Polygon Criticizes Dave Filoni’s Reported Star Wars Episode X Plans

At a Disney D23 panel in August, Dave Filoni revealed what his mission statement was for Star Wars after taking over Lucasfilm from Kathleen Kennedy.

“We have several different generations of Star Wars fans,” he said. “There’s original trilogy fans, prequel fans, sequel trilogy fans, Clone Wars fans, expanded universe fans. They all have different interests. And I always look at how we’re going to serve all these different interests. And most importantly, how do we bring them all together because they have this common love of Star Wars.”

This quote summarizes Filoni’s goal as Star Wars’ steward to unify the fanbase. His remarks drew mixed reactions. Appealing to all Star Wars fans is a noble goal, but it also carries a sense of playing it safe. If you want to please everyone, you run the risk of not taking risks.

One month later, Filoni’s plan for the future of Star Wars is coming into focus, and it is exactly what he promised at D23 for better and for worse.

Why Star Wars Episode X has fans worried

Filoni’s mission statement had already worried fans, but the announcement of a new Star Wars movie trilogy confirmed some of their worst fears. Lucasfilm is once again retreating to the safe embrace of the Skywalkers, with seemingly no plan to expand the franchise beyond following the most angst-ridden family in a galaxy far, far away.

A flurry of reports over the weekend revealed that Filoni has tapped director Jon Watts, known for Tom Holland’s first three Spider-Man films and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, to helm a new Star Wars trilogy beginning with Episode X. Meanwhile, screenwriter Simon Kinberg, who worked on X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dark Phoenix, and Star Wars Rebels, will pen the new movies. While both creators have strong Star Wars bonafides, the decision suggests that under Filoni, Lucasfilm’s goal is no longer to seek out exciting filmmakers. Watts and Kinberg are both palatable choices, but they are far from daring.

Much of the angry reaction seems aimed at Watts, perhaps because director Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day exposed how much potential the Spider-Man Home trilogy left on the table. However, Watts is not the main concern. He has shown he can handle big-budget intellectual property without embarrassing everyone involved.

Watts is also no stranger to Star Wars, having co-created Disney’s sci-fi answer to The Goonies with Skeleton Crew. That slept-on series balances a rewarding story with the delight and hope running deep in most films set in the Star Wars universe. Skeleton Crew also gave audiences New Republic and Jedi lore along the way. The television series was fun, engaging, and a fine reminder of what Star Wars can be when creators embrace whimsy.

Kinberg, however, raises some red flags. His X-Men writing was safe and milquetoast, making it exasperating to expect anything other than boredom from those films. While Star Wars Rebels is beloved by fans, it is a children’s show with considerable filler. It lacks the scale of an epic blockbuster. This does not mean Rebels lacks greatness or that Kinberg performed poorly. Still, doubts remain about whether Kinberg can reliably pen a Star Wars trilogy, especially when the franchise’s name has lost its mystique and fans across several generations demand better.

A bed of our own making

Lucasfilm is not doing anything daring by choosing Kinberg and Watts. Some Star Wars fans have proven they do not want the franchise to veer from the status quo. The reaction to Rian Johnson’s 2019 sequel trilogy entry, The Last Jedi, serves as a clear case in point.

For fans who were not around at the time, social media and discussions surrounding The Last Jedi were remarkably hostile. The backlash grew so intense that some speculate it affected the reception of the next Star Wars film, the Han Solo origin story Solo released in 2018.

Critics praised The Last Jedi. Fans were less kind, and the film currently sits at 41% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter, compared with a critic score of 91%. While bad-faith takes surfaced, particularly regarding the involvement of women and people of color, other criticisms blamed Johnson for ruining Star Wars through his take on Luke Skywalker, the Holdo Maneuver, and the abrupt death of Supreme Leader Snoke.

Given how nasty the discussion around The Last Jedi became, it spooked Disney enough to backtrack with its safest entry, The Rise of Skywalker. That strategy did not end well for Lucasfilm either, leaving several revelations, most notably the return of Palpatine, that the studio is still trying to reconcile in other material like The Mandalorian and spin-off books.

With Watts and Kinberg tackling Episode X to pick up where The Rise of Skywalker left off, Filoni has a chance to correct past mistakes. Some Star Wars fans would love a trilogy addressing the mess left by the sequels. Others would prefer Lucasfilm and Disney pretend those movies never existed and explore another corner of the vast Star Wars galaxy and timeline instead. Unfortunately for the latter group, franchises do not make money that way. Disney needs recognizable characters to fill theater seats. A new Star Wars trilogy covering Episodes X, XI, and XII was inevitable from the start, regardless of who makes it.

While Star Wars has produced defiant, genre-bending television entries like Andor, The Acolyte, and Visions, Disney and Lucasfilm clearly stick to what brings audiences into theaters for movie blockbusters: the familiar Skywalkers.

Source: Polygon