domonicriley

[domonicriley]

[domonicriley]

July's Upcoming Box Office Battle

Summer blockbuster season has arrived. We’re already seeing hits like Lilo & Stitch and Final Destination: Bloodlines, and there are plenty of big releases to come, but it’s in July where the real test lies, as three giant movies go head-to-head for dominance: Jurassic World: Rebirth, Superman, and Fantastic Four: First Steps.

All three of these movies have the potential to become big hits, and even bring in a billion dollars. They all come from large and recognizable brands, and all have big names attached to them either as directors or actors. It’s looking like July 2025 could be one of the biggest and most interesting months we’ve had at the box office in a long time.

Let’s look a bit deeper to see how things could work out.

Jurassic World: Rebirth

The first of the movies to be released in Jurassic World: Rebirth on July 2nd. This is the fourth film in the rebooted Jurassic franchise, and the seventh overall since the 1993 movie. It’s got some credentials with it too. Jurassic Park was the first movie to make a billion, and all three of the Jurassic World movies has made at least one billion. Yes, there was a pretty steep drop off, with the first movie making $1.6B, while Dominion barely scraped past the milestone, but even so, it gives some credibility to the idea that JWR will be a massive hit. There’s also still a lot of love for the franchise, with things like the animated Netflix shows performing well, and monster movies are big right now, with Legendary’s Monsterverse raking in the cash.

I think this could be the standout hit of the month (because let’s be reasonable, Avatar: Fire & Ash will be the hit of the year), as it’s the first to release. This would allow it to have an absolutely massive opening, and the big test would come in the second week when it would need to face Superman. But even so, if the Jurassic reception is warm, it could convince more people to check it out rather than heading over to the DCU.

The film also has the benefit of an established brand that seems to know what the audience wants and delivers it. It might have strayed far from Michael Crichton’s ideas into dumb pseudoscience and dino destruction, but it gives people the escapism they want.

Superman

Superman doesn’t have the same goodwill preceding it. If you spend any time online talking about this movie, you’ll see that there’s an angry swarm of SnyderBros waiting just around every corner to tear this movie apart because it’s not dark, edgy and adolescent enough.

That would be bad enough, but there’s also a lot of skepticism about whether James Gunn can pull it off. He seems to be selling himself hard as the saviour of DC, making me wonder whether the title should be changed to Supergunn, but there’s the danger that the film won’t entirely escape current politics, or have the confidence to make Superman an unapologetically hopeful and heroic character.

Adjusted for inflation, the 1978 Superman made well over $1 billion, but that’s a long time ago, and a different ago of cinema. Looking at the last one, Man of Steel from 2013, that movie made just $670M, and with rumours that Supergunn is costing over $350M, it’s looking like the movie will need near a billion just to break even.

Not to mention the extra pressure on the film to do well, as it’s the first in the rebooted DCU. After the failure of the first DCEU, this will launch a new era, with films and shows including Lanterns, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman coming up, all of which would be called into doubt if this movie doesn’t smash some numbers. It does have the leeway of two free weekends before Fantastic Four, though it will be fighting JWR during that time.

This has the potential to be the big success story of the summer when it arrives on July 11th, but it could also be the year’s most embarrassing failure, and in a year that’s already seen Snow White and Captain America: Brave New World, that’s saying something.

Fantastic Four: First Steps

Finally we come to the last of the big three movies, Fantastic Four: First Steps, coming July 25th. This is another big release that has a lot riding on it. It’s the third Marvel movie to be released this year and will mark something of a turning point for the MCU.

It’s likely the film will feature a cameo from Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom to set of the next movie Avengers: Doomsday, which will mark the introduction of the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and take the franchise into a new era.

The problem is that the MCU is in a bad way. Two movies have already been released this year, Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts, and both have been poor performers, with box office that’s capped off well below $500M, the F4 could deliver a hat trick of failures.

Even if we ignore the 2015 flop, the 2005 movie and its sequel both came in with total hauls under $400M, and this film will likely have to rely on its association with the MCU (if there’s anyone left who still cares) to make it a hit, because while they are fairly well-known, the Fantastic Four don’t have the same appeal as other superheroes like Spider-Man and Superman.

It also has a bad release date, as it’s the final of the three to come out. ‘Saving the best for last’ and all that, but the audience might already have blown their money on the first two movies and if Superman gets a bad press, they might give up on the superhero genre completely. Of the three movies, this is the one I have the least hope for, and if it fails, it’s bound to put Marvel into panic mode for the MCU and dash their hopes for Doomsday.

Any of these movies could potentially be hits, and they need to be, not just for the studios that are relying heavily on them, but also for theatres, that have had a fair share of flops this year (and in the past few years) and could really use the win.

The problem is that there’s a lot of overlap. None are exactly the kind of family films that can make big bucks, like Despicable Me, etc, but they are all familiar names, all are in the sci-fi genre, are filled with CGI action, and two are superhero movies, yes it’s DC vs. Marvel, but that’s not such a big deal for normies. They also all need big money to succeed, and releasing so close together they could cancel each other out so none end up making a billion.

Despite what some have hoped for, I don’t think there will be a ‘Barbenheimer’ moment, partly because those kind of crazes are spontaneous, partly because the whole feature of that was the contrast between a serious biopic about the inventor of the atom bomb, and a film about a tacky pink plastic doll.

As it is, July could see a triumphant return of cinema this summer, or it could all just end in a blockbuster bloodbath.

[domonicriley]

Enough time has passed:

[domonicriley]

"In a hole in the ground there lived a rebel."

[domonicriley]

After wrapping up the main storyline last week, this final set of episodes felt like an extended epilogue.

My review of the last three episodes of Andor.

You can read the rest of my reviews of the show by clicking on my name at the top of the article.

[domonicriley]

What if...?

[domonicriley]

The Contradictions of Modern Star Wars Canon

Andor is once again the subject of some controversy. This time it’s not about whether the show is too “mature”, but rather that it appears to have contradicted previously established canon.

In episode nine of Andor season two, Mon Mothma makes a speech to the Senate, denouncing Palpatine and his manipulation of the truth, following the massacre of civilians on the planet Ghorman. It’s a powerful speech, and a turning point for the fight against the Empire, the only problem is, it’s been shown onscreen before.

In Star Wars: Rebels, season three, episode eighteen, we see a holonet transmission of Mon’s speech, shortly before she’s rescued by Gold Squadron and the crew of the Ghost. There are a couple of other minor retcons beside it, but this is the most egregious, and it raises some questions about the current state of Star Wars “Canon”.

The old Star Wars had a tiered system of canon, so George Lucas and his movies were at the top and could (and did) retcon anything he liked, as is only right; next came TV shows like The Clone Wars; followed by books, video games, etc.

This means that things could be changed on a whim, and if that’s the way things are, then fine. But Disney Star Wars is supposed to have a simple two-tier system. At the top are the films, past and present, and most of the TV shows, along with the books, games, etc., that Disney have created; then there’s Legends, which takes in the old Expanded Universe, Visions, and things like the LEGO shorts.

It’s a simple system, and as it is, nothing should retcon anything else made in the Disney era that’s designated as Canon, but nevertheless, it happens. Dave Filoni is guilty of this with some animated shows nibbling away at events described in the books, which is irritating, but even worse is the way that Andor has outright contradicted something from a mainstream show. Even more ridiculous is the idea that the series can just steamroller over anything it likes, either because it’s live-action, or because it’s somehow “superior” as a piece of entertainment.

I understand that animation is very stylized. Of course characters need to be tweaked a little when they are brought into live-action, and some designs need to be toned down. Likewise, if some events portrayed in animation were recreated in live-action, they would need some subtle alterations to make them look natural. Sometimes, this isn’t done too well, as in the Ahsoka show.

But those are just minor corrections. Star Wars still needs to remain coherent, especially with how interconnected large parts of it have now become, with things like the “Mandoverse”, and Dave Filoni’s primacy in the franchise. It can’t just be constantly changed just because another writer doesn’t want to move around another’s work; I level this at all the creatives who are guilty. There needs to be a central story, a proper, consistent universe, that can’t just be changed because someone thinks it doesn’t fit. Of course there was some delicate maneuvering of events in the OT and prequels, but Star Wars then was much less of a “cinematic universe” than it is now.

Jar Jar Binks exists in the same universe as Cassian Andor and was an important figure in galactic events, and can’t be erased. Neither can the fact that the Ewoks helped destroy the Empire.

If writers want the maximum amount of freedom possible, then they should set their work in a different time, far in the past of future, or in the furthest reaches of the Outer Rim, where there is more detachment from these central stories.

Setting them around the Clone Wars or the Reign of the Empire gives you plenty of good ground to build stories on, and a solid world all ready to play in. But it has to be done with respect for what’s been previously established. Using popular characters like Mon Mothma and Bail Organa comes with responsibility to use them well, and take into account all that’s been written before about them, good, bad and dumb.

Otherwise none of these tales mean anything if they can just be ripped up and discarded as soon as they become an inconvenience to the next writer or showrunner trying to tell their own story with no consideration for anyone else’s. If that’s the case, then there was no reason to de-canonize the old EU, and no reason to get invested in any of this new material, if it’s all just a flimsy canvas that can be erased by the next show that comes along.

[domonicriley]

Did Andor Get Mon Mothma Wrong?

Episodes 7, 8 and 9 were some of the best episodes of Andor we’ve had. We get to see all the work the Empire put into Ghorman paying off, as they take over the planet, starting a chain of events that will eventually lead to their destruction at the hands of the Rebel Alliance.

One of the biggest reasons for this is Mon Mothma, who denounces Palpatine in the Senate after the atrocity on Ghorman, speaking out in defence of truth, and the Emperor’s lies and manipulation.

In its own way, it’s a powerful scene, and means a lot when you’ve seen where it comes from, how it’s been built up in the first and second seasons of the show. But the closer you look at it, the more it doesn’t make sense, and in fact, it could be one of the worst ideas Mon Mothma’s had. It this point, it might have been better to do what Bail Organa does, and keep quiet, staying on in the Senate for a couple more years.

For context, we need some backstory on the Ghorman Massacre. This was an event that’s mentioned, but never shown, in the Expanded Universe stories. These are now classed as ‘Legends’, so wouldn’t have any bearing on the show. In that atrocity, Tarkin travels to Ghorman shortly after the ascension of Palpatine, and is met with a crowd of protesters blocking his ship from landing. In a very typical Tarkin move, he lands on tops of the Ghor, killing and injuring hundreds of them.

Early on, it was speculated that this would be what was shown in Andor season two, but that wasn’t the case. The Tarkin massacre is still mentioned, but as a separate event that happened more than a decade before. In fact, there’s even a monument been erected to it on Ghorman, and it’s around this that the second massacre happens.

It’s strange that the second massacre should become such a turning point for the Empire and their hold on the galaxy. It’s true that the Empire committed more and more brutal acts as their power grew, and more world came under their control, all while Palpatine drew the Senate’s teeth, but is it really all that remarkable at this point, that it should force Mon Mothma to become a fugitive?

By this point, the Empire has already committed countless brutal killings, including the liquidation of Kamino, as shown in The Bad Batch. There’s no way that Mothma wouldn’t know about these things, especially once she became involved with people like Luthen Rael, and she’s clearly shrugged off several equally unpleasant events, using her political power to challenge the Empire, rather than outright rebel against them.

It’s also remarkable how careful the Imperials were with their plans for Ghorman, taking at least two years to put it into effect, and trying to find an alternative, as they are a well-known world, and the source of expensive fabrics. If they had simply wanted to exterminate the Ghor and take the planet, they could, but instead they went slowly, building an elaborate plan, and planting plenty of evidence to incriminate the Ghorman rebels.

Viewers know what’s really going on, but this has to be seen from the point of view of a senator, or just a regular Imperial citizen, who only has the official news and reports to go on. The fact is, from an outside perspective, it doesn’t look good for the Ghor. Granted, the Empire was occupying the planet, but it was a largely peaceful affair. We aren’t shown any brutality or political arrests. The citizens are allowed to peacefully protest, and life seems more or less normal.

The crowd that gathers in the square before the massacre, to protest the landing of equipment for mining the planet, could also be seen as a peaceful events, that the Empire allowed to happen, with little or no provocation on their part. The Empire begins the fight by shooting one of their own men, but this is engineered so it looks like one of the Ghor shot first, giving them a reason to fire back into the crowd. What makes it worse is that dozens of the people assembled had brought along blasters, and even explosives, which gives more credence to the idea they were to blame. The weapons could be traced back to the Imperial shipments they were stolen from, and the presence of outside agitators is to some extent true, as Andor, Wilmon, Cinta and Val were all present on the planet at one time or another, and at least two of them would be known fugitives.

The only way anyone outside the planet would know what really happened would be if they had inside intel from the rebels themselves. For the rest of the galaxy, they have to rely on the holonet, and the Imperial spin on events. Even then, the images of dead troops, and the Ghorman protestors firing at them, is hard to deny. The transmission by the rebels asking for help, if it was heard at all, would just be taken as another lie by the terrorists on a distant planet, where the truth would be hard to verify independently.

The fact Mon Mothma chooses this event as the reason for permanently leaving the senate and joining the rebellion openly is a strange one, as the majority of senators who heard her speech denouncing Palpatine and his hold on the truth would not know any different, or else would not care. The rest of the people who saw the holonet transmission would also likely view her as a traitor, choosing a moment when the Emperor looked weak to attack her political opponent, before throwing in her lot with the rebels that apparently murdered dozens of troops on Ghorman.

Not only that, but during her escape from the Senate building, in the company of one of those same rebels, her innocent driver is shot and killed, making her appear even more guilty of treason.

While this speech, and the one shown in Star Wars: Rebels, would likely be a rousing call to anyone who was already defying the Empire, it wouldn’t be likely to have much effect on the average citizen. Her words, and most certainly her actions, could easily be used by the Imperial authorities to make her into a traitor, and if the fact she had been secretly funding rebels for years came out, there would be plenty of evidence to implicate her in the massacre, firmly making her into a villain, and the troops killed on Ghorman into heroes.

This makes it a very odd place for Mon Mothma to make a stand. At this point, the Empire is in control of hundreds, thousands of worlds, and is brutally subjugating many. There was a similar event on Ferrix just a few years earlier, and this is clearly not a singular occurrence. It’s also strange that the equally barbaric massacre by Tarkin went largely unpunished. In contrast, the second massacre was well planned to give the Empire plausible deniability, with plenty of evidence pointing to rebel forces. As such, it seems an odd time for her to leave, and remove one of the few official voices that could speak out on such things, not to mention how this could put her home world of Chandrilla, and her family, in danger.

Her leadership is, of course, vitally important to the Rebel Alliance in the future, but it doesn’t seem that she’s particularly aware of what’s happening on Yavin 4, and her presence would likely be a negative one for the rebels, in the eyes of regular Coruscant inhabitants, and it might have been better for her to put up with it for a little longer.

It seems an odd choice that this should become the decisive moment when the rebellion becomes ‘official’, so to speak. Andor is a well-written show generally, and it would seem that a better trigger could have been thought up. One where the Empire was clearly implicated, and were Mon’s outcry would have been a wake up call to the galaxy, which could then be compounded by the destruction of the Death Star showing that the Empire isn’t invincible. As it is, it feels more like an awkward, and perhaps slightly rushed, attempt to get all the characters were they need to be in time for Rogue One.

[domonicriley]

Nothing is Changing for Hollywood in 2026

CinemaCon has just been and gone, and an image from the event shows the line-up of big releases coming in 2026, and there’s a certain pattern in them that might be familiar.

Here’s the list:

Avengers: Doomsday

Spider-man: Brand New Day

Shrek 5

Toy Story 5

Ice Age 6

Super Mario Bros. 2

Moana 3

Mega Minions

Jumanji III

The Hunt for Gollum

Scream VIII

Street Fighter

Masters of the Universe

Clayface

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

The Mandalorian & Grogu

The Hunger Games: Sunrise of the Reaping

Fast X Part 2

The Odyssey

Project Hail Mary

Hoppers

Twenty one titles are revealed here, and it’s pretty obvious from this that Hollywood is still relying on classic franchises and big IPs to keep it running. Twelve of them are direct sequels to older movies. Of the rest, we’ve got two in the new DCU, despite not knowing whether Superman will fly or fail, a new Star Wars movie that’s a spin-off of a Disney+ show, a kind of prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Masters of the Universe and Street Fighter reboots, which leaves just three new movies. One based on a recent best seller (Project Hail Mary), one based on an ancient tale (The Odyssey), and one that seems to come from the only big studio with any creativity left Pixar (Hoppers).

Some of these entries seem desperate, really wringing the last out of old franchises. Both Shrek and Toy Story has great trilogies that were ruined by careless and unnecessary fourth entries, and now they are each getting a fifth film. Really, what else is there to say about these characters and their stories that won’t involve either heavy retconning, or just retreading the same ground covered by previous movies?

Who really wants a sort of prequel to Fellowship of the Ring, that’s based off a handful of lines spoken by Gandalf during the Council of Elrond? That’s what The Hunt for Gollum is, and who knows what lengths they will go to in order to string it out into a two-hour movie.

Seeing this list it doesn’t seem so much that Hollywood is simply being lazy in creating new and original movies, but rather more that they are terrified of trying anything new, and are clinging on to anything that already has a recognizable brand or a good track record, getting in those fifth and sixth sequels, or using any excuse for a spin-off.

More news from CinemaCon show that the John Wick franchise is being bled for all it’s worth, with a prequel, sequel, spin-off, and show in development, alongside the upcoming Ballerina movie.

These aren’t the only movies that will come out next year, but they are obviously some of the biggest, being displayed proudly by the studios in this way, they are their flagship projects, but clearly, they are not leaders in any way, but rather the last remnants, running on the legacy of their predecessors.

Of course, at the same time, several of these will be billion dollar hits, just as the sequel line-up for this year will produce plenty of money makers. But as I’ve written before, it’s a dead end, and simply delays the inevitable. With these franchises being so strung out, and more and more of them hitting the dust, there’s only so long this model can last. If Hollywood doesn’t start making a move to turn things around soon, then where will they be once all of their IPs are dead?

[domonicriley]

Is This Really What Marvel Should Be Doing With Doomsday?

We now know at least part of the cast for Avengers: Doomsday. There are a lot of obvious names in there, like Anthony Mackie, Florence Pugh and Paul Rudd, but the ones that really caught people’s attention were the new (or rather old) faces who will be entering the MCU, like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Kelsey Grammer.

It looks like they will be returning to the characters that first debuted in the Fox X-Men movies from the 2000s. Now they are to be in an Avengers movie, and it just seems like the wrong choice.

With all the stuff about the Multiverse, there are any number of ways they could be introduced, as the Fantastic Four will be entering from another universe, no doubt thanks to Doctor Doom, and we’ll get some sort of showdown between all these characters, Endgame style. Whether they’ll be on the side of the Avengers, or against them, or both, who knows?

There are a lot of things that don’t make me excited for Avengers: Doomsday, not least the Russo Brothers’ performance with The Electric State, but also just how messy this is all starting to look, with so many crossovers, universes, and characters entering from other franchises, with completely different power level. It will make it difficult for audiences to have a clue what’s going on here. Yes, the fans might know, but fans alone won’t bring you two billion dollars.

I’m a fan of the X-Men movies, and these are some great actors announced here, but the real question is why? Why exactly are these actors being brought back to play these characters who they first played over twenty-five years ago? Is it solely to serve the story, or is it for another reason?

Because, while this has gotten fans excited for what’s to come in 2026, I can’t help feeling this isn’t a triumphant new chapter, but rather a desperate last gasp.

Not only does this read like a comic con guest list, and it’s hard to see how even half these characters could be given something meaningful to do, it also feels like it’s completely the wrong direction for the MCU to take. It’s essentially the literal “endgame” for the franchise, rather than a new beginning.

These are not fresh and exciting characters with their own stories to tell. They are old characters who’ve been portrayed for decades by these actors, and there’s not necessarily anything left for them to say.

Why not actually make your own version of the X-Men, if you must? After all, they are doing it with the Fantastic Four, ignoring the 2005 and 2015 versions. Why bring back these same actors once again? And I think the answer there is because they are hoping to capitalize on that, and bring in that audience that might not have joined them from the Fox days, but also that they no longer have the confidence to fly on their own. They need to hold on to other things, to what they think is dependable and unbreakable, which is the reason they brought back Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom, rather than creating an original character.

It feels like the franchise is winding down. These characters have had their time, and it would be perfectly reasonable to make new versions and introduce them into this new franchise, which would have been the natural course of action before the cinematic universe/multiverse became the standard in Hollywood.

This doesn’t feel like it’s a well though out story point, more like it’s a way to make an easy buck. It looks like the Ghostbusters: Afterlife of the MCU, where there are just so many memorable things crammed in to get fans excited for this new movie.

And it works, too. Hollywood has been running on nostalgia for so long now, with things like The Force Awakens and Alien: Romulus, and it’s worked for Marvel too, with Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. Bringing back a fan-favourite actor to a famous role is a sure way to get some buzz, and give a franchise a much needed boost, not to mention bringing in the cash. NWH made almost two billion dollars, and D&W is the highest-grossing R-rated movies ever. As long as it works, they’ll continue doing it until there’s nothing left.

But that’s just the problem, as Ghostbusters showed with Frozen Empire, once you’ve done that, you’ve burnt the last bit of remaining fuel, and now you have nothing. There’s nowhere to go unless you actually take the time and put in the effort to make something new, and carry the franchise forward, because no matter how popular it is, a gimmick is still a gimmick, and people quickly tire of them.

The stacked cast of Avengers: Endgame was earned, and came from somewhere. It had been built up out of twenty-odd films, and every single cameo, every appearance, every hero moment, meant something to the fans who had followed these characters and this story for a decade. Now, these new announcements just feel like an act of desperation, and it’s also telling that they are revealing them now, when there was so much done to keep the appearance of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in No Way Home a secret. They need this pre-sale excitement to try and make another two billion.

Maybe I’m wrong, and there will be a solid reason for this choice. I hope I am. But I get the feeling this is Doomsday for the MCU.

[domonicriley]

Bad and Unfaithful Adaptations Do Matter

There’s an argument that goes around whenever there’s a bad adaptation, remake, or sequel to a beloved property, something like: “If you don’t like it, so what, the original is still there, go watch/read/play that instead.”

That’s true, of course, the original is still there, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good argument against criticizing the new variant. In fact, saying “the original is still there” isn’t really an argument at all, because it doesn’t take into account the reason why people dislike these new things to begin with.

We can all think of those movies or shows. I call them “Sherringford Howses”. Sherringford because that’s the name Arthur Conan Doyle was originally going to give his famous detective, and Howses because I like a silly pun, and it seems that Sherlock Holmes is a common victim of this problem, with things like the BBC’s Sherlock or the Robert Downey Jr. movies.

Imagine if these entries were made exactly the same, but rather than using Mr. Holmes’ name, they were titled “Sherringford Howses” instead. Would you watch them? Would anyone watch them? Would people give them the praise that Sherlock received as a smart, modern update? Or would they be discarded as half-baked rip-offs of a much greater character, written by a much greater writer?

When you take a name from somewhere famous, you automatically get the recognition, and to some extent, the reputation that name brings with it. If you want to adapt the work of, say, Tolkien, then you get the opportunity to associate your name with some of the best fantasy ever written.

No matter how good or bad your take on the IP is, you will still get people coming to see your work simply because it’s set in a familiar world or features a well-known character.

It’s the same with any franchise, whether you’re adapting, making a sequel, or just setting your story in that same world. Say you make a Star Trek show, then you get the chance to be a part of a sci-fi phenomenon that’s been building and audience and leaving a legacy since the 1960s. As a result, you have a duty to both the fans and the franchise to be, at the very least, conscious of that, and humble enough to realise that this is something far bigger than you. It’s only because of the work of people in the past that you get what you now have, a huge franchise, a loyal fanbase, and a fully-realised world for you to step into.

This is one of the reasons why they don’t just make their own thing in the first place. For one, it’s a lot harder to come up with something that’s completely original, and harder to get a studio onboard with it. They’d rather have something that’s tied to a successful brand. No matter how good your idea is, that won’t guarantee you an audience, but at least to begin with, a ready made franchise will.

So many times, though, that’s all that a franchise is used for, a chance for a writer or director to get their own ideas out there in an easy-to-sell package, regardless of how this affects the franchise itself, or clashes with the intentions of the original author.

It might substantially change the world or the established characters in it. Sometimes twisting it into a shape the creator would never have wanted, with morals, ideals, and beliefs that are in direct contradiction with everything they intended their work to stand for, and quite possibly something the audience would never have chosen to see if it wasn’t wrapped in a cloak of familiarity.

Simply saying “the original is there” doesn’t mean the property won’t be damaged by this new entry. Many people don’t read books or play video games, and they aren’t going to go back through a fifty year old catalogue. If they see a movie or show, they might assume it’s faithful to the source material, that it’s what the original author intended, or that this is what the rest of the franchise is like, harming its reputation and the legacy of the people who made it.

After all, many people associate a particular actor with Sherlock Holmes rather than the character from the book himself. How long will it be before people forget about Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett, and begin to think that Holmes was always a hyperactive sociopath who ran around 21st century London with a sarcastic GP as his sidekick?

This then becomes the bottom line from where everything else is judged, rather than the source material, and entire generations have these images in mind when they think of certain characters or works. You could say this is on the audience for not checking out the originals, but is it really, or is it on the creatives who’ve hijacked a property without giving it the respect it deserves?

I will admit, there are some things I like that aren’t close to the source material. Things like Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds or Master & Commander. Sometimes it’s because I was a fan of these films before I read the books. Sometimes it’s because they are good films in their own right. But usually it’s because they don’t do anything to seriously undermine the original works, or the author’s intent.

In all cases, I would still make the distinction between them and the source material, and say that they are guilty of the Sherringford Holmes effect to some extent. They all get a boost from being associated with these IPs, and should show them respect accordingly, not destroy their legacy.

If a film, book, or game can’t survive on its own without being tied to a much more successful brand, then it should be sure it does everything it can to honour that brand. If they won’t acknowledge their debt to what came before, then they don’t deserve the benefits of that association.

[domonicriley]

Star Wars Has More Problems Than Just Kathleen Kennedy

There was a lot of excitement in the Star Wars fandom recently when a new report revealed that Kathleen Kennedy was to leave her role as Lucasfilm chief before the end of the year… almost immediately this was followed by another report saying she wasn’t going anywhere… so make what you will of it.

These rumours have been going around for years, and usually surface whenever a new movie or show fails, so shouldn’t be taken too seriously. But regardless of whether she goes or stays, there’s more to the future of Star Wars than Kathleen Kennedy.

I say Star Wars because while she’s the head of Lucasfilm, it’s mainly been this particular franchise that’s been affected under her leadership, and it’s by far the biggest. It also looks like the only franchise remaining, after Indiana Jones came to a sad end, and Willow was cancelled.

Is it fair to blame KK for all the problems that have materialized in the past thirteen years? She’s been the leader of the company since George Lucas sold it in 2012, and gave her his full confidence. She had a pretty good career before, through her company Kennedy-Marshall (alongside Frank Marshall) and working with legends like Steven Spielberg, she got her name on some brilliant movies, some of which are favourites of mine, like Jurassic Park and The Sixth Sense. But in her handling of Star Wars, she’s fumbled it badly.

She didn’t demand a plan before giving the go ahead to the sequel trilogy. She’s overseen flops like Solo. She’s greenlit a ton of products that have never seen daylight, from Rogue Squadron to Rangers of the New Republic. She’s frequently produced material than angers fans, and seems completely opposed to everything Star Wars should be, of which The Acolyte was the ultimate example. Yes, she can take credit for Rogue One and Andor, but on the whole, reception has been mixed, and the franchise has gone downhill fast while she’s been the head.

It’s true not every single error is her fault. J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, Leslye Headland, all deserve blame for their parts, but it’s part of the responsibility of those at the top to take responsibility. You get a good paycheck, promise of a great paycheck, and the power to make decisions. When things go right, you share in the praise, so when things go wrong, you have to take the fall.

In fairness, it’s clearly not just Kennedy’s fault, as similar problems are plaguing many franchises, from Marvel to Jurassic World. It’s much more than just her, this is something affecting the entire Hollywood industry. But even if all blame is placed on her head and she leaves before the end of the year, what will that really mean for Star Wars? Would it actually solve anything? Short answer: no.

It might open up possibilities to begin fixing things, but let’s be honest, who would replace her, and would that really alter anything, or just be more of the same?

It’s likely it will be some producer or old Fox exec chosen by Disney, but there are two names being thrown around by fans that need to be looked at, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.

Let’s look at Favreau first. He might seem like a good choice. He started the MCU for real with Iron Man, and is responsible for The Mandalorian, one of the most popular things from Disney Star Wars, soon to make its way onto the big screen. While the show is fun, it’s nothing ground-breaking, and nothing in it signals that he has (or even had) bold visions for the franchise. It’s more like a nice distraction, and season three was a mess. The more I hear about The Mandalorian & Grogu, the less excited I am for it. Finally, just because he’s a talented director doesn’t mean he has what it takes to run a company, and deal with the corporate side of things.

Dave Filoni seems to be an even more popular choice, but I’m not sure why. He’s a big name in Star Wars, having been with the franchise since 2008, responsible for The Clone Wars, and seen as something of a prodigy of George Lucas. He even created Rebels, which I consider the best SW series, live-action or animated. But really, what would make him a good choice? Not only is he inexperienced in corporate affairs, having always focused on the creative side, but his output has been poor lately. Ahsoka was a chance to prove he could do live-action, but it was a complete disaster and huge disappointment, and he increasingly relies on nostalgia and self-reference to make things work, while either stealing from other writer’s work, or steamrollering over it. This is a road to nowhere, and he has no true vision for the franchise to move forward, except endless spin-offs and fan fiction.

Both have been involved in a system that’s failed to change time and time again. Even imagining that either of these got the job, and were right for it, that would only be the first step to putting things right.

Star Wars is damaged. Everything that’s been badly received, every fan that’s been annoyed or disappointed, every failed project, cancelled movie, bad TV show, every time something’s come out that no on wanted, has made another small cut to the franchise’s integrity, driving away fans, and giving them no reason to come back. After all, why should they keep giving their money to a company that doesn’t respect them, keeps ignoring them, and has destroyed what they love, taking someone else’s work which they never earned, and twisting it into something else.

Look at Skeleton Crew, this should have been a hit, and it might have been five years ago. Fans who grew up in the 1980s would have liked its nostalgic feel, and it might even have brought in younger viewers, yet it was a huge failure. But they’ve gone now, and Star Wars has become irrelevant to new generations, who have plenty of other things to distract their attention.

Trying to turn the franchise to a new audience while taking the existing one for granted was a mistake, it ended up pleasing no one, and drove away the loyal army that kept it going during the periods between trilogies. They’ve been let down too many times now that they no longer care, and have little investment for any new projects.

The focus in the last five years on making it almost exclusively streaming-based has also ruined the relevance of the franchise. If it had been on Netflix there might have been a chance, but just like Marvel, it’s become reliant on a constant stream of sub-par shows, on a streaming platform with a small audience. Each one of these has either gone completely unnoticed, or only gained recognition for its negative reception. Each time this has happened, it’s made the IP less important, diluted what it is, and even made it a laughing stock.

The only exception is The Mandalorian, which had a lot of popularity thanks to the little green “baby Yoda” Grogu, something Disney took full advantage of by plastering his image on every piece of merchandise they could. But this meant they were afraid to lose him, even when the story demanded it, leading to the rushed reunion with Din Djarin in The Book of Boba Fett, and the aimless third season of the show.

Despite the fact there will be a movie based on the show coming out next year, I don’t hear any talk of Star Wars returning to the big screen, as there was in 1999 and 2015. In fact, I’d be surprised if anyone even knew this was a SW movie. The cultural impact that this brand once enjoyed is now gone.

Any revival of the franchise would have to bring back the fans who’ve drifted away in the last ten years, but I’m not sure that’s even possible now. Even if there were a stream of amazing new movies and shows released by Disney in the next few years, it doesn’t fix what happened in the past, it will take years to rebuild that trust.

The original characters have been assassinated, in some cases quite literally, and there can never be the reunion of the golden trio that fans wanted. New movies won’t give justice to Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. These stories have come to car crash endings, and there’s no way to rectify them short of a complete reset.

This also means that they have nothing left. They’ve stripped the cupboard bare, taking one character after another and using them up. Han, Luke, Leia, Obi Wan, Thrawn, even Ahsoka, have all been wrung dry by Disney. It might seem like they are mad to say Rey is the only asset they have left, but it’s true. She’s the only major character there is who’s still unspoilt.

Even if they were to choose some prequels and spin-offs to fill the gaps, all roads lead to the sequel trilogy, and things like a series focusing on Luke’s Jedi Order would be tainted with the knowledge that in a few years he’ll try and kill his own nephew because he had a bad dream. When you assassinate a character, you can’t bring them back.

What Star Wars has become is a franchise completely lost with so many wrong turns, dead ends, and wrecks throughout the last few years to ever truly recover. They had the chance to make something truly special with The Force Awakens, something that would set them on a new path, and they failed. Since then, they’ve stumbled from one thing to another, going deeper down the wrong path, making things no one wants, and ruining their reputation.

They missed the opportunity to define themselves with a new era and captivating storytelling, which is why they’ve jumped from one age to the next, from Clone Wars, to original trilogy, to High Republic. There’s been no plan for how to proceed, so there’s nothing for them to build off of, just a jumble of half-finished, poorly thought out projects with no future prospects. They have nothing of their own, and no future.

So many projects have just gone nowhere, commissioned or announced with no thought of how they fit in with the larger franchise, or what fans might think of them. A Rogue Squadron movie, Rangers of the New Republic, a Lando movie, and films from directors including James Mangold, Taika Watiti, and Kevin Feige have either been cancelled or stuck in development hell for years, giving fans no reason to be hopeful for any new announcement.

They don’t even have the final option left for most legacy franchises to grasp for: nostalgia. They’ve leaned heavily into this ever since they started, using characters, scenes and imagery from the Original Trilogy, or picking from the Expanded Universe (now called “Legends”) to get a reaction from fans, and have ruined the chance to tell good stories with characters like Han Solo and Obi Wan Kenobi, squandering great opportunities to fill in these characters’ backstories.

Yes, they could choose others, and tell us more about Qui Gon Jinn or Palpatine, but who would care? Why would fans expect them to be treated any better? Who should they get excited to see another favourite character taken apart?

I really think any change of leadership at this point would be too little, too late. I don’t think it can be saved so easily, if it all.

The only way it could change for the better is to take a break. Stop everything that’s in the works and really think about where to go next. Bring in new talent. Lay out a whole new plan, maybe retcon some past projects to make it more manageable. Reach out to fans and admit you’ve made mistakes, and tell them you want to fix it. Then maybe, in five years or so, get back out there with some great new movies and real episodic television show. That might, *might*, just be enough to rescue the franchise.

But that won’t happen. There’s still money to be made (for now), and too much involved to back down. They aren’t going to pause and fix things, so they are going to fail instead.

[domonicriley]

Children don't just deserve good entertainment, they need it. Good stories help them grow, give them heroes to admire, villains to be wary of, and teach them important lessons.