Bob Iger is trying to do some early damage control and admits that they fucked up with Star Wars but that its actually due to franchise fatigue and pumping out too much shit at once, which is indeed part of the problem
I don't even think it's that, the late 90s and early 2000s had an absurd amount of Star Wars content across three eras. We were getting ~2-3 games a year, countless books and comics, and no one looks back on that time period and thinks "damn, we should have had less content". This is even considering how disappointing the prequels were; it was at least a decently interesting time period that had good content in Genndy Wars.
It really does come down to quality. We all know what the old New Republic was like in the old EU and it was much better. The sequel era doesn't lend itself well to cool spin off material like the prequels did, either, considering just how contained and short lived this conflict is (seriously, it's looking like it will take place over one year.)
This was always my preferred option. I get that a lot of people complained that Coruscant was wanked off a bit too much sometimes, but I really got sick of the "ruin planets" that appeared far more (Ruusan, Korriban, Malachor V, Rakata Prime, you name it) and the idea that Coruscant was still absurdly powerful thousands and thousands of years later with no end in sight was very cool.
They even included the Disney lego shit? I'm sure that will have people just clamoring for this content. Also from what I understand, the reason they call it Journey to IX rather than Star Wars is so they make it clear that only stuff relevant to IX and their canon gets included without having to include "Legends" media like Genndy Wars, the Ewoks movies, the Droids cartoon, etc, but that hasn't stopped people in the Netherlands from complaining and forming petitions towards Disney to add said content to Disney+, but in true Disney-Lucasfilm fashion they will probably not give a shit.
Disney & LFL we want Caravan of Courage, Ewoks 2, Droids & Ewok's Cartoons on Disney+
www.change.org
In other news, Bob Iger is trying to do some early damage control and admits that they fucked up with Star Wars but that its actually due to franchise fatigue and pumping out too much shit at once, which is indeed part of the problem but without acknowledging the questionable quality of the content Lucasfilm has published while under his reign and ignoring massive fuck ups like TLJ, Battlefront II, Solo, GE, the comics, Wendig and so much more.
It shows they have little faith in IX succeeding so they're coming out early to try and pin any possible failure on "franchise fatigue" rather than their own incompetence.
True, but at least the war and strife was more entertaining than watching a bunch of ugly blobs gambling with see-through cards.
Fuck me... I was hoping I would never have to address this shit. I know what you're talking about. It was the cancelled novel Alien Exodus. It was later rewritten and released as a completely different novel trilogy unrelated to Star Wars called Alien Chronicles which was released in 1998, although it was still tied to Lucasfilm. If you still want to read the whole thing, you can just pick up the Alien Chronicles books even though they removed the SW references. Just rename the hero to "The Skywalker" and rename a few aliens to SW ones. The overall plot of the novel is THX humans are still miserable and oppressed, they escape, they end up in time travel black hole, then they get enslaved by Rodians (Greedo's species) who are slaves to a bigger and scarier race, humans proceed to lead a rebellion and free themselves and all other aliens, but the human leader who formed the rebellion died and is then honored as The Skywalker. How much of this was changed for Chronicles is unknown to me outside of name changes. I'm pretty sure you can get it on Ebay if you still want to read this. Three books in all. View attachment 946178
Frankly, I can't say I shed a tear when it was cancelled. The whole premise sounded pretty ridiculous for many reasons so it was no surprise that they cancelled it outright. Although the concept of ancient humans fighting for freedom and how they became so widespread in the galaxy is interesting (and it was later re-used and adapted in KOTOR and the following KOTOR lore), but tying them to future Earth via time travel was too over the top, all the more so by trying to link all of Lucas's films together. For some reason certain people always overthink about why humans can exist in the SW galaxy when really it would just be an example of parallel evolution, much like how other humanoids and near-humans can exist within the SW galaxy despite different origins. You could also just claim that humans on Earth were the result of humans in the SW galaxy escaping from their slave masters and getting sucked into a worm hole that dropped them off on a primitive Earth where they had to start all over again or simply that it was humans in the middle ages that ended up in SW rather than future ones which is why they have a concept of knights and chinese shit, at least those are decent ideas to go by if you're an author who's really desperate to have Earth connected to SW. Initially Disney wanted to make their own version of this story, with either Kennedy, Hidalgo or some other fuck (can't remember which) mentioning that part of the projects planned for SW included a story about how humans got to SW which was never explained, and quite frankly its not something that needs explaining. SW works best as its own setting anyway. And wondering how humans got there is like wondering how humans got to the world of the Elder Scrolls. Its just the version of humans of another world or just an example of parallel evolution.
Despite being canned as an SW project, KOTOR and subsequent KOTOR-related media did take ideas from that story but removed connections to Earth with good reason. For example, the master slaver race and their empire was reintroduced as the Rakata and their Infinite Empire, and they were portrayed as being the ones responsible for spreading humans around since they made effective slaves which is why humans and near-humans are so common in SW. Three possible home worlds were given for humans in SW, with the first and most obvious being Coruscant (humans called their ancient forgotten homeworld Notron but this was just an ancient name for Coruscant) with the humans native to there originally being called the Zhell, the second was Corellia but that was unlikely since the Corellia system was just one big experiment by a highly intelligent progenitor species that wanted to introduce lifeforms from different worlds into the same environment, and the third candidate was Tatooine since the original natives of that world (the Kumumgah) were implied to be the original ancestral humans in KOTOR, having been the ancestors of modern humans, jawas and tusken raiders, with even HK-47 stating that humanity's ancestry is possibly linked to Tatooine. View attachment 946124
Kinda fitting since Tatooine is where everything started in the films.
There was another book that would've sort of adapted parts of the old cancelled novel, but it was cancelled too thankfully. It was called Supernatural Encounters and it was going to be used to explain the origins of the Mortis beings (aka the Celestials/Architects) from Filoni Wars (Father, Daughter, Son and Mother and their kind) and other similar entities, while also explaining their ties to humans and other species. Supernatural Encounters despite being cancelled by Disney is readily available online in this link. The main differences between this book and the original cancelled book is that for one this book is written as more of a horror-scifi that reads like ancient greek mythology as read by an occultist rather than something to be taken literally word for word, and some names and factions from Alien Exodus are changed to tie in better with SW lore at the time, and I don't think its explicitly said that humans are from Earth or the future, instead they come from a planet called Urthha and were relocated to another better planet which they also called Urthha in honor of their old homeworld, but the book says that "some humans called it New Earth after the world they left behind" along with something about humans not being aware of how they were dominated which sound 1138-ish which bothers me, since it sort of breaks the feel of exploring the history/mythology of an alien galaxy. Still aside from the human shit, the rest of the story is solid I guess if taken as the greek mythology of SW, and parts of it do hold some relevance in that much like irl greek mythology, there's some truths mixed in, like some parts of the Celestials which is legit, although I was never particularly fond of the Mortis episodes from Filoni Wars and the re-imagining of the Celestials. View attachment 946189View attachment 946190View attachment 946193
I can't say I'm not pleased this book was cancelled too, although it would've been nice to just have the history of the Celestials without tying the history of humans and other species to it since KOTOR and its related media already did a good job of that. For those who just want a summary of what the Celestials (aka the Filoni Wars entities) are, they're basically the first species that mastered the Force and technology. First they built ancient structures, powerful relics and explored the galaxy and occasionally experimented with worlds, then they forged alliances with other early advancing species like the Kwa who would carry on their will, and then they disappeared.
But after Filoni Wars, they were reimagined as being more god-like with them mastering the Force and eventually they realized the glory of the Force itself and chose to become one with their progenitor, with only a few of their kind remaining behind like the ones in Filoni Wars for their own crazy and smug reasons because they wanted to be gods rather than mere mortals or become part of a greater god, with the remaining ones operating from behind the scenes. Suffice it to say I wasn't particularly fond of this reimagining as them being literal god wannabes instead of just an early super smart race of monk people.
The Kwa would eventually carry on the will of the Celestials and teach other primitive aliens how to be civilized and use the Force, which backfired horribly and led to the Rakata learning too much and conquering everything and enslaving ancient humans and other species.
In short, I'm glad Alien Exodus and Supernatural Encounters were never approved, at least not in their original formats. A little editing for SE could do wonders though, unless you don't mind some Cthulu-tier shit and Earth mentions. So I think I'll just settle for KOTOR's officially published lore regarding humanity's origin, celestials, the slaver overlords aka the Rakata and the Kwa with no Earth shit or time travel.
I sincerely doubt that Iger actually believes it’s a problem of quantity. It’s just that he’s in so fucking deep pushing the sequel trilogy (he’s supposedly the one that requested Galaxy’s Edge to use only ST stuff) that going back now and admitting that maybe they fucked up would bring shame to the House of Mouse.
I sincerely doubt that Iger actually believes it’s a problem of quantity. It’s just that he’s in so fucking deep pushing the sequel trilogy (he’s supposedly the one that requested Galaxy’s Edge to use only ST stuff) that going back now and admitting that maybe they fucked up would bring shame to the House of Mouse.
Sorry for double posting, but Iger also stated in his book that they showed George a screening of TFA and he told them it was disappointing and had nothing new.
Sorry for double posting, but Iger also stated in his book that they showed George a screening of TFA and he told them it was disappointing and had nothing new.
I was never into J.J Abrams's work, but I did listen to his Ted talk and him talking about "the mystery box" and how much he loved A New Hope. I thought I was listening to a passionate Star Wars fan that "got it". What we got instead was a movie that copies A New hope so much it's basically plagiarism. When he mentioned key scenes of a New Hope he loved, I didn't expect him to actually just copy those scenes and the whole plot and call it a day.
Now that I've seen J.J abrams touch franchises I actually care about, I see him as nothing but a shallow plagiarist. He knows the words, but no the music.
Rya Johnson was horrible, but Abrams's take wasn't that much of a good start either. I mean between plagiarist and the guy that gave the middle finger to fans, there's not much of a choice here.
I thought the reason for the "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" line was because in the original draft the story would be told from the perspective of a future historian, a la Dune. But even if Star Wars humans did come from Earth it makes sense not to spell it out because it would have been more than 27,500 years ago. Imagine if everyone considered Africa their homeland because humans came from there 70,000 years ago.
I was never into J.J Abrams's work, but I did listen to his Ted talk and him talking about "the mystery box" and how much he loved A New Hope. I thought I was listening to a passionate Star Wars fan that "got it". What we got instead was a movie that copies A New hope so much it's basically plagiarism. When he mentioned key scenes of a New Hope he loved, I didn't expect him to actually just copy those scenes and the whole plot and call it a day.
Now that I've seen J.J abrams touch franchises I actually care about, I see him as nothing but a shallow plagiarist. He knows the words, but no the music.
Rya Johnson was horrible, but Abrams's take wasn't that much of a good start either. I mean between plagiarist and the guy that gave the middle finger to fans, there's not much of a choice here.
Abrams is a crappy iterator with no sense of voice. He is like an extremely shittier version of Taratino. He has no real opinions or world view. He just deconstructs things and then regurgetates/mimics.
Rian Johnson, despite his terrible Star Wars film, does have genuine artistic ability. The problem is that while he was a fan of the series, he loathed Star Wars fans(or fandom in general). I can respect that, to a point, but he overindulged...
Not to mention, probably entertained the horrible 'suggestions' of the LF storygroup. Something Abrams didn't do atleast...
The biggest issue from Abrams: if he just accepted he was a shitty writer(or stop giving crappy writers jobs), his movies would be much better. His visual flair and performances are fine. But, fuck does he not torpedo his movies with his/friends writing...
I thought the reason for the "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" line was because in the original draft the story would be told from the perspective of a future historian, a la Dune. But even if Star Wars humans did come from Earth it makes sense not to spell it out because it would have been more than 27,500 years ago. Imagine if everyone considered Africa their homeland because humans came from there 70,000 years ago.
IIRC I read somewhere that the text scroll is actually R2D2 retelling the events of Star Wars to somebody in the far future, since he's pretty much smack dab in the middle of everything. Solo and Rogue One don't have text scrolls, because guess who isn't there.
Though how that'll come into play given R2D2 doesn't seem to be in IX like, at all, but no way it doesn't have a Text Scroll, is anybody's guess.
You know what would get people excited? If Colin Trevorrow made a documentary-style tell all about the Disney era of Star Wars that’s in the vein of Final Cut: The Making of Heaven’s Gate.
Huh. Informative. I remember those Alien Chronicles, I tried to read the first one and it bogged me down only a few chapters in. Never bothered with the others.
I always figured Coruscant was the original human homeworld, but as they expanded and terraformed worlds (given that a number of core worlds seemed to have high levels of humans), and people mixed and wars and the total cityscape took over everybody just forgot that it was the homeworld.
Now that they've finally admitted that George didn't like TFA and TLJ, I wonder what will be the new angle of attack from the Disney shills and the access media. They can't attack him again since they've done that last year when they had to deflect any criticism of TLJ right before they released Solo.
I remember when they released that Ted Talk, people were all "wow he's such a smart guy" except that he isn't. He's a marketer. He managed to make people believe that the Mystery Box was a magical tool while in reality it's the "MacGuffin" under a new name. It is what bad writers use when they encounter the writer's block. The Mystery Box/MacGuffin is a dangerous tool for a writer, it's a plot device that must not be explained because it can't be explained. It's used as a way to distract the viewer long enough so he/she won't notice that the story is going nowhere (Rambaldi, the Rabbit's Foot, the Red Matter, the Smoke Monster, the Polar Bear, Snoke, etc...). One of his protégé Alex Kurtzman who has now his own production company is doing the exact same thing (the Observers, the Mycilial Network, the Red Angel).
Now that I've seen J.J abrams touch franchises I actually care about, I see him as nothing but a shallow plagiarist. He knows the words, but no the music.
Exactly. It's also a strange takeover. Once he's done with a franchise, he gets a new deal elsewhere but makes sure to leave one of his own behind at a high position within the company (Alex Kurtzman with CBS/Paramount where he LARPs as the "Kevin Feige of Star Trek", Michelle Rejwan at LucasFilm as a VP).
Now that they've finally admitted that George didn't like TFA and TLJ, I wonder what will be the new angle of attack from the Disney shills and the access media. They can't attack him again since they've done that last year when they had to deflect any criticism of TLJ right before they released Solo.
What a laughable way to justify their shitty movies just because Lucas' idea might have been bad. But we'll never know because I'm fairly sure George knew enough was enough and let the magic of Star Wars exist in the EU books and games. Where people were fairly happy to continue their journey with from the movies.
There are a few artworks and plot ideas out there for the sequel movies that he wanted to make. Some of them got re-used by Disney for TFA like those concepts arts for a bayou-like planet that became Jakku. The Whills is one of the ideas that he had since the beginning of his SW adventure but that was cut from the original script. From what I remember, the new trilogy would feature Luke, his son (?) and a red-skin Twi'lek.
It was weird, George by all accounts hated Mara Jade and never wanted Luke to marry but his sequel trilogy treatment did seem to involve Luke and a female love interest. The one he gave to Disney was somewhat similar to the current sequel trilogy. A girl named Kira and her buddy (who became Rey and Finn) would seek out Luke and he would train her, train Leia a bit, then die in Episode IX. However, there's tons of conflicting information because most articles combine Lucas's ideas in the 80s regarding a sequel trilogy (aka Palpatine wouldn't have been killed until episode IX and Luke was naturally much younger) with the basic treatment he gave Disney and his trippy idea for the microscopic Star Wars movies to somehow prove Disney is following his ideas, and all three were very different. Personally it would have been interesting if Lucas decided to do one of his sequel trilogy plans without selling the rights, because he was supposed to put the Yuuzhan Vong in TCW. Doing that and then decanonizing the post-Endor EU period would have pissed everyone off and confused things. But I don't think he ever had any concrete plans for doing a sequel trilogy. He had ideas bouncing around but seemed mostly okay with letting the EU do its thing.
What's interesting is, instead of her being an incompetent. The media/twitter will try to spin it as a woman executive being mistreated by patriarchal Disney.
I love how Hollywood Reporter leaves that bait at the end....
There are a few artworks and plot ideas out there for the sequel movies that he wanted to make. Some of them got re-used by Disney for TFA like those concepts arts for a bayou-like planet that became Jakku. The Whills is one of the ideas that he had since the beginning of his SW adventure but that was cut from the original script. From what I remember, the new trilogy would feature Luke, his son (?) and a red-skin Twi'lek.
No, the original ideas, always had a female Jedi character. Whether it be from the ESB treatments(Skywalker sister) to what he reconceptualize.
Apparently, the 'Luke in Exile' was Lucas's idea(though probably not as heavy handed). But, that it would be resolved in 7. There was never a planned love interest for Luke, it seems..
I think the treatments were a variation of Solo siblings(girl/boy). The girl becomes the Jedi, the boy falls to the darkside(seduced by the red skin twi'lik lady)....
