Kathleen Kennedy Talks About The Future Of Star Wars
The LA Times released a lengthy article about Kathleen Kennedy and Star Wars on Sunday. Of particular interest is the following section, which talks about the potential future of Star Wars on the big screen:
While the “Skywalker” saga is ending, the company won’t abandon the characters created in the most recent trilogy. Additionally, she said, the plan is to move beyond trilogies, which can be restricting.
“I think it gives us a more open-ended view of storytelling and doesn’t lock us into this three-act structure,” she said. “We’re not going to have some finite number and fit it into a box. We’re really going to let the story dictate that.”
So what could that mean? Click through for a discussion!
Kylo Ren & Rey
If Lucasfilm wants to abandon the trilogy structure it would certainly open up some possibilities. However, with the exception of Rogue One and Solo, Star Wars has always been defined by this overarching trilogy structure. You always knew the movies had a goal, you always knew the story had a definitive beginning, middle and end.
By abandoning that it sounds a lot like Lucasfilm is seeking to adopt the Marvel model of movie making and I am not entirely sure this is a perfect fit for Star Wars. Two approaches are possible:
- each movie will truly be self-contained, telling its own story and having a proper end, the movie may or may not have a sequel based on its success, but similar to Indiana Jones each sequel will be a self-contained story with the same actors and new guest stars
- the movies will emulate Marvel and try to build towards some greater event movie down the line, with each movie providing perfectly good entertainment, but also being somewhat forgettable in the process. Will we get the Star Wars equivalent of Ant-Man, Dr Strange, Black Widow, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America?
Which approach would you prefer? What do you think would work better? More or less self-contained movies like Rogue One and Solo that may or may not lead to future sequels or something like the MCU, where they expect you to watch movies like Ant-Man or Captain Marvel in preparation for some huge event down the line? With each movie providing a small puzzle piece for the greater whole, while trying to entertain you with a story that is not too earth shattering, because that’s what the event movie usually does?
In other words: is a non event one off Star Wars movie the right approach? Always provided Ms Kennedy’s statement means they are trying to emulate the MCU approach. And granted, the MCU approach has proven to be vastly successful. They could certainly greatly expand the scope of the movie universe by making movies about Jedi, bounty hunters, or maybe even troopers set in the Outer Rim or the Core Worlds. We could get a much more varied roster of heroes and villains. They could basically emulate The Clone Wars, that also featured an expansive roster of characters and vastly different settings with each arc.
On the toy front a more varied roster of movies could make for a more interesting toyline where we don’t get the same characters just with slightly different costumes each year, instead we could get something more akin to Marvel Legends.
So maybe the MCU approach would be a good business decision. The question is if Star Wars movies would lose something in the process if the trilogy structure is abandoned, with no clear goal on the horizon.
One final word about not wanting to abandon current characters: it doesn’t sound as if Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac are too eager to return. But when Keri Russell quipped to Oscar about what happens if Disney throws money at him? “I cash in the check”. So it seems we may not have seen the last of the sequel trilogy characters, provided Disney throws enough money at them. Whether or not anyone actually wants to see the characters will certainly be determined by the success of The Rise of Skywalker.
What do you think about it all? Would the MCU approach be a good thing for Star Wars? Do you want to see more movies about the sequel trilogy characters? What stand alone movies would you like to see?
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