Really, the only ‘tough nut to crack’ when it comes to Star Wars is the fact that Disney cast aside so much great material that it had laying there, ready to be used. The article that Mike Jones of ScreenRant writes seems to take the pressure off of Kathleen Kennedy, the current Lucasfilm president, who seems ready and willing to admit that some directors simply can’t take on the enormity of the story and the direction that Disney wants to go in. It’s enough to give a person, especially a Star Wars fan, a serious migraine just thinking of how much great and worthwhile material was tossed when Disney first bought Lucasfilm, especially now that fans are giving Disney a piece of their mind when it comes to the movies they’ve created. Should we run down the list of things that Disney has fouled up with or simply get into the truth of how they’ve first tossed and then cherry-picked from the many ideas that they decided to simply ignore? At this point it doesn’t seem to matter since the idea of Kennedy having a ‘theory’ as to why Star Wars keeps losing directors sounds more like damage control in the form of excuses than anything else.
The reason why this is so frustrating to fans and to those that have been around long before Kennedy came into the picture, before Disney was even considered to be an option for Lucas, is that Star Wars is an expansive and very wide open concept that leaves a lot of room for discovery and for interpretation and it does have a very demanding fan base that can weed out even the best storytellers and break them down. But the idea of not taking the material that was offered, the idea that Disney could somehow improve on something that has been so loved for so many years without its influence, is kind of hard to fathom no matter what the box office numbers say. It’s Star Wars, despite how much the fans might turn on one movie and despite how blame is cast in several directions at once, the source of it does lie with those that are running the show. The fans, as Mike admits, have the easy job of watching the movies and paying for it, but the hard part, actually making them, is also the role that carries the most responsibility. Fans of the series will continue to show up and shell out money for the movies, but unless Kennedy and others are paying attention they’re going to keep missing the big picture: people want the Star Wars that the EU gave them, not this jumped-up feminist version that Kennedy and a few others think is so great. Sam Bigelow of Deseret News has more to say on the matter.
It’s true that arguing with the box office numbers make a lot of fans look ridiculous and absolutely out of touch with how things are going as of now, and it’s also true that the diversity in Star Wars hasn’t been the greatest. But if you look at the prequels, still before Disney came in and started stomping around, Padme was a very strong character, her handmaidens were present, there was a POC on the Jedi Council that happened to be one of the toughest Jedi alive, and things were progressing in a very different manner. So giving Disney props for everything it’s done and somehow finding the nerve to claim that it’s a ‘tough nut to crack’ is a clumsy dodge that should by all rights have some people wondering just why Kennedy can’t seem to own up to the fact that Disney is making bank simply because of the Star Wars name and the continual hope that she and many others will pull their heads out of a dark and very confined space instead of continuing to claim that their ‘woke’ sensibilities aren’t to blame. Otherwise there’s a good bet that they’ll keep losing directors, especially those that aren’t willing to bend to their ideas and want to take Star Wars back in a way that seems to fit with the original trilogy and the ideas that people were expecting to see.
As of right now it’s almost a relief at times to think that Star Wars will be taking a break after The Rise of Skywalker, but the hope that Lucas would try to become involved with his idea once again is for the most part a dead end since Disney has made it loud and clear that they seem to think that they know best and are giving people what they want, it’s simply the fans that can’t accept that they’re being difficult. Because you know, the people that pay for something because they have a lot of emotional invested in it don’t have a clue after all, right? Hopefully Disney will right this ship eventually, but don’t hold your breath.
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