in TLJ (as it is different then than JJ Abrams), I have problems with the story/narrative.
#937
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
Maybe you guy can correct me as I am interpreting JJ Abrams comments wrong, but he essentially confirmed that he wrote TFA one way, Rian Johnson wrote TLJ another way, and he is writing Episode 9 in a way that had to adhere to Rian Johnson's story? So he is pretty much saying that nothing was really planned out, and that the story he was telling in Episode 7 was changed when Rian Johnson wrote his story in Episode 8?
#938
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
The lack of an overall storyline and having 3 different writer/director combos is a direct result of Disney wanting MORE. STAR WARS. NOW. The films were announced the same moment Disney announced buying Lucasfilm. Now, personally, I liked 8, so I've been happy with the results so far. Certainly other film series have been written on a film-by-film basis, see the original trilogy. But there was no practical way to really have the same writer/director do all 3 movies on the schedule Disney originally wanted (May releases every 2 years).
#939
DVD Talk Limited Edition
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I am hoping Abrams can somehow salvage the trilogy as I still love TFA. If the new film is equal to or even shittier than TLJ I will just accept that Disney Star Wars isn't for me and just continue to cherish the theatrical cuts of the OT that I have.
#940
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I won't elaborate on that subject... let's just say, the stuff that comes from "reputable" inside sources, is much, much stupider than that.
#941
Member
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
JJ Abrams didn't want to commit to more than the first movie, and the speed of the release schedule (a new episode every two years) basically meant the screenwriting and pre-production on the next episode had to start before the previous episode was finished. RJ was writing the script for Ep 8 while 7 was shooting, for example.
The lack of an overall storyline and having 3 different writer/director combos is a direct result of Disney wanting MORE. STAR WARS. NOW. The films were announced the same moment Disney announced buying Lucasfilm. Now, personally, I liked 8, so I've been happy with the results so far. Certainly other film series have been written on a film-by-film basis, see the original trilogy. But there was no practical way to really have the same writer/director do all 3 movies on the schedule Disney originally wanted (May releases every 2 years).
The lack of an overall storyline and having 3 different writer/director combos is a direct result of Disney wanting MORE. STAR WARS. NOW. The films were announced the same moment Disney announced buying Lucasfilm. Now, personally, I liked 8, so I've been happy with the results so far. Certainly other film series have been written on a film-by-film basis, see the original trilogy. But there was no practical way to really have the same writer/director do all 3 movies on the schedule Disney originally wanted (May releases every 2 years).
#942
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I just don't feel good about Episode IX. Seems like Abrams barely wanted to be involved again and had to really rush it out.
#943
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I don't understand what the point of the story group is if they are letting these guys write their own storylines? Shouldn't the story group be writing/developing the overall story/arc/narrative (Just like George Lucas did with the OT), and than the directors inject their style of how they want the movie to be executed? That is my beef with this whole process, is that they let the directors be autonymous with each movie. I have no problem with Rian Johnson's style/execution in TLJ (as it is different then than JJ Abrams), I have problems with the story/narrative.
#944
DVD Talk Legend & 2021 TOTY Winner
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I don't understand what the point of the story group is if they are letting these guys write their own storylines? Shouldn't the story group be writing/developing the overall story/arc/narrative (Just like George Lucas did with the OT), and than the directors inject their style of how they want the movie to be executed? That is my beef with this whole process, is that they let the directors be autonymous with each movie. I have no problem with Rian Johnson's style/execution in TLJ (as it is different then than JJ Abrams), I have problems with the story/narrative.
#945
DVD Talk Hero
Join Date: Jun 2000
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re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
Always dangerous playing the telephone game with a series of Star War films. If Feige can keep an underlying arc for 22 fucking Marvel films, why can't Kennedy do that for a simple trilogy?
#946
DVD Talk Gold Edition
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I love TLJ and will defend (most of) it to the end, but taking a step back and looking at how it impacts the trilogy as a whole, it is kind of a bummer that this is how things are shaking out. They really went out of their way to disrupt major aspects of this new storyline, and for no obvious reason other than to be cute.
I doubt very highly that Kennedy is getting fired for any of this. Like it or not, TLJ was a success, and the haters are just the very vocal minority, although they seem to think otherwise.
And also re: your ruined childhoods -- grow up.
I doubt very highly that Kennedy is getting fired for any of this. Like it or not, TLJ was a success, and the haters are just the very vocal minority, although they seem to think otherwise.
And also re: your ruined childhoods -- grow up.
#947
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
yeah shitty way to plan this trilogy. Specially since JJ wrote several open ended questions he had no answers to..
Its fine to have stand alone writers/directors, only if you make films that work as stand alone stories. Think Batman Begins/ the first Back to the Future or Jurassic Park. But starting a single story that spans over three movies with no direction at all
Its fine to have stand alone writers/directors, only if you make films that work as stand alone stories. Think Batman Begins/ the first Back to the Future or Jurassic Park. But starting a single story that spans over three movies with no direction at all
#948
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
TFA: 936 million domestic - 2.06 billion domestic/foreign
TLJ: 620 million domestic - 1.33 billion domestic/foreign
There no way Episode 9 bombs like Solo (simply because the Saga movies appeal more to the masses), but I just don't know if it can equal TLJ box office numbers? Can we really see Episode 9 grossing 650-700 million domestic and 1.4-1.5 billion worldwide as that is what it will take to beat TLJ?
#949
DVD Talk Hero
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I don't understand what the point of the story group is if they are letting these guys write their own storylines? Shouldn't the story group be writing/developing the overall story/arc/narrative (Just like George Lucas did with the OT), and than the directors inject their style of how they want the movie to be executed? That is my beef with this whole process, is that they let the directors be autonymous with each movie. I have no problem with Rian Johnson's style/execution in TLJ (as it is different then than JJ Abrams), I have problems with the story/narrative.
I mean, Feige is running the MCU like a well-oiled machine, pumping out three movies a year, and they know what they’re going to doing five, ten years from now. It presents a cohesive and interconnected experience.
And Lucasfilm can’t even seem to plan out the fucking Star Wars sequel trilogy.
I don’t know if the blame lies with Kennedy or Iger, or if it’s just part of the long-standing Hollywood tradition of not understanding science fiction.
But it’s still baffling how they will micromanage the “Story” films, yet hand someone like Johnson free rein to derail the sequel trilogy.
And I also wonder what the hell the vaunted “Lucasfilm Story Group” does. It’s obvious that they just handed VII, VIII, and IX off to whoever and let them do whatever they wanted, except, it seems, Colin Trevorrow.
As a lifelong Star Wars fan, it’s absolutely heartbreaking to watch Disney and Lucasfilm crash and burn the franchise after we were promised a sequel trilogy and a movie a year. They could have built an amazing and rich universe, an epic science fantasy rivaling Tolkien. Instead, we got “Reylo — will they or won’t they?”
#950
DVD Talk Legend
re: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (12/20/19, W/D: J.J. Abrams)
I’m inclined to put the blame on Kennedy moreso than on Iger. Simply for the fact that the MCU exists and thrives as well as it does. That leads me to think Iger only steps in as much as he has to and let’s whoever he’s put in charge of these divisions of his company take the reigns. He’s entrusted Feige all these years so why would it be different for Kennedy and Lucasfilm?