Josh-da-man

It still doesn't fix all of Johnson's crap like "Carrie Poppins" and Luke tossing the lightsaber over his shoulder.

I'd break Ep IX into two parts, effectively making it a new VIII and IX, and saying TLJ was just a prophetic dream/vision Finn had in the bacta.

Then start IX Part One six months after TFA with Rey training with Luke. Leia dosn't need to appear in either movie, or just reuse footage of her from Finn's nightmare. Rose Tico shows up as a completely different character.

It ain't gonna happen, but a boy can dream...

story

Wow. I try giving people the benefit of the doubt on where they're coming from on not liking The Last Jedi, but this is the sort of thing that comes off like the worst levels of the reddit snake eating itself.

Kal-El

Rian Johnson endorses it:

please please please please pleeeeeeeaaaase please actually happen please please please please please ���������������������������������������������������� https://t.co/mNpSjgovax

— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 21, 2018

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sorry, I don't know how to embed tweets.

TGM

serious question, does anybody think the higher ups truly are having second thoughts about proceeding with Rian Johnson's trilogy?

GoldenJCJ

^ I think the higher ups are questioning a lot right now. Rian Johnson’s trilogy, stand-alone character films, etc. 6 months ago this was an untouchable franchise. Now, I think they realize they actually have to put some thought into these movies if they want the franchise to continue to succeed. I think prior to TLJ and Solo, they were under an assumption that they could churn out any pile of shit, slap “Star Wars” on it, and it would make a billion dollars.

DthRdrX

Absolutely, and he knows it which is why he keeps commenting about TLJ hate. That trilogy would make him a ridiculous amount of money.

According to Collider.

Disney seems to be stepping into the situation.

Josh-da-man

Outsider Johnson's The Last Jedi made north of a billion dollars and veteran Ron Howard's Solo ate shit.

I don't think there's an easy formula. The audience for Star Wars seems really mercurial at this time, and it's going to drive the Mouse crazy trying to puzzle out what went wrong.

The bean-counters will take TLJ's box office into account when they decide how to proceed, so Johnson isn't necessarily a dead man walking in the magic kingdom.

Kennedy might be in trouble, though, the way she goes through directors and blows up the budgets.

DthRdrX

C'mon man, you know the follow up, Solo, is paying the price for RJ's movie.

Ranger

Yeah, I don't think it's a good idea to let RJ do another SW movie.

Ridley, Boyega & Isaac probably will get signed on for Episodes X-XII.

Michael Corvin

Again, that's just one factor. TLJ doesn't get to almost $1.5b with supposedly "everyone" hating the movie.

Star Wars flicks are 'event' movies. When there is one every 6-18 months it's no longer special. That quick window aside, Solo did not look like an event movie anyway.

Josh-da-man

I honestly don't know. I absolutely loathed The Last Jedi, but it still made a shit-ton of money. While I didn't love Solo, I liked it quite a bit.

It might be a delayed backlash against TLJ. Casual fans seemed to like TLJ, but the hardcore SW nerds seem pretty split over it. But it seems like that casual audience didn't turn out for Solo.

It might be because the audience didn't want to see Han Solo played by the new guy with the funny name.

It might be because the movie was poorly marketed. It took forever to get the trailer out. They also didn't show a lot of Ehrenreich's performance in the trailers and tv spots, and that might have caused people to think they were trying to hide a bad performance. Would a teaser before TLJ have helped?

It might be because TFA soured people on the chatacter. Knowing how he ended up might have made people not care about seeing his origin story.

It might because five months after the previous Star Wars movie was too soon.

I doubt it was the behind the scenes turmoil; most people are clueless about stuff like that and don't follow the inside baseball stuff that we movie nerds do.

Franchot

I would think that Disney is having second thoughts about sinking money into any Star Wars films that will be directed by Rian Johnson no matter how much money TLJ made.

The backlash is out there and those who disliked TLJ won't pony up more money to see a film directed by the man who they feel destroyed Star Wars. As a matter of fact, a substantial number of Star War fans will probably end up boycotting any film that Rian Johnson is associated with unless Episode IX somehow makes the lump of coal TLJ turn into something that isn't a lump of coal.

When does Rian Johnson begin filming his trilogy of films? After Episode IX is released? I think Disney is in the "wait and see" category until the company sees how the end of this trilogy shakes out.

JeremyM

The marketing for Solo was bizarre--I still can't believe they didn't have a trailer ready to play before TLJ. As Josh correctly points out, there were all kinds of factors, and I don't think it was any one thing but a collection of them that caused it to underperform at the box office (and that might be a generous way to describe it).

Kal-El

My serious answer is no.

stvn1974

It would be awesome of Johnson's first film of his trilogy ends on a massive cliffhanger and then ends up making less than Solo and Disney cancels the next two films.

fujishig

It would be awesome because...

stvn1974

The online meltdown.

TGM

I don't wish for Star Wars to ever fail. The franchise, as watered down as it has become, and as crappy as TLJ is, means too much for me. Hoping JJ can pull it together for me with Ep 9.

stingermck

Lucasfilm "Licking Their Wounds" But Not Halting 'Star Wars' Development

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...opment-1122655

DaveyJoe

No, TLJ made bank and that's all that matters. When movie studios listen to the internet they get Snakes on a Plane and they won't forget that lesson anytime soon. If Rian Johnson's next SW movie bombs, then they might reconsider.

Paul_SD

Because it would upend expectations, which according to fans is his gift to the franchise.

Josh-da-man

GoldenJCJ

I don’t expect Disney execs to listen to the internet or SW fanatics (that remake petition nonsense is beyond stupid), and I wouldn’t want them to. What I do expect them to do is put some actual thought behind the series when making them. Making this current trilogy (VII, VIII, IX) without any sort of cohesive plan for them, planning stand-alone character films, sloppy productions, etc. just screams the ultimate in laziness to me when it comes to SW. I know not everyone is Marvel, nor do I really want everyone following that model, but for fuck’s same, put A LITTLE thought into it when making these movies, please!

islandclaws

Yes, but it also made far less bank than TFA and, using internal metrics, I'm sure they've determined IX could go even lower if it doesn't appeal to a majority of the fans.

Jay G.

Which is what Disney and nearly everyone else projected before the film was even released.

I've posted about this before, but TLJ met or exceeded the BO projections for it.

Now, Solo has failed to meet projections, so the BO of that film has Disney/Lucasfilm concerned. Maybe TLJ has something to do with it, but that's a very complicated question to answer.

However, "TLJ made less than TFA" is a weak argument. Absolutely nobody was expecting it to earn as much, and Disney/Lucasfilm were more than happy with the ROI on that film.

Note that there was no credible news on Lucasfilm rethinking their plans until after Solo bombed.