In an exclusive with Empire Online, Kathleen Kennedy details her vision for the future of Star Wars.

To us her vision looks very dark.

Let's cross over to the dark side.

Kathleen on the re-union of Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor:

The thing that was most exciting was being on the set and watching the two of them get excited. They hadn’t seen one another in a long time. I was surprised at just how incredibly emotional it was for each of them to find themselves back in these roles, and just realising how important Star Wars was to each of them. It was the beginning of their careers.

Read the room.

Sure, actors and characters aren't the same and Ewan and Hayden may have been pleased to see each other but emotion in Star Wars is not a good thing.

To feminists, which might be who she's trying to appeal to, emotion is the centre of the universe and all things good. To the Jedi, i.e. these characters, and also several real religions and philosophies it's a weakness to be overcome and can lead one down a dark path.

As it did for Anakin / Vader.

Also, they had both been acting for a decade before their first film together and while Star Wars boosted Hayden's bank balance and recognisability, his career didn't blossom afterwards. It may have been healthier beforehand.

Worse yet to come.

Of the new trilogy films and their characters, she had this to say:

Certainly, those are not characters we’re going to forget. They will live on, and those are conversations that are going on with the creative team as well.

That right there is doom, but whether this doom or another, it's probably unavoidable at this point.

Those Red Flags

We saw an interesting thing just last month, which we commented on.

Disney's Latin America Twitter account tweeted a message which appeared to roast the recent trilogy. Translated:

The final trilogy of Star Wars is the best.

Accompanied by two lines of red flags (which indicate a contentious claim) in the appearance of two red lightsabers.

Many fans of earlier Star Wars loved it.

Disney appears to have come to terms with its own mishandling of the Star Wars sequel trilogy in a single tweet that people are loving.

Others were outraged by it.

One Disney+ Twitter account tried to get in on a meme, but did not have the high ground.

Why should this inspire outrage? The answer lies in this Fanomwire article.

Let's begin with this claim.

The later trilogy was immensely divisive, despite breaking film office records.

Attendance at their first film was high - record breaking for Star Wars - because it is Star Wars and people had moderately high expectations.

Since then box office takings have consistently fallen because of how bad that record breaker and some of the following films were, to the point where their most recent film, Solo, lost Disney an estimated $77 million US.

This is said by way of establishing that the author of this article is either ignorant or in denial.

But they helpfully pinpoint the crux of Disney's dilemma.

The remark is sure to enrage some Star Wars fans who have spent a lot of time defending the sequel trilogy.

Disney never commented on this tweet. They just deleted it. Whether it was an intentional joke or an employee gone rogue is unknown.

The new trilogy has some "defenders". Their "defense" is typically screaming, "you're a bigot" at everyone who doesn't love the new trilogy. Such fun.

So there's this tiny, screamy minority.

And they are relatively small. Solo lost money.

Disney can't afford to produce films of this expense for such a small crowd.

That's not even taking into account that being a huge waste of a previously very lucrative intellectual property for which they paid $4 billion.

Then there's the profitable land of original Star Wars fans and the general public.

Lucasfilm and Disney can't please both crowds.

It's one or the other.

Complicating the matter is the fact that critics generally showered the first of the Disney trilogy films with praise - which most viewers did not agree with.

Admission that that film in particular wasn't great would be tantamount to claiming that critics can't be trusted.

This denies Disney the otherwise sensible option of confessing that they screwed up and announcing they want to wipe the slate clean, i.e. just pretend those films never happened. 

Stargate and Star Trek

Stargate and Star Trek also abandoned their core fanbase and formula and drove themselves into the ground.

But they have a clear path out.

Stargate's embarassing crew aboard the Destiny are lost in space. Possibly frozen in suspended animation for all time.

A new Stargate series could cleverly allude to the unpopularity and failure of Stargate Universe with a simple but ambiguous reference to Destiny.

Something along the lines of "it being a tragedy" with it nominally referring to the ship Destiny but which could also be interpreted as referring to the show, Stargate Universe.

Then never refer to it again and continue as if it never happened.

Star Trek has sent Discovery into the distant future and to protect the timeline have sworn those few who know about it to absolute secrecy.

It is gone and will be never be referred to again.

Stargate and Star Trek have a path out of the darkness.

Star Wars seems to be doggedly trudging ever deeper into it.

Are we afraid or angry?

Certainly not. Those are paths to dark side.

And true Star Wars will live on regardless but potentially divorced from the commercial property.

There are numerous fan and gaming communities where people can continue to share a love for and engage with the earlier incarnation.

Those who operate them can preserve the original spirit of Star Wars. They just can't commercialise it.

[ Main Image: Disney+ LA tweet. Credit: Disney+ via Twitter. ]

References

Disney+ Latinoamerica [@disneyplusla] (October 13, 2021). La última trilogía de Star Wars es la mejor. Twitter.

Libby, Dirk (October 16, 2021). Disney Account Roasted Fans Of Its Own Star Wars Movies, Then Deleted The Tweet. CinemaBlend.

Mishra, Prachee (October 15, 2021). In a Tweet, Disney Shades Its Own Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Fandomwire.

Travis, Ben (November 23, 2021). Kathleen Kennedy Talks ‘Emotional’ Obi-Wan Reunion, Suggests Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Characters Could Return – Exclusive. Empire Online.

Velasquez, Raul (October 15, 2021). Disney Latin America Throws Red Flag Shade At Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. GameRant.

Wikipedia. List of Star Wars films. (viewed November 25, 2021)

Wikipedia. Solo: A Star Wars Story. (viewed November 25, 2021)