Lucasfilm shelves Patty Jenkins and Kevin Feige’s Star Wars movies, unsurprisingly
And Taika Waititi wants to appear in the Star Wars movie he's making, which is also not surprising
Aux News Star Wars
Try to act surprised when you read any of the following information: That Star Wars movie that Patty Jenkins was working on, the one that guy pulled from the schedule in September before getting a new chance at life after Jenkins walked away from the Wonder Woman series, is apparently “no longer in active development” at Lucasfilm. Who could’ve possibly seen that coming. Also: A Star Wars movie being developed by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has also been shelved, which no one ever could have predicted.
We don’t know anything about Feige’s project, other than the fact that he’s a big Star Wars fan and always wanted to do something with that universe before her became exclusively the Marvel guy, but Jenkins’ movie was reportedly going to be about X-Wing dogfighting and would’ve been called Rogue Squadron. Jenkins had maintained that it was going to be a very personal film for her, since her father was a fighter pilot and she always wanted to honor that in some way, so perhaps the project will find some way to live on someday.
This all comes from Variety, which also notes that Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie is apparently still on. But, in a surprising twist that is just as surprising as all of the other twists in this news story, he’s apparently going to give himself a role in it (“similar in prominence” to his supporting appearance in Jojo Rabbit). This would be the 1,000th time Waititi has given himself a role in a thing he wrote or directed or produced, and it’s great news for people who like it when a wacky character with a New Zealand accent shows up and takes over the story for a few minutes.
We’re not complaining. If anything, we’re happy for him. He likes writing stuff and then appearing in the stuff he writes. We’re just saying that it’s not surprising. After all, it has happened literally 1,000 times before. (And no, we don’t mean literally literally, we mean it figuratively for emphasis.)
So, to recap: A Star Wars movie that would’ve been made by a guy with a very demanding regular job is not happening, a Star Wars movie that seemed troubled to begin with is not happening, and also Taika Waititi is going to write himself a role in a thing he’s making. The sky is blue, the Pope is Catholic, bears shit in the woods, etc.
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We don’t know anything about Feige’s project, other than the fact that he’s a big Star Wars fan and always wanted to do something with that universe before her became exclusively the Marvel guyHey now, don’t misgender the guy.
Not funny
The AV Club, breaking down the gender binary one typo at a time.
And on International Women’s Day!
“Her?”
What, is she funny or something?
She better be.
Called it! Not happy about it, but called it.
Jenkins had maintained that it was going to be a very personal film for her, since her father was a fighter pilot and she always wanted to honor that in some way, so perhaps the project will find some way to live on someday. Yes, as the director of Top Gun: Rooster, coming from Paramount in 2025.
I don’t think they actually like Taika Waititi here. Just saying.
Why? He’s one of the reasons What We Do In The Shadows exists. And, I like his take on Korg.
I dunno. I can’t remember when the AV Club backlash against him began.
Start with Thor: Love and Thunder and work outwards in either direction to narrow down when this happened.
Free Guy, I think
That may be patient zero.
The whispers started when he was that robot on Mandalorian, and became a cacophony 2 years later at Love and Thunder
The brief throupling with Rita Ora and Tessa Thompson perhaps?
I’m on the fan side of Love and Thunder (in a major way), so I’m all for him doing a Star Wars movie.Went into that movie expecting it to be terrible based on the comments I heard, and it turned into my favorite Marvel movie.
Shadows is masterful stuff. Korg, eh, I could do without. The character became especially grating outside of Ragnarok.
Because he’s a white man.
Taika? He’s not…
You realize his real name is “Taika David Cohen” right?
The first post summons up a funny kind of ambiguous “puts up finger to say something and then changes his mind” reaction from any sane reader. This weird double-down is just you being you. Please don’t do that.
I could take him or leave him.
The dude has a fantastic track record. Jo Jo Rabbit and Hunt for the Wilderpeople are both truly brilliant. What We Do in the Shadows is fucking hilarious. Thor: Ragnarok is Grade-A, top tier MCU. The episode he directed of The Mandalorian is a classic.He kinda fumbled Love and Thunder. There’s a lot to love in that movie, but alongside the now almost expected shortcomings of Marvel productions, he pushed that ‘goofy’ Thor/Asgard shit way too far. Still, that’s no reason for the hate-boner AV Club seems to have for him.I honestly think – for some pathetic, petty reason – the hate started when he hooked up with Rita Ora. That’s how fucking ridiculous this place has become.
Also, I’m pretty sure that the Pope is also known to shit in the woods.
he jumped the shark with L & T, i mean it wasn’t WW 84 but it really highlighted his shortcomings (imo of course)
i mean i walked out of jojo rabbit so that was when it happened for me.
I’m a big fan of Taika but overexposure is a thing. Shadows, Our Flag Means Death, Free Guy, Thor, Mando… his schtick can start to be a little grating when it’s everywhere
Buncha Kiwiphobes!
A Shart Is BornOnce upon a time, in a far-off land, the fartalizing champion had become famous throughout the kingdom. He was loved by all and had even gained a group of followers who called themselves “the fartalizers.”One day, while the fartalizing champion was performing for a crowd, he suddenly felt a rumble in his stomach. He tried to hold it in, but it was no use. He let out a massive fart, and to his horror, he realized he had sharted. The crowd was stunned into silence, and the fartalizing champion was mortified.He tried to make a quick exit, but the shart had stained his pants, and the smell was overpowering. He had to make a run for it, and the crowd scattered in all directions. The fartalizers were embarrassed and disheartened, and the fartalizing champion went into hiding.The next day, a rumor began to spread throughout the kingdom that the fartalizing champion had retired from fartalizing altogether. The people were devastated and longed for the days of his fartabulous, fartacular, and fartliscious performances.But the fartalizing champion was determined not to give up. He went into seclusion and practiced harder than ever before, determined to overcome the embarrassment of his shart. He worked on his diet, avoided beans and broccoli, and practiced his fartalizing skills day and night.After several weeks of training, the fartalizing champion emerged from seclusion and announced his return. The people were thrilled and packed the royal courtyard to see him perform.The fartalizing champion began his performance, and the crowd cheered him on. He was nervous, but he kept going, determined not to let a little accident get in the way of his passion. And then, it happened again. The fartalizing champion sharted once more, but this time, he wasn’t embarrassed. He embraced the accident, turned it into a joke, and the crowd roared with laughter.From that day on, the fartalizing champion became known for his sense of humor and his ability to turn accidents into entertainment. He continued to fartalize often, but now he did it with a new sense of confidence and resilience, and the people loved him even more for it.
I don’t think she “walked away” from WW. I’m pretty sure she was fired, because WW 1984 was a trash ass movie. Oh, and WW had plot holes up the arse and a terrible 3rd act. Boom, explozionsss! Michael Bay, style.
Oh god, are these both going to be Rebel Galaxy spin-offs now?
Well, the Wonder Woman films are two of the worst films ever, so I am not horribly upset.
This post feels even more ai generated than most on here
Make a Wraith Squadron TV series, you cowards!
Yub Yub Commader
In related news, apparently Kevin Feige had a Star Wars movie in development.
With Feige, Kathleen Kennedy was probably headed to his birthday party when she realized her assistant hadn’t thought to buy his gift (it was supposed to be baseball cap, again), and she was like, “Okay, Wendy, for the third time this month I’ve got to give someone a Star Wars trilogy because you couldn’t be bothered to do your job!”
That’s better writing than this site deserves right now, honestly.
Star Wars? Huh, they had movies. I mean, they’ve got some pretty good TV shows and I love the little green guy, but are they actually going to try movies? Well, good luck.
Lucasfilm: We’re going to make a Rogue Squadron movie. Y’know, it’ll be like Top Gun, but in Star Wars.2022 Movie Audiences: Hey, we just made Top Gun 2 the second-biggest movie of the year. Can we have that Rogue Squadron movie now?Lucasfilm: Actually, we don’t really wanna do a Rogue Squadron movie anymore.
Unbelievable.
But Top Gun 2 was like Star Wars!
So in Top Gun 3 will Maverick find out that his father whom he thought was dead is actually the evil warlord of the unnamed bad guy country?
It would not surprise me.
Somehow Goose has returned
There’s such a weird amount of glee here at this news and I don’t get it. I hate what this site has become.
I for one don’t have glee at this. I’d have been interested in a Rogue Squadron movie. That said, part of me hopes this sort of news gets us closer to Disney shaking up Lucasfilm… taking the lesson from the MCU and putting someone creative, who loves this universe, in charge of executing it, particularly the films. I think the person in charge has been a very successful producer, but they’ve been a dollars-and-cents, make-it-happen for your creative filmmaker sort of producer. They need someone who spearheads the creative process… not that they’ll micromanage, but puts the right people in place and coordinates an overall arc in the story telling.
I’d have been interested in a Rogue Squadron movie.
So would I, though I think it would work better as a tv series. I just don’t want Jenkins anywhere near it.
But her handling of the aircraft-related scenes in WW84 was so masterful!
putting someone creative, who loves this universe, in charge of executing itDave Filoni is this person, although sometimes I think he loves the universe a little TOO much to make it accessible. Mando S1 was fresh and exciting because it took place in the SW universe but didn’t feel handcuffed by it.The S3 premiere seems to indicate they’re leaning even more into stories and characters from Clone Wars/Rebels. Nothing will turn me off Mando and send me running back to Andor faster than assigning cartoons as homework.
Personally I’m interested in a Rogue Squadron movie, but not one made by the director of Wonder Woman 1984. This gives me hope that when that story gets told, it’ll be with a director who can actually do it justice.
taking the lesson from the MCU and putting someone creative, who loves this universe, in charge of executing it, particularly the films.This article shows you that they are not doing any of that. Taika Waititi is the hot hand that makes mainstream/profitable films, the other two make expensive films that lack broader appeal*, so this is what we are going to get.(*yes marvel has a long reach, but there appears to be a fatigue narrative floating around them now and PJ is mainly known for WW)
hard agree. i never use to read this site and think “why is the writer so snarky”, but that is now my thought on most articles. so weird.
‘ i never use to read this site and think “why is the writer so snarky”’The AV Club started as a spinoff of The Onion when it was still a print publication. I don’t know how snark could be a surprising element.
Oh God I agree, but I also get MAD h0rny with Star Wars schadenfreude. Just gimme more of that SW cancellations, I hate that franchise yeah yeah yeah mmmmmmmm
lmao wipe your tears buddy there’s still gonna be lots of baby movies for you to watch
At least it wasn’t a slideshow.(These days that’s as empathetic as it gets here)
Forget it Bam Sarbanti, it’s a Sam Barsanti article!
Because nobody trusts those people to actually make good star wars content.
“Welcome to The AV Club Offices. Here’s your desk and your computer. And over here by the water cooler is the communal tank of nitrous oxide.”
I hear Jenkins sent an email to Disney execs containing a Wikipedia link for traditional animation.
They could certainly use a refresher.
Of all the Wars aspects of Star Wars, the space battles always felt the most harrowing and realistic in their depiction. The movies have no shortage of explicitly depicting pilots getting violently incinerated in small cockpits in the cold silent depth of space, with their ending screams over the comms. Nowhere does the struggle and loss of the rebellion’s battles feel more raw there, with the pilots military discipline almost never superseded by ‘cool flying stuff’. This is something I feel was kept vividly and impressively intact in Rogue One, and (don’t come at me with ‘the bombers don’t make sense!1?1 comments) in The Last Jedi (bar the opening Poe scene). So, while knowing absolutely nothing about the direction they were going in, I’m going to assume it was going to be Top Gun but without the white knuckle tension and just 10 pilots all like Poe Dameron doing cool hot shot tricks and making cool quips and I would’ve hated it. In my imaginary world where this projection would have been reality, I am therefore happy to hear this news.
There was a series of Rogue Squadron novels in the mid- to late-90s that followed the titular squadron helping the New Republic wipe out the last vestiges of the Imperial Navy. They were quite a hoot. Would have loved to see a movie drawn from those stories.
They were pretty good. As was Wraith Squadron.
YES! give me something based on those old Stackpole/Allston novels. TV Show, a movie. Something. those were so great
Well after Tom Cruise remade a large part of A New Hope last year and called it Top Gun, it would be only fair.
Nah, they remade 633 Squadron, which is where Lucas took it from in the first place (and is about fighter pilots in planes).
Bombers actually.
Also it was The Dam Busters that Lucas lifted. The assault on the Death Star is almost word for word the same.
No, Lucas definitely took from 633 Squadron:
633 Squadron – Wikipedia“The film’s climax shows the squadron flying through a deep fjord while being fired on by anti-aircraft guns. George Lucas stated that this sequence inspired the “trench run” sequence in Star Wars. Lucas intercut sequences into Star Wars during post-production as a guide.”
Mosquitos were fighter-bombers, so we’re both right…
Fair play.
I’ll be completely honest, you were right about Bombers and I had put “Fighter” automatically, I would have put Bombers if I’d thought about it properly.
“The movies have no shortage of explicitly depicting pilots getting violently incinerated in small cockpits in the cold silent depth of space”
Really? Quick, find a SINGLE clip that has “explicit” anything in a Star Wars movie.
“C’mon Wedge…it’s time to buzz the tower!”
Let me throw a log on the fire for the assault on Hoth too… (Not the part Peter Parker liked; the attack on the shield generator.) That part of Empire always feels like a no bullshit, “hold the line for a greater purpose against a superior enemy” set piece that I’d like to have seen more of in contextualizing the rebellion. We need some spy/subterfuge/sabotage stuff. And we need some “uh oh, they’re here and they’ve got us outgunned and outnumbered and all we have is a trench” stuff.
Fuck, the writing in this article sucked. Not funny. Not interesting. Made it hard to continue.
At first blush, after WW84 I don’t think Jenkins should be given major creative control over anything. But upon reflection, I would argue that she was never any good and the only reason that the first one was so well received was because Man of Fail and Battle of the Superfriends were SO fucking awful. Battlefield Earth would have looked like fucking Citizen Kane compared to those pieces of crap.
Have you seen Jenkins’ “Monster”? I thought it was decent.
Curious what she would have accomplished if she had not gone the DC route.
I’ll stand by the consensus that the first two acts of Wonder Woman were entertaining and well-done, and the third act was not.I am not sure this proves anything about Jenkins as a director (either way). To me it was justoften beautiful to watch, Gadot and Pine really had a nice chemistry, and there were some interesting elements including the events leading up to Diana’s disillusionment with violence after killing Ludendorff.Then the third act looks worse, is relatively charmless, and if anything seems to contradict the much more interesting start of the movie with the way it ends.
I honestly have no idea what Disney’s plan for SW movies is at this point. The strategy so far, as least post-RoS, seems to have been “throw everything at the wall and hope some of it sticks,” but perhaps unsurprisingly that hasn’t panned out. Maybe they’re just letting SW happen on Disney+ for a while before coming up with a coherent strategy? Because – and I’m sure this will be a controversial opinion no one has voiced before – the biggest problem with the sequel trilogy was a lack of a single coherent vision or plot to hold the thing together. So maybe having an actual clear idea of how to proceed before just hiring a bunch of directors to maybe-or-maybe-not direct a bunch of potential movies would be a good idea?(And if that’s Rian Johnson’s trilogy, fine, but just actually fucking do that, rather than letting every conceivable film project either lag in development hell or get turned into a streaming show.)
Here’s my question (and this is me agreeing with you):
When we read phrases like “Rian Johnson’s trilogy,” are we supposed to think that Rian Johnson has three movies and nine acts written out, with beats and plotting and character development? Or are we supposed to think that someone – who loves trilogies – decided that Rian Johnson is talented and should be chosen to helm a trilogy because Star Wars should be trilogies #ThisIsTheWay? I genuinely don’t know. And I think that speaks to your initial objection to their approach. In the same way that The Hobbit became a shitfest because someone decided that a large pamphlet needed to be a trilogy, it seems like people figured out that “Star Wars” = License to Print Money, and started whispering to entertainment writers about who would be working which shifts at the money factory… without making sure that there were compelling ideas in those lunchboxes.
That Star Wars movie that Patty Jenkins was working on, the one that guy pulled from the schedule in September
Which “guy”?
That guy. You know, the one that does the stuff. Works in that department.
Ritchie?
Or perhaps Maddin. All Star Wars output must emulate silent cinema now!
the problem is they have no idea where to take things post-RoS, and moviegoers are fickle when it comes to “prequels” (using the term very loosely here). Yes it worked for Mando and Andor, less so with Kenobi and much less so with BoBF, but i’m not sure any of those converted into a movie would’ve translated to the kind of big box office expected of Star Wars films. I do think they are hoping that one of these D+ series will give them some framework for the next star wars movie but that it hasn’t happened yet.
I actually think you have this backwards: The D+ stories that have been narratively successful are successful, in part, because they actually don’t work nearly as well as 135 minutes in one meal.
Andor works because it has building characterization – partly achieved through flashbacks, and steadily building tension – partly achieved through stillness/quiet and/or through not rushing into set pieces. That’s the exact stuff that you would have to eliminate or curtail in order to make it a movie. The Mandalorian works because it started off being relatively episodic. There was a through-line and there were also moments and beats that were contained within each episode that were not relevant to what came before or what came afterward. Make Mando a movie and I’m not sure what it’s about anymore. Is it Din Djarin exploring his culture? Din Djarin exploring fatherhood? Grogu learning to navigate his incredible power while developing healthy eating habits?
Obi-Wan probably suffered because they gave us the pacing of a D+ show but they probably didn’t have more than 2 movies’ worth of content. That made them make dumb choices like having a star destroyer follow a single ship, traveling at a crawl, without scrambling TIEs… Or have a room full of storm troopers engaged in a close-range “trench” style battle with under-armed civilians when they were aided by an inquisitor and had dramatically superior firepower. The show needed narrative reasons for things to happen more slowly, but the reasons they gave us didn’t hold together under even basic scrutiny. (Obi-Wan was also constrained because we knew that he had to have a confrontation with Vader… that Vader would survive… but it was preceded by a conversation where Kenobi specifically said that THIS TIME he’d finish the job…)
You’re either an awful writer or you’re writing in the wrong venue about the wrong subject. Either way, we suffer for it.
This post really does feel like it’s based around some in-joke we’re not privy to
My gut reaction here is that these movies were canned because Disney SW *still* has the issue of not trusting their audiences enough to move beyond the OT characters. My guess is that none of those movies really had anything to do with the OT characters and Disney did not want to pursue it because a very vocal portion of the fanbase wants the same characters (Luke/Han/Leia) doing the same thing (fighting the Empire using the Force, lightsabers and X-Wings) over and over and over again for eternity. Sure, change the sand planet to a snow planet or whatever but HAN HAS TO BE THERE GRUMBLING TO CHEWIE OR FUCK YOU.It seems like a lot of media these days is derivative – based on a book, a sequel/legacyquel/prequel/requel, podcasts about movies you have already seen a bunch of times, movies that are “a cross between Predator and The Goonies” or “a love letter to Friday the 13th”, etc. I understand why corporations do this but speaking for myself, it gets tiresome. Come up with something new. I haven’t seen Andor yet (itself derivative of Rogue One, which was derivative of a ANH), but I heard it was good in part because it expands the SW universe. I loved Mando season 1 and was bummed that they couldn’t let go and had to have Luke show up at the end of season 2. Go in other directions and free yourself from the OT.
Andor was really, really good, had an amazingly small number of references to characters or things from the OT, and… from what I’ve seen on ratings sites, had the worst ratings of any of the Disney+ Star Wars shows. This only exacerbates the problem, since it tells Disney that The People Out There want the OT characters.
Andor is the best written Star Wars show or movie – it is also on the wrong network. The Disney + Star War fans mostly want a ‘memberberries version of Star Wars, so it didn’t get the attention it deserved.
I haven’t seen Andor yet (itself derivative of Rogue One, which was derivative of a ANH), but I heard it was goodI’m right there with you on Mando S2. I know dead-eyed Luke was supposed to give me the warm feelies, but it felt like the show stopped just short of Favreau leaning into the frame and saying Remember this? Isn’t it cool to remember how things were cool in your childhood?Which is why I can’t recommend Andor enough, primarily because there wasn’t a single lightsaber to be found. No talk of the Force or cameos for super fans squealing about Biz Borppu or whatever the hell. The Mandalorian is good Star Wars. Andor is great TV.
I haven’t finished watching Andor. If you’re going to spoil the Biz Borppu reveal, please mark it as a spoiler.
Wasn’t Star Wars purposely derivative of old movies as well?
this one always felt like a movie they announced for the sake of announcing a new star wars movie. wasn’t it like the dead middle of covid and everyone was looking a way to make their stock price go up?
“this one always felt like a movie they announced”
This article is about three separate movies, one of which is still happening.
I assume the Waititi one is just slightly further out and they’ll cancel it right before they actually have to spend any money. They seem to now be in the business of suggesting Star Wars movies.
At this point I think Disney is going to keep sticking Star Wars in the small screen for a while. I think they are waiting for Lucas to become one with the force so then they can remake the original 3
I suspect you may be right. And can I humbly submit the name Alden Ehrenreich for consideration as Han Solo?!?!
After all, it has happened literally 1,000 times before. (And no, we don’t mean literally literally, we mean it figuratively for emphasis.)I am BEGGING you all, please, to get a fucking editor
“…people who like it when a wacky character with a New Zealand accent, that they assume is Australian, shows up…”
So when is Kathleen Kennedy retiring? I bet the whole slate of Star Wars projects is going to change radically after that happens. Who’s gonna be in charge of Lucasfilm after her?Look at The Mandalorian. Somehow they keep having the same few people directing the show when there’s so much rising and emerging talent in the industry. Try new things. Give chances to other directors to shine, to show us things we haven’t seen and new perpectives too.
Great writers are always writing, although, I wish more would create new worlds with new characters. I was in 1st grade when Star Wars came out, I loved it then, I still do today, but there’s so much space for other ideas with actors we’ve never seen. Maybe that will, once again, become a reality.