In a 2023 interviewLiam Neeson, who played Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin in The Phantom Menacehe attributed his dismay at the growing number of Star Wars spin-offs to their emphasis on televsion. .“I get goosebumps when it’s mentioned The TV,” the actor admitted. .“I love the big screen, you know?” Funnily enough, Neeson was back to play two lines in the show Obi-Wan Kenobi The television series ended just a year before these statements, but there is some truth in the actor’s words that the average star Wars the title may no longer hold the kind of cultural cachet that once placed it among Hollywood’s most revered blockbusters. What was once a franchise defined by its ability to create must-see cinematic events every few years – full of endless speculation and fan anticipation before the first sale at midnight – has instead been transformed into a stable pipeline of weekly content drops that can be accessed with just a few quick button presses, creating a sense of urgency that reflects the urgency of the appearance of home. episode of The Skeleton Crew who?).
With Lucasfilm’s theater just starting to get back on track, the big screen future of Star Wars looks even brighter. As the franchise’s first film in nearly seven years, The Mandalorian and the Grogu it will be the only film in the series that will be a continuation of an existing television show. While its debut season was undeniably a hit – in part due to its clever reworking of Lucas’ original samurai and western influences into a weekly episode format – later installments would see this plot abandoned to combine films with other pockets of accepted canon, with characters like Boba Fett and Ashoka Tano to start their own screen story back.
By the time its cinematic counterpart releases later this month, the series’ excessive focus on fantasy creation – compounded by the fact that one of its most interesting creative talents has already come from flashy material – has led to a reduction in the final product that has the stunning aesthetic of a mainstream broadcast show; it’s more like a feature-length episode of television than the cinematic horror that Star Wars often resembles.
All of this points to a shift towards the kind of vague and innocent filmmaking sensibilities that have recently overtaken Hollywood, with studios like Disney increasingly choosing their casts. .‘safe domestic directors like Jon Favreau, Ron Howard and the next year Star Wars: The Starfighter helmer Shawn Levy – who was entrusted with the keys to the franchise after getting Mouse $1.3 billion with Epic Bacon humor of Deadpool & The Wolverine – on the unique ideas of auteurs like Rian Johnson, Steven Soderbergh and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, all who left their person star Wars projects due to technical differences (which ends up worse after the success of the escape Project Hail Mary).
As this simplified reorientation begins to take shape, one of its side effects is the imposition of those responsible the reverse of apartheid for very interesting projects like The Acolytewhich is a habit made especially frustrating after a lot of praise Andor (a prequel to the upcoming movie Rogue One) proved that the franchise should not have sacrificed its dialogue to reflect current events. As bad as it may sound, a new Star Wars movie will almost always make enough money for the corporate suits in charge to green-light them to spin one off as a success. But with the exact nature of its future uncertain after the leadership changes at Lucasfilm, audiences can only hope that the powers that be will choose to focus on new corners of the galaxy rather than returning to established territory.
A long time ago in the cinema far, far away, the films of a certain British spy with a license to kill also faced a crisis of identity after the occurrence of absurd things gradually forced to reset the tone of the product and the icon for the modern audience (although it will undoubtedly be interesting to see how the character continues to appear in the parts of Amazon after the sale). Whether a similar overhaul is needed with Star Wars is debatable, but if the franchise remains hesitant to break free from some of its most entrenched legacy stories, it might be best to cut it to pieces and launch it into the infinite depths of space. Maybe someone will resurrect it in a few years anyway.
