Star Wars Update: I’m Low on Material
I haven’t done one of these for a while. Largely because the franchise is so dead that people skip over any article I write about it.
Sadly, I’m low on Blog material today. And I can’t do She-Hulk. I just can’t.
FIRST
Andor Episode 4.
It’s back to being very slow. The excitement has left the building until next week at the earliest. Good news, the dialog is tight and well structured. Bad news, it is still in no way a Star Wars show. The Jedi and the Sith would be completely out of place in it.
We now see the inner workings of the Imperial Security bureau for the first time. It’s interesting to see Imperials functioning as a heartless bureaucracy rather than a pack of Republic Studios villains rubbing their hands together in anticipation of their imminent victory over the Rebellion. In this show, they are constantly squabbling over turf fights. Which decidedly rings true to me.
Stellan Skarsgård knocked it out of the park as the Rebel spymaster Luthien this week.
Bottomline: Andor is in all honesty, a good if extremely slow-paced show. It is much too grounded in realism to qualify as part of the Star Wars universe, which ultimately is a fantasy setting. If Star Wars remains on this course it may as well rename itself Battlestar Bladerunner.
And it’s on Disney +.
If you still have Disney+, then wait for the show to finish it’s run before you try to wade through it. If you aren’t paying for Disney+ this is no reason to start.
NEXT
Since 2015, I’ve heard more predictions of Kathleen Kennedy’s impending departure from Disney than a dog has fleas.
I don’t blame you for not believing the new round of rumors. I more than understand. In this case I’m only reporting on why the rumor is once again making the rounds.
Matt Maloney, who is a genuine Hollywood insider, called her out by name during a podcast for the mismanagement of Star Wars. Maloney is somebody who regularly does lunch with studio heads and the CEOs of the biggest talent agencies in the industry. He used to be the editor and chief of the Hollywood Reporter before he was quit/fired and setup his own indie entertainment site called, Puck.
I will grant that it is rather significant that this was a by-name call out of Kennedy. Up until now, there was any criticism of Star Wars at all, it would just be a mention of Lucasfilm without saying who its president is. A by-name accusation is not done in Tinsel Town.
Not unless that person has been officially greenlit by the big boss. In this case, it would have been Chapek. More significantly, it wasn’t in Variety or Deadline, that would have been too much. Matt Maloney is an officially unofficial voice of the studio moguls. This is the kind of thing you would see if there was regime change coming.
There are a few things that dovetail with the newest rumor of her departure. She has been taking frequent and prolonged vacations, which is typical for someone getting ready to retire.
Andor had been hidden for two years. I assumed with good reason that it must have been excruciatingly bad even by Disney+ standards, but having seen it, I will grant that Tony Gilroy made a very good show, (even if it isn’t a Star Wars show). Additionally, the Indiana Jones movie is rumored to be testing very well, (now that Frank Marshall has taken over the whole thing from his wife KK).
Another successful season of The Mandalorian and this will put her in the position of leaving on a high note.
Admittedly this assumes that she’s leaving at all, and I won’t believe it until she’s out the door.
But that is the source of these new rumors.
The sad truth is, even if she does finally leave, Star Wars is still owned by Disney.
