Chat corner 135: possibilities

[annathecrow]

Welcome to the Monday chat corner!

This week, my choice of canon media is a little questionable: the three movies announced by Disney this April - one by James Mangold, to be set in the far history of the Galaxy Far Far Away, one by Dave Filoni, meant to tie into his TV shows, and the last, by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, which is supposed to continue Rey’s story as she rebuilds the Jedi Order.

…okay, so I opened my trusty timeline of canon media, found the Mangold movie as the first item, and went “wait, what?”. I am not the most well-informed of fans. I figure you might not be either - or you might enjoy speculating about projects that might never see the light of day (still waiting on my Rogue Squadron movie, Disney!)

What are your thoughts?

Comments

[annathecrow]

"David Filoni Cinematic Universe" -- oh lol XD (but yep, that's what it is)

I think Disney is really struggling with the fallout of the Sequels specifically because it's just so divisive - both as a trilogy and each movie separately. Some people liked them, some people liked parts of them, some people hated the whole thing... It's even worse for them than if it was universally disliked, then at least they could go "er, less of that".

And since Disney's creative direction for Star Wars seems to be run on analytics... well. (I am not bitter, who's bitter... /sarcasm) At least Lucas had a plan. I'm no great fan of ~auteurs~ (or Lucas...), but at least he had that.

As for Mangold... and Obaid-Chinoy... is it just me, or is Disney trying to "overwrite" the more popular (or at least memorable) Legends stories? Tales of the Jedi, New Jedi Order...

[atamascolily]

is it just me, or is Disney trying to "overwrite" the more popular (or at least memorable) Legends stories?

It's not just you. The reason they're doing it is because if they use the old characters/settings/plots, they have to pay Lucas (and possibly others?) royalties, whereas if they use their own characters, they keep that money for themselves. This is likely why we keep seeing "the same thing but just different enough for copyright" over and over again, and why there's an increasing shift towards new vs. "legacy" characters.

(It's not that they'll stop using old characters entirely--especially the popular ones!--just that they have an economic incentive to focus on new characters, and that's a major influence on their storytelling choices.)

I think I've recc'ed this before, but Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars by Edward Grossman has numerous details about the sale to Disney and the company dynamics, and everything I've seen thus far is consistent with this account.