Some Star Wars fans are worried about Kevin Feige’s new project. Should they be?
By Meg Dowell
Marvel president Kevin Feige is taking on another Disney-owned franchise. Some Star Wars fans would rather he stick to superhero narratives.
Two of geekdom’s major powerhouses — Marvel president Kevin Feige and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy — are teaming up to make a Star Wars movie together.
Both are longtime Star Wars fans, and have taken on major roles in cinema storytelling over the years. Both Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm are dominating box office numbers around the world, with no signs of stopping anytime soon.
It only makes sense that these two would collaborate on a new project someday. Still, that hasn’t stopped some members of both fandoms from worrying. Bringing creative minds from one franchise into another does not always go well. We all know what happened with Game of Thrones. We’d rather not speak of it.
It’s nerve-wracking when writers and directors of shows whose finales flopped as hard as GoT‘s did dive into other beloved franchises… like Star Wars. (May the Force be with us …)
Fans do not want anything to send Star Wars into a downward spiral like that. Some would argue certain directors who shall not be named already have, but … OK fine, Rian Johnson, you made a good Star Wars movie, don’t let the haters get you down.
There’s no argument that Feige could make a good Star Wars movie. The question is whether or not he should be giving his attention to a different franchise right now. There’s also the concern about his possible “influence” on the business side of Star Wars.
Some fans worry that Feige will campaign to ramp up the Star Wars movie release schedule to a pace similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And with so much talk of “Star Wars fatigue” (whether or not that’s a real thing really depends on your personal outlook), most moviegoers do not want even one Star Wars movie every year, let alone three.
However, just because Feige is taking one project doesn’t mean he’s in charge of when the rest of future Star Wars movies come out. It’s likely he will simply produce one movie or a trilogy.
Disney already knows it may have messed up big time — well, CEO Bob Iger does, anyway. In the past four years, Lucasfilm has released four movies — one per year in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, with another monumental release coming up at the end of 2019.
An even bigger mistake: Two of these movies were released six months apart. Fans barely had time to process The Last Jedi, which hit theaters in December 2017, before Solo came along in May 2018.
This doesn’t include two new animated shows, dozens of books, and plenty of other animated YouTube shorts. Oh, and there are also now two theme parks, one in Disneyland and the other at Disney World.
Things are already slowing down when it comes to movies, at least. We do know what the immediate future of Star Wars films looks like. There are full-length features set to release in theaters in 2022, 2024, and 2026.
Thanks to Disney+, Star Wars TV is preparing to jump to lightspeed, with one new show premiering in November 2019, the final seasons of two more finishing up within the next six months, and at least two more in various stages of production.
It’s much easier for fans to ignore a show they aren’t interested in watching, avoiding that “fatigue,” than it is to sidestep a movie release.
It’s still possible that even if Feige only does one Star Wars movie, he could have some creative role on a future TV show. And it wouldn’t be terrible if he did.
As we’ve seen with creators like Dave Filoni and are soon to witness with Jon Favreau (a huge Disney staple and part of the MCU), some of the best Star Wars projects out there are the ones “die-hard” Star Wars fans have poured their souls into making. The Clone Wars series, Filoni’s first and biggest mark on the franchise and its fandom, is still being praised as sone of the best Star Wars storytelling outside of the original trilogy so far.
Feige is also a huge fan of “a galaxy far, far away,” and there is nothing wrong with giving a talented creator the chance to tell a story in their favorite fictional universe. However, it’s probably best he collaborates with Kennedy on a single project and lets that one shine before deciding if he wants to do more.
As much as we love Star Wars fans making Star Wars things, this is a very important stage in the MCU. The end of Phase 4 and recent trouble with Sony means it’s critical Feige and everyone else involved give upcoming projects their full attention. The future success of the MCU is going to depend on the best planning and storytelling this branch of the franchise has offered yet.
Kennedy and the rest of the Lucasfilm Story Group can use the structure of the MCU as a prime example to follow moving forward, however. The end of the Skywalker Saga means most fans are going to expect the films and other stories moving forward to all have connecting elements between them to tell cohesive narratives. That’s going to take some careful and large-scale planning, which definitely means releasing movies even two years apart could be risky.
Fans would rather have fewer releases and films of the highest possible quality than 23 movies over the next 10 years. Slow down, give directors and writers plenty of time to work closely together on different projects, and figure out how to blend fanservice with the classic and memorable story elements that put Star Wars on the map in the first place.
J.J. Abrams changed the end of The Rise of Skywalker during filming. dark. Next