Congratulations to Ming-Na Wen for winning the Saturn Award for Best Actress in Streaming for her role in "The Book of Boba Fett".
Not directly related to this series but this news isn't worthy enough to have its own thread, so I figured this was the best place to post it. James Mangold revealed what he intended to do with his proposed film about Boba Fett...and it probably would've never been made even if Solo hadn't been poorly received: At the point I was doing it, I was probably scaring the shit out of everyone, but I was probably making much more of a borderline-rated R, single-planet, spaghetti western,” Mangold said. “I was just listening to Ennio Morricone all day, all night, and typing away. But I’m not sure it ever would’ve happened. I’m not sure it was in anyone’s plans what I was thinking about.” No, making a borderline R-rated Star Wars movie was probably not in the cards. And then, well, it was never gonna happen anyway. When asked about the end of the project, the director said it ended because of “a moment of corporate realignment after whatever happened with the Han Solo movie.” Which, if you remember, was the moment in 2018 when Solo failed to live up to expectations and future Star Wars standalone movies focusing on characters like Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi were canceled. “They just suddenly decided they weren’t making pictures like that, and I think the opportunities in streaming presented themselves,” he said. But, there’s a plus side to this. Mangold agrees that, because his take on Boba Fett isn’t the one we ended up seeing on either The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett, it left room for creator Jon Favreau to change the face of Star Wars forever. “The world would never be able to embrace Baby Yoda if I had made that,” Mangold said. “He didn’t really belong in the world I was kind of envisioning.”
We shall see if we have been granted a better timeline when Ahsoka comes out in two months. While "A Fistfull of Credits" like series of Star Wars Western films appeals to me a bit, what we got have been as good. That we are getting Thrawn is bonus.
What Jon & Dave did was ultimately better I think. Movie directors (and writers) tend to be a little blinkered when it comes to a wider context when working in an established property like this. More often than not they fall into one of two traps: 1) running roughshod over the property in the all consuming quest to achieve their artistic vision (singular) which is usually more aesthetic than anything substantial. 2) Over-compensating and stuffing the thing full of pointless cameos, references, basically spending so much energy desperately winking at the audience that they neglect developing the actual story and characters in their own right. Amazingly, the ST managed to fall into both traps simultaneously. By taking the existing architypes and designs, and then crafting new characters around them, Jon & Dave were able to create a foundation to tell the kind of stories they wanted to tell, rather than try and re-engineer and existing foundation after the building had already been erected. It's also what we're getting with Andor, and I suspect the other upcoming shows too. So on the whole, it was a good thing they cocked up the release of 'Solo'.
Yeah, but while I had fun with Book Of Boba Fett S1, it definitely showed lots of room for improvement and the most recent season of The Mandalorian felt like it wasn't blasting on all cylinders (and truncated in places). But at the same time I curious how the success of Andor, etc, could inform how the Sequel era continues after the formulaic mess of Rise Of Skywalker. Interesting to bring up Solo (it is so typical of Disney's succession of flops/underperformers in the past year or so, like The Dial Of Destiny, but it came out five years ago, like it was an advanced warning of Disney commercially/creatively collapsing under its own weight).
OK, right now the hyperbole is up at about an 11. We need you to bring it down to at most a 7, and then we can have a rational discussion. You use the word "flop". I do not think it means what you think it means.
Yeah, the "flop" stuff I didn't jibe with but I liked most of the post up to then. Solo was a flop by Star Wars theatrical movie standards. Most films would eat their own young in front of other children to make Solo money at the box office.
I'm just happy it was a decent, nay, good Star Wars movie. It was better than it had any right being.
But I can't help wondering how good it could have been if it had the right person playing the lead. Looking at you, Fury Road.
Alden Ehrenreich worked. Not for everyone but he embodied enough of young Harrison Ford's space pirate swagger that it was successful. I mean, he even had Han's feathered 1977 hair.
I liked Solo. It worked for me, for the most part. Ehrenreich was good as Han, but I'm one of the minority who still wishes Anthony Ingruber had been given a chance. That said, I do understand those who feel his uncanny impression of Ford would be distracting and that he wouldn't have the "chops" to make the role his own.
I think it was less about having the dramatic chops to play Han or not, and more about just being right for the role or not. Looking like the previous actor to portray the role is a nice bonus (see: Brandon Routh & Zachary Quinto), but character must come first. IMO Ehrenreich played young "not-quite-jaded-yet" Han to a tee, so it's hard to argue against the choice. Side Note: Donald Glover really doesn't look much like Billy Dee Williams at all, but you rarely hear people arguing that he wasn't (and still is!) perfect for the role!