Beyond Kathleen Kennedy – Why is Star Wars So Mortally Wounded? Star Wars tries to survive on a fanbase that was divided, now may just be cut in half.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the divide in the Star Wars fanbase. Endless amounts of ink have been spilled since the Disney acquisition, and much of the blame gets laid at the feet of Kathleen Kennedy, JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson, and Bob Iger. Lesser (but still significant) targets include the Lucasfilm Story Group, and the Re-Imagine Tomorrow group at Disney. All of these no doubt share their portion of blame, but the reception to Andor has revealed another significant fault-line that exposes another issue that may not be so simple to address, as it is likely not related to individual personalities or groups.
Let’s start with The Dark Times – ’83 to ’91.
During this period, Star Wars was a mostly dormant property. Spin-off cartoons, movie specials, and Star Tours at Disneyland still existed, but most demand from the audience had died off after ’85. The key demographic was growing up and there were no signs of any new movies coming down the pike. With waning interest, licenses were dropped and Lucas turned his attention to ILM and advancing filmmaking technology. The publication of the original Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn was a dipping of the toe into the waters – was there still an audience out there that was hungry for Star Wars? There certainly was, and novels flew off the shelves – but one lightning strike does not make a storm. The revival of Star Wars was initially a slow process. More novels were commissioned – a few games were published. This was followed by the revival of the Power of the Force 3 3/4″ line of action figures, model kits, role-playing games, audio dramas, comic book lines, etc….in the space of just a few short years, Star Wars had become a going concern again.
Lucasfilm experimented with intra-movie publications – The Shadows of the Empire storyline was a major gamble – “everything but a movie” – which was testing whether or not an audience really would be there for the prequels. The enthusiastic reaction confirmed that there was definitely an untapped demand for even more product. Jurassic Park had convinced Lucas that the technology had advanced such that he could make the prequels in a way that matched his artistic vision – and all merchandising pieces that he would need to capitalize on his investments were already in place from the slow ramp-up that had been going on over the previous years. Lucasfilm had been wise enough to try to enforce continuity between the various products – what happened at one place in the timeline would affect storytelling elsewhere. This made them unique from something like Star Trek, in which spin-off publications could not alter the cinematic status quo.
But what possibly made Lucasfilm more succesful than they otherwise would have been was their pipeline management. Lucasfilm produced a LOT of content – so much so that it could be overwhelming for a new fan jumping onboard.
To help ease new fans into the fandom, Lucasfilm produced products for every level of interest and every age group. Many products would dovetail with other products (see Shadows of the Empire, or the New Jedi Order publishing events) – for new fans or different age groups, there was always a jumping-on point. By prepping their releases well in advance, Lucasfilm could communicate ahead of time what was coming up in the future – allowing collectors to plan for what products they would focus on. Because of their pipeline discipline, the feeling was that the galaxy was constantly unfolding.
What does this have to do with modern Star Wars?
Set aside the merits (or lack thereof) of Disney Star Wars for a moment. The most consistent fact of Disney Star Wars is its inconsistency. Prior to the Disney acquisition, even though Lucas didn’t pay much attention to the EU or spin-off materials, Star Wars was still curated through a single artistic vision. The Maker had the final say of what was and wasn’t Star Wars. Disney has handled things quite differently – there have been multiple film and TV projects, with many different showrunners and many different tones. This can work in some situations, but the lack of a single artistic vision becomes increasingly obvious with each new project. Rather than feeling like explorations of different genres or themes, the materials are beginning to feel downright schizophrenic. This leads to debates in the fandom about what “is” and “is not” Star Wars.
Personally, I’m not sure that anybody can make a judgement about what is and isn’t art, but the problem is exacerbated by two other larger but more subtle problems. Disney/Lucasfilm has announced, canceled, and/or stopped talking about more Star Wars projects than they have produced. Statistically speaking, if you were tapped as a creative on a Star Wars project today, you would be more likely to be fired for “creative differences” than you would be to ever have your project reach the air. This is failure of a leadership.
The larger problem has to do with the merchandising that accompanies all of this. This is an older video, but it’s worth a watch to understand what has so damaged the Star Wars franchise. It’s an exploration of “The Long Tail” in marketing – a concept involving the spread of purchases across a fan base. (Think of it a plot that shows the distribution of financial engagement between casuals and “whales” – what casues that engagement, and what happens when you slaughter your “whales”).
After watching this video, you can begin to understand the scope of the problem. Disney has essentially cut off their own legs – for every whale that they have eliminated, they have to attract betwen 10-100 casual fans who may buy a movie ticket or a copy of a movie in a given year. It is no wonder that Matt Belloni is reporting that Lucasfilm is afraid to release their next Star Wars movie. The market has been telling Disney for quite some time that they were on the wrong track. Their last real hope at salvaging things was Obi-Wan, and the best indicator is the failure of the Haslab Reva lightsaber to gain enough support to go into production. When even your whales don’t want the product, and when that product is the single most iconic representations of the franchise, your foundation is cracked.
So – how can it be fixed? I believe there are only two ways.
The first involves letting the franchise go dormant for at least 10 years. Let the bad taste of the KK regime wash out of the publics mouth, then attempt a revival that would likely be a universal reboot. This is the least desirable option. There is really only one other viable option, and it is multifaceted: In order to ensure that Star Wars retains its identity, it must have a single visionary responsible for guiding the franchise going forward. This isn’t to say that all entries have to feel “the same”, but entries targeted at different age groups must still feel that they belong in the same universe. (It’s difficult to imagine Rebels and Andor co-existing – tone can shift, but it can’t break.) Projects must be planned in advance and not announced until ready – and these releases should target fans of all different eras and age groups, and provide easy jumping-on points. Story should not suffer for the sake of casual engagement. (I.E. don’t dumb down/retcon previously published material to simplify the story for easy exposition – trust your audience/offer them onramps to referenced subject matter.) Finally – respect for the audience should be the bedrock position. Star Wars is entertainment – it is not a tool for societal reconfiguration, nor a place to “teach” or “preach.” Employees who disrespect their audience must be given pink slips.
My vote for visionary?
Jon Favreau – while there have been missteps (particularly with Boba Fett and Obi-Wan), it is not clear what caused those projects to be derailed. My guess is studio interference, but Jon has a track record with knowing what makes fanbases tick. I trust him more than Filoni (though I think Dave guided by Jon works fairly well.) The fact that Jon hasn’t been hunted by WB yet gives me some hope that something like this may be on the horizon – though I hope Disney isn’t gunning to put him into a bigger seat. Maybe that’s selfish, but I think we’re entitled to it at this point.
What do you think? Would you place Jon Favreau into the creative lead for the franchise, or do you have some other pick? What are your thoughts on merchandise marketing, and what do you think Disney is missing? Sound off below!
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The failure of Boba Fett and Kenobi is exactly why Jon Faveau should not lead Star Wars. It is wrecked. 10 years isn’t enough time to bury Disney Star Wars. Maybe 20 years is enough. The stories are stale. They can’t keep milking the original trilogy with Disney+ series while saying the sequel trilogy was about winning new fans. It’s a contradiction. Plus the writing is absurd. You would think the slow plodding pacing means they can’t get into trouble, but they contradict canon despite itself. I moved on from Disney entirely. Ruining canon has happened to all animated classics, Marvel, and Indiana Jones.
That’s not a good argument because Favreau wasn’t involved with Kenobi. His track record is far better than anyone else’s.
That’s not an argument for Jon.
Neither is yours ultimately dude. My comment was to tell you he didn’t work on Kenobi. As for Boba Fett, he should have directed either the first or last episode but that’s it. Otherwise Favreau is still liked by the fanbase.
As already mentioned, I don’t think he had much to do with Kenobi, and we already know that KK was responsible for the original concept being scrapped and the entire show being re-written. The rumor is that this was due to similarities to The Mandalorian, but I suspect that other elements were inserted/changed as a result.
The Book of Boba Fett is the biggest question mark for me. To me, it feels like the entire show got butchered and recut – there were threads that were developed and then immediately abandoned. (The involvement of the Hutts is the biggest one, but it’s not the only one.) Had those threads been developed, I think there was a much more compelling story that was there, but inexplicably dropped.
There’s also the matter of the Mandalorian episodes – the rumor is that these were dropped in from Season 3, but I have a hard time believing that. For one, I would be surprised if Mando S3 was that far into post production at that time, and even if it was – the make a change that drastic would point to a TRUE disaster behind the scenes.
Rumors of Kennedy interference and Favreau essentially being hands off after meddling also don’t ring entirely true, but there’s no question that there’s a difference in quality between Boba Fett as a whole and the Mandalorian episodes that popped up in the middle.
Personally – I think Boba Fett does deserve a Season 2 because, given the proper refocus on the dropped story threads I think it can actually be salvaged – but I would LOVE to know the real story behind what happened on that show – no single explanation seems to account for what eventually made it through the meat grinder.
I do trust Favreau, for several reasons.
1) He maintains close ties with George Lucas, but isn’t beholden to enacting Lucas’ crazier ideas. He also has a good working relationship with Filoni, who is the closest thing to a story successor to Lucas that we’re likely to get.
2) There’s a very reasonable — and I think at this point likely — reason to say the biggest failings of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan can’t be placed at his feet. Those failures first belong to Disney’s corporate requirements, and second to Kennedy and her lack of organizational concern for the “story” of Star Wars.
3) I don’t know Favreau’s politics, which means it doesn’t matter what they are. He’s capable of keeping his mouth shut and concentrating on entertainment.
4) He’s the right age to understand the initial appeal, and flaws, of both older trilogies and the multimedia that came with them. He grew up watching the movies, playing with the toys and games, reading the books. He identifies with Star Wars personally.
5) Though this is more of a wild card and may be out of his control, I think he’s capable of cannily pushing back against any higher-ups that demand all Disney Star Wars remain in canon. It’s clear some products need to be labeled Legends, right along with the older mulimedia stuff: some of the earlier books like Wendig’s stuff and “Certain Point of View”, the Resistance cartoon, some of the High Republic, and other unappealing or canon-breaking content. He’ll never convince them to dump the new trilogy and I understand that’s a deal-breaker for some fans, but I believe he can make the pitch to clean up the timeline without having to resort to the time-travel or multiple canon options.
I feel a bit like Jon has been playing a waiting game. Disney clearly wants him to take a more active role in Disney as a whole – and Jon has been playing ball with them for years. (The Genesis of the Marvel movies began with him, and after Disney eventually purchased Marvel Studios, he made several CGI heavy movies for them.)
Those were mentioned as negatives be a commentator below, but I think it was actually a shrewd move on Jon’s part. The Jungle Book and The Lion King CGI remakes allowed Jon to play with the technology – he’s as much a hardware nerd as George ever was. I don’t think his heart was necessarily in the pictures, but they were movies that Disney wanted made, and Jon played the loyal soldier.
He’s also VERY good at doing that – Jon has dealt with the kind of corporate politics at Disney for years, so he knows how to play the game, be the loyal soldier, but also get his vision onto the screen. That’s part of why I advocate for his ascension.
There is an already established in-canon method to retcon the Sequel Trilogy. Many of us thought they were going to go down this path with Luke and Grogu. It isn’t too late, though! Here is the video that my cousin and I did on it. https://youtu.be/XcfmQuXdlo0
While the track record may be mixed I think Favreau has enough credibility to warrant given him a try as a potential mastermind on the evolution of the star wars universe. I think there was a tonal difference in Boba Fett and Kenobi that leads me to give him the benefit of the doubt that these things went against his preferences and vision. I mean the Mando episode was clearly so superior to the rest of the series that it just stands apart – I interpret that being produced under Favreau’s (unstated) imprimatur.
I think Book of Boba Fett and Kenobi were pretty weak offerings, but I think its important to keep in mind that they seemed to do relatively well in terms of streaming numbers and engagement so to discount them might be doing them a disservice. However, I do agree they have been the two weakest offerings in the Disney+ realm and I think we can’t discount the extent to which Covid and Covid restrictions hurt both productions respectively. Additionally I think Robert Rodriguez was just a very bad choice for director (BoBF), a better even journeyman director with some decent projects in the past could have really brought a lot more excitement to BoBF with better directing and editing choices. Kenobi suffered from being made in to a series as opposed to a movie. Also, as far as I can recall Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s direct involvement with Kenobi must have been limited considering they’d both be wrapped up in The Mandalorian S3 pre-production/production and also Ahsoka. Kenobi really did deserve a higher budget, and perhaps better direction, and a few rewrites…
I think fans will get their collective wish though, if anyone is there with the track record to guide a larger vision of Star Wars its going to be Favreau and as you mentioned if he wasn’t being given that option I suspect we’d know a great deal about offers hes getting from other studios.
Initially I placed a lot of the blame for the Book of Boba Fett at Robert Rodridguez’ feet, but I’ve had some time to rethink that.
It’s kind of hard to look at the Vespa Gang and not think “Spy Kids”, but I also have to take into account his handling of Boba in Season 2 of The Mandalorian.
As I mentioned in a comment above, I can’t help but think that something went TERRIBLY wrong on Boba Fett. I don’t know if it was studio interference, jockeying for position, COVID, or what…but more than any other Disney + Star Wars project (including Kenobi), that one feels to me like something just went off the rails.
I hope somebody in the know eventually spills the beans on what happened there.
My working theory on what went “wrong” with BoBF is that it was something of an experiment from the beginning that the emergence of Covid made nearly impossible to pull off, in conjunction with decisions to eliminate other legacy character cameos. Episodes 5 & 6 were shot pre-covid as part of season 2 of The Mandalorian, or not very long after the main production was done. It was during shooting those episodes the crews were told they’re actually working on BoBF not Mando S3, so it was something of a surprise to them is my understanding. I think making BoBF was experimental in the sense putting in the Grogu/Luke plot was a vehicle to test not only ILMs new face replacement techniques and show it publicly for the first time but as a hedge on if the VFX’d Luke didn’t work or was badly received at least Grogu is reunited with Mando as a result continuing the already winning formula. I’ll be careful with what I’m going to say next because I’m not sure how much is public; but apparently Jon Favreau was not happy with the Luke from Mando S2 finale from the beginning, and there was a lot of back and forth and anger over it. ILM had a working version of what we saw in BoBF but the decision was made to stick with the “older” technique from a third party studio and the results we saw in the show, this was the decision of director Peyton Reed. Getting to put the costs of all that in the BoBF column was probably deemed the best way to go about it and fill out the streaming catalog. I think because of BoBF we will see more legacy characters, and definitely see more of Luke probably in Ahsoka and maybe Mando S3.
What Favreau did to the Lion King should have already proved that he’s a bad choice……… it’s not that he can’t make good movies and TV shows it’s that I am not convinced he has the discipline to make consistently good material.
I disagree – I mentioned in a comment up above that I think with The Jungle Book and The Lion King, Jon was playing the good soldier to Disney and producing the movies that they wanted him to make. What that gave him was a chance to get his hands on the technology that would eventually become The Volume, and it also earned him some credits with Disney to call in later to work on the projects he was actually interested in. (That eventually became The Mandalorian.)
I don’t think The Jungle Book or The Lion King were passion projects for Jon – they were just jobs that let him get his foot on the rungs of the ladder.
When Jon IS passionate about a project, it shows – I don’t think anybody could deny that he made amazing Iron Man movies, he clearly cares about The Mandalorian, and even his more indy-movies (Chef, Zathura) have an energy about them that shows he can take unlikely concepts and turn them into winners.
The big question mark for me is (and will likely remain) The Book of Boba Fett. I would bribe somebody to get the story of what happened there.
Kathleen Kennedy, JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson, and Bob Iger are the only ones at fault here. Jon Favreau did ok with the Mandalorian until KK took notice and completely derailed the second season and the Book of Bobba Feet, that woman is a total cancer, and the first mistake she made was to disregard the expanded universe, where she had a ton of material to pick up and make a worth it sequel trilogy. I agree with OP, the franchise needs to go back into dormancy for at least 10 years.