The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

[Allyn Gibson]

Literally the opposite. Lucas himself says how he doesn't really like to direct or write as much as the visual stuff. He would do the first movie to set the tone but happily use the others. The big issue is the spat he had with the Writer's and Director's Guilds in the 80s (and quit both Guilds as a result). He'd have rolled over dead before giving them another penny.

If he had his way, he would have probably done Phantom Menace to set the stage and tone like he did with original Star Wars (aka Episode IV: A New Hope) and then happily engaged people like Kirshner, Kasdan to fine tune his drafts, if not direct and certainly enough anecdotes that he wanted Spielberg to do one of the movies... yet all are members of the Guilds, which leaves guys like Richard Marquand from Return of the Jedi: either foreigners who have no Hollywood ambition or ties and leaves either neophytes or journeymen and that would have him hovering in the background anyway since he couldn't delegate or trust a non entity like that.

Lucas could have had Frank Darabont writing one of the Prequels, but Darabont wouldn't work on a non-Guild production like that. Darabont has talked about a phone conversation between him and Lucas where they both laid out their positions, and Lucas was inflexible. I get it, it's his vision.

How did Disney handle the credits issue on the Sequel Trilogy? Did they just pay the fine for placing the credits at the end? Or, since Lucas was no longer part of Lucasfilm, then the "A Lucasfilm Production" wouldn't actually be crediting a person, and thus the issue with Empire had passed?

 

[The Wormhole]

Did they just pat the fine for placing the credits at the end?

Is that even an issue anymore? 90% of modern movies leave their credits until the end. Disney certainly does with the Marvel movies. Well, most of them. There is the occasional which actually does stick credits at the start, like Black Widow.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Is that even an issue anymore? 90% of modern movies leave their credits until the end. Disney certainly does with the Marvel movies. Well, most of them. There is the occasional which actually does stick credits at the start, like Black Widow.

I don't know. Maybe it's something recent strikes have resolved.

The issue with Empire was that the Director's Guild considered "A Lucasfilm Ltd. Production" before the title to be a personal credit for George Lucas, since Lucasfilm was named for him. Thus, there had to be a director credit before the title as well.

None of the Marvel movies have production companies named for the producer on the film, so the production companies can get credited at the beginning and everyone else at the end without an issue, at least by the rules current as of 2005 or so.

 

[valkyrie013]

Those saying, oh it may open low. won't make any money...

MERCHENDISING!! Holly Cow its Freaking Everywhere! I can buy a grogu from 1mm tall to a giant plushie.. Burger King.. just.. Everywhere! Making a Mint!

 

[Turtletrekker]

Those saying, oh it may open low. won't make any money...

MERCHENDISING!! Holly Cow its Freaking Everywhere! I can buy a grogu from 1mm tall to a giant plushie.. Burger King.. just.. Everywhere! Making a Mint!

I've seen videos of people unboxing their $600 animatronic Grogu's

 

[fireproof78]

I've seen videos of people unboxing their $600 animatronic Grogu's

Nice!

 

[Tuskin38]

I'm glad I don't feel envy
At least, not very strongly.

 

[Xerxes82]

Those saying, oh it may open low. won't make any money...

MERCHENDISING!! Holly Cow its Freaking Everywhere! I can buy a grogu from 1mm tall to a giant plushie.. Burger King.. just.. Everywhere! Making a Mint!

People underestimate this, but it's always been one of Star Wars' biggest advantages.

And the little green dude is basically printing them huge green dumptrucks of cash.

 

[ichab]

However, the real issue behind a potential box office underperformance is not that viewers of the show have lost interest. The main problem is the inability to attract people who haven’t watched the show in the first place, since not everyone subscribes to Disney+ and not everyone has seen the series.

This.

I would also argue the Star Wars brand isnt as popular as it once was. Its been seven years since the last movie and that sequal trilogy was a total mess.

 

[Tuskin38]

Soundtrack drops tonight at Midnight your local time on Spotify and youtube and other services

You could use VPN if you want to listen to it early.

 

[TedShatner10]

This.

I would also argue the Star Wars brand isnt as popular as it once was. Its been seven years since the last movie and that sequal trilogy was a total mess.

I found that was the cost of the Sequels being more open ended and experimental (the Prequels were more coherent but chained to Lucas' more clunky directing).

 

[ichab]

I found that was the cost of the Sequels being more open ended and experimental (the Prequels were more coherent but chained to Lucas' more clunky directing).

To each his own. IMO they were just an incoherent, boring mess. Experimental is fine so long as it stays entertaining. They turned Luke from an heroic figure at the end of ROTJ into a cranky whiner that was hard to like. One moment he is ready to destroy the ancient texts, then whines at Yoda for blowing them up.
Snokes and Captain Phasma were cool characters that Johnson just decided to kill off instead of developing. Then they resurrect the Emporer which told me they were completely out of ideas and couldn't tell a story without legacy characters.

Say what you want about the prequals, I still enjoyed them when they released and I've enjoyed rewatching them since. I've never had any desire to rewatch the sequal trilogy. For me the saga ends at ROTJ.

 

[kneelicks]

The prequels are excellent for worldbuilding and filling out lore, which is interesting in its own right and has led to some of the best follow-on media. As films, I feel they fall short because of poor character writing and being too cludged down in the importance of the lore trumping that of the actual plot. I still enjoy them immensely because they're tied to childhood memories, but as films I can't really defend a lot of the decisions made by Lucas.

The sequels have their moments, but I found that they didn't really understand what made SW popular to begin with. TFA is probably the strongest self-contained movie of the three, TLJ has the most interesting ideas (but this isn't what SW is about in my opinion, which is why it feels off-kilter), and TROS is just a mess. I don't envy the filmmakers having to navigate what was essentially a horribly mismanaged project on Disney's part, but it doesn't make the movies any more enjoyable to me personally.

 

[Christopher]

TLJ has the most interesting ideas (but this isn't what SW is about in my opinion, which is why it feels off-kilter)

For me, The Last Jedi worked because it was about what Star Wars was about, i.e. that it took a critical, metatextual look at the tropes and assumptions of the series and both deconstructed and deepened them. The original films were always made for children, but TLJ felt like the kind of sequel made for adults who were fans of the series as children and were now able to look at its ideas and conceits in a more sophisticated, nuanced way. It was still about fighting tyranny and the essence of heroism, but from a more complex perspective recognizing that tyranny is as much about the self-indulgence of the wealthy and the cooperation of self-interested parties for their own gain as about battleships and armored shock troops, and that heroism isn't just about hereditary lineages and hotshot ace pilots but can be about ordinary people choosing to envision and fight for a better world.

 

[Tuskin38]

TLJ is the second best Star Wars film after ESB

 

[ichab]

Given that theaters project everything digitally anyway, there's no technological reason they couldn't screen all Disney+ episodes in theaters, in bundles of two or three per show. The deciding factor, therefore, is hype.

If, as seems to be the case, the plan is still to do a Mando and Friends vs. Thrawn team-up movie, the question then becomes how best to build up hype for the same. Bringing Din to theaters sounds like a way to give him big-screen cred, which would then contribute to hype for the Thrawn movie. The likelihood of a Mando S4 in between the solo movie and the Thrawn movie therefore strikes me as slim. (After the Thrawn flick, who knows.)

Myself, I skipped Mando S3, in large part because I got tired of a show in which the main character's face was only rarely shown. I also question whether general audiences will tolerate that - what works for a forty-minute episode doesn't necessarily work for a feature film. (Just ask the makers of Dredd.) And the fact that the official announcement doesn't mention Pascal doesn't instill much optimism that his face will get much screen time.

I dont know. People seemed to enjoy Darth Vader just fine despite not seeing his face until the end of ROTJ. There is also a trailer clearly showing his face if it's that big of a deal to you.

If Mandalorian fails, it will be because
1.) Its simply not a good movie.
2.) Lack of interest due to Disney's mismanagement of the franchise since they acquired it from Lucas.

 

[Gaith]

For me, The Last Jedi worked because it was about what Star Wars was about, i.e. that it took a critical, metatextual look at the tropes and assumptions of the series and both deconstructed and deepened them.

To paraphrase a certain Jedi Master, it was more TED Talk than adventure movie, endless and dull.

I dont know. People seemed to enjoy Darth Vader just fine despite not seeing his face until the end of ROTJ.

Are you suggesting Darth Vader was the main character of any of the OT Episodes?

 

[The Wormhole]

Snokes and Captain Phasma were cool characters that Johnson just decided to kill off instead of developing.

Actually, Abrams intended Phasma to be killed in TFA. It was Johnson who decided to establish she survived Starkiller's destruction and brought her back in TLJ. And even then, there is a deleted scene in TLJ showing she survived her fight with Finn.

 

[ichab]

Are you suggesting Darth Vader was the main character of any of the OT Episodes?

No. Im suggesting he was one of the most popular characters in the OT despite being behind a mask. He was the central villain that everyone remembered.

I wasnt aware you had caveats to your " I must see the face" rule. Frankly, I think its a silly thing to be hung up on. His helmet has been off numerous times. We know what he looks like.

 

[Gaith]

I wasnt aware you had caveats to your " I must see the face" rule.

I mean, it's more of a preference/general sentiment than a rule, but I think I was quite clear in the post you quoted:

Myself, I skipped Mando S3, in large part because I got tired of a show in which the main character's face was only rarely shown. I also question whether general audiences will tolerate that - what works for a forty-minute episode doesn't necessarily work for a feature film. (Just ask the makers of Dredd.)

Darth Vader wasn't the main character in the OT, so, not necessarily a problem. (Now, if Vader and Tarkin had worn masks in ANH, or Vader and the Emperor and all his officers in ESB and RotJ had worn masks, that would have been a problem.)