Liam Neeson weighs in on all those Star Wars spinoffs: “Taken away the mystery and magic”
Liam Neeson opined that the bevy of Star Wars content is "diluting" the franchise
Aux News Star Wars
While we haven’t had a Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, that hasn’t stopped the LucasFilm machine from putting out plenty of series set in the galaxy far, far away. This past year was one of the franchise’s busiest, with three new series airing on Disney+, leaving many fans a bit overwhelmed by the deluge of content.
They’re not alone, as even former Jedi master Liam Neeson revealed on Watch What Happens Live! (via Variety) that he feels a bit turned-off by all the spinoffs, leading to his decision not to return as Qui-Gon Jinn anytime soon.
“No, I’m not,” said Neeson after a fan asked whether he’d come back as the force-ghost Jedi, clearly tired of getting the question as he loudly scoffs while throwing up his hands beside a delighted Paul Rudd.
“There’s so many spinoffs of Star Wars,” added The Phantom Menace actor. “It’s diluting it to me, and it’s taken away the mystery and the magic in a weird way.”
Sounds like Neeson changed his mind from a few months ago, as he just reprised his role of Qui-Gon Jinn in force-ghost form for Obi-Wan Kenobi. While the cameo was brief, we did actually see a transparent Neeson and not, say, a CGI-ed face of the actor that gives off uncanny valley vibes as he tried to provide some mentorship to Ewan McGregor.
Of course, while Neeson seems done with anything related to Star Wars television, he can’t say the same of putting the robes back on for the big screen. In an interview with Comicbook.com last year, the actor was into the idea of returning as Qui-Gon Jinn, but only if it was in a feature film.
“Oh, I think so, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so, if it was a film,” said Neeson. “Yeah, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to TV, I must admit. I just like the big screen, you know?”
That said, don’t get your hopes up for anything Star Wars-related hitting theaters in the near future. Unlike Marvel’s recent re-evaluation of their streaming properties, Lucasfilm plans to go in the opposite direction—pushing out The Mandalorian’s season three and Ahsoka this year. With how they’re canceling potential films, who knows when—or if—we’ll see a Star Wars movie ever again.
52 Comments
Take his advice. If anyone knows how to dilute their brand it is Liam Neeson and his unending parade of codger, fill-in-the-blank, acton nonsense.
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Agreed.
The Phantom Menace did way more to take away the mystery and the magic than any Disney+ Star Wars show.
I read what he said and my first thought was “this motherfucker was in the movie that introduced midichlorians”.
Me too! Has anyone ever uttered a more magic/mystery-killing word than midichlorians?
And we should all be nicer to JK Simmons!
I’m pretty mad at him about that transphobia thing.
LULZ
I need someone to overlay this audio on footage of the yellow M&M.
I’d be terrified not to be nice to JK Simmons. Pretty sure that dude could rip me in half
If you don’t follow his tempo.
*Lars Ulrich enters the chat*
Ulrich
Simmons
Whiplash Reboot
Yes, you know you want this.
Coming this Christmas…
adrenaline starts to flow….
So it’s confirmed: Liam Neeson has many bad opinions to share.
Seems like a pretty normal opinion that we get to use as a springboard for our own stupid takes.
Normal, unless it’s coming from someone excusing their own awful part in making Star Wars worse, and who has already participated in one of these spin-offs he says are diluting it, and also he’s just forever going to be the person who went out looking for black people to beat up because he heard a black person assaulted one of his friends. Fuck him.
Pfft. He’s just upset because Qui-Gon is apparently the only force-user to not survive a lightsaber to the gut.
No, its because he was looking forward to fighting Sith Lord Jar Jar and that was written out of the PM script!
The Rise of Skywalker did more damage than any other film has to any other franchise. It is truly terrible in its awfulness.
Idk man I think The Last Jedi was even worse.
As a general rule… the more someone hates TLJ, the more they are satisfied by fan serviceI bet you LOVED the The Force Awakens.
LOL! I’ve seen dogs take dumps that are better than force awakens. Sequels sucked. The Last Jedi is just the biggest turd of the pile.
No way was it worse than Phantom Menace
The Last Jedi not only ruin The Rise of Skywalker that came after it also every franchise that appears before Mandalorian (Rebels was before TLJ). Remember Solo & Resistances? I don’t.
You’re right, especially in the sense that Rise of Skywalker wouldn’t have felt like such a freefall quality-wise if not for Last Jedi.
I do, they were both delightful. Sorry to hear you’re having memory problems.
That’s like raving about Banquet frozen dinners
I used to think the Prequels would always be the nadir of ‘Star Wars’ films (give or take a holiday special), but man, did ‘Rise of Skywalker’ just sprint away with that title.
It didn’t help that Solo was also awful.
I’ve seen Liam Neeson’s IMDB. Give that man a paycheck and he’ll put those robes on. He isn’t fooling me.
“Sounds like Neeson changed his mind from a few months ago, as he just reprised his role of Qui-Gon Jinn in force-ghost form for Obi-Wan Kenobi.”Did you watch the video or just read Variety’s take on it? He said getting back with Ewan was fun, but it was enough. It’s not like he was negotiating for a Qui-Gon show but is now acting above it.
There. Is. No. Tape.
Umm, did Neeson really think The Mouse assimilated Lucasfilm into its collective for its “mystery and magic” rather than as ink and toner for its money printing press???
You’re putting words in his mouth. All he said was that he didn’t want to do a show.
It’s not the volume of material doing this, but I begrudgingly think he…sort of has a point. The original Star Wars movies really nailed a tone of mysticism and magic, with lots of rich but mostly unexplained world-building. The setting felt huge and alien and immersive, and that was compelling.But the prequels he was in are what set that on fire. The Jedi were these half-wizard, half-samurai adventurers, until they became bureaucrats/cops living in Space Washington. The Force was literal magic, until it was explained as a boringly material reality of microbes or whatever. The bigness of this untamed universe became super mundane, and the characters in it were all related.Despite all the ways Disney tried to walk back the prequels, it didn’t walk those elements back. Everyone is still related, the universe still feels small, even more details are being explained, and there’s way less of a feeling of possibility. The self-aware dialogue merely contributes to that shattering of illusion. “That’s not how The Force works!!”It’s not just Disney doing this; I think it’s a state of affairs for lots of genre media, where large corporations don’t seem to get what people liked about the original to begin with and just keep expounding on familiar elements until any mystery or intrigue they had is dead. See also: Rings of Power or Fantastic Beasts.
He played the character that explained that the “mystery and magic” of the force was just microscopic organisms…
Actor states the obvious about the effects of capitalist factory-produced franchise content. Come back tomorrow for more radical ideas!
It’s also totally bogus. Most of that recent “capitalist factory-produced franchise content” has been way better than the earlier ““capitalist factory-produced franchise content” that he thinks is magical.
Hey, Phantom Menace was an independent production.
it was a weird failure, but at least it’s a FASCINATING weird failure. Almost like outsider art.
Don’t overstate Neeson’s position. He made an offhand comment in an interview and someone’s trying to turn it into a great controversy. If he thinks a new TV show would be crap, there’s a good chance he’s right. That the last Star Wars movie he was in was also crap doesn’t invalidate the point.
“Anyway, I’m excited to announce my new movie, Taken 4″
truly the height of snob cinema
Bold statement from the dude who headlined the death of mystery and magic in the Star Wars universe.
it’s not so much that the spinoffs are just better…it’s that the problem with the prequels and sequels is that everything focuses on retelling the same story over and over…so yes telling new stories is diluting that if you want to see the equivalent of Uncle Ben getting killed at the beginning of Spider-Man for the tenth fucking time
I’d like to see a new show where the guy who played Plankton on SpongeBob Squarepants is one of the midichlorians.
I can understand why he prefers film. He has a specific set of skills, after all.
Make Star Wars things…people get upset. Don’t make Star Wars things…people get upset. Fans make things what they are but ruin everything at the same time. Star Wars is cool people…enjoy the ride or get off the Starcruiser.