He gets it: Iger says Disney's troubles came from putting messaging over storytelling

[Bobby Henderson]

You know, we're essentially debating a fairy tale in space here, but let's not forget what kind of impact especially those first movies had on Western pop culture and especially the movie industry.

The original '77-'83 Star Wars trilogy was an immense cultural phenomenon. It was a ground-breaking, very NEW thing back then.

The '99-'05 SW trilogy was a cash grab, as were the other SW movies and TV shows that followed. In 1999 Episode I was vastly over-shadowed by The Matrix and the pop culture phenomenon it spawned. The "II" and "III" sequels were over-shadowed by Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I've never been a big fan of the prequel trilogy. There's a lot to blame on George Lucas, but I guess, in hindsight, George Lucas tasked himself with an impossible task to begin with. How do you make a compelling trilogy about something of which everybody already knows the eventual outcome, especially if you need to stretch the story over three long movies? How are you going to even match the reception of the initial movies, which by many were considered to be among the most influential movies ever made?

There is no catching lightning in a bottle twice. But one thing Lucas could have done to help the second trilogy at least measure up respectively with the first was not try to make all the creative decisions by himself. He didn't do that with the original trilogy. Other guys, such as Lawrence Kasdan, helped write and even direct the stories. Lucas developed a kind of tunnel vision with the second trilogy. That allowed a lot of bad and silly ideas to make it to the screen.

When Disney took over and indicated that they would probably depart from any material George Lucas had provided, I actually was somewhat excited about the idea.

Yeah, and then Disney turned JJ Abrams loose on it.

They should've licenced the term "midi-chlorians" to food supplement producers as the stuff sounds like something you could find in your yoghurt... "Get your daily dose of midi-chlorians now! Awaken THE FORCE in you..."

The "miti-cloreene" shit was so off-putting on multiple levels. The Luke Skywalker character in the first Star Wars movie excited lots of kids 40+ years ago because he was relatable. Here's this nobody kid, not quite grown-up, nothing special about him, but he ends up being the hero in the end because of choices he made, actions he took. Children would play and act like they were Luke Skywalker. They could identify with him, which made it easier for the kids to want to be Luke Skywalker.

And then George Lucas had to turn mastery of the force into some nerdy thing involving genetic luck. Only people with the magic blood line can control the force. That's some royalty type shit. It's not relatable at all. Audiences get into action movies with seemingly ordinary everyman type characters. That's one factor that made Die Hard so entertaining. You have this imperfect cop, with a failing marriage and early male-pattern baldness who is afraid of heights yet he has to take on some high-skilled European bad guys in a 40 story tall skyscraper.

Imagine how much money they could make by simply re-releasing the ORIGINAL, unaltered versions back in theaters and by subsequently releasing them on Blu-Ray in an overpriced collectors edition... and somebody else did already all the hard work for them...

Again, that's more tunnel vision from George Lucas. He wants to pretend the original cuts of the original trilogy don't exist anymore. I'm at the point where I can't bear to watch the SE versions anymore. They just suck for all the alterations. In less than 4 years Star Wars will reach its 50th Anniversary. It would be a shame if Lucas continues the blockade on any sort of restoration of the original trilogy thru 2027. But a restored original trilogy is the only thing that could get me back on board as a Star Wars fan at this point. I don't give a fuck about any of the other stuff.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Perhaps the first time I realized we were doing something more than entertaining is when people said, 'Hey, if you want to send a message, there's Western Union.'

Norman Lear, screenwriter, television producer 1922-2023

[Mike Blakesley]

I'm not really a Star Wars geek -- I like most of the movies but I wouldn't know a mitty-klorian if I saw it.

Here, from my perspective (and with hindsight), is what George Lucas should have done.

First of all, he should have ditched the "nine-movies" idea. He waffled on that idea in various places anyway.

Then, when he wanted to get back into the Star Wars world, he should have made Episode 7, 8 and 9 instead of doing 1, 2, and 3. That way he would have been on new ground, storywise, and could've taken the story anywhere he wanted. He could have done it in two movies, or four, or whatever.

THEN, he could have gone back and made ONE movie, not necessarily three, that told the story of how Luke got to be born and Vader got to be Vader. He could have left out most of the claptrap dialog from those early movies that everyone hated, and who knows, he might have even had to excise JarJar from the mix too, to save time. The result could have been a better overall story that wasn't so disjointed.

But instead of that, he felt he had to make trilogies or else, I dunno, the fans would throw rocks at him? So, with 1,2,3, he was hamstrung by everyone knowing the eventual "unhappy" ending. He had to jump through all sorts of hoops to make the plotlines match up. Everyone hated the forced dialog and piled on heaps of criticism. Lucas eventually decided he was done making Star Wars movies because "Why would I make more? People just complain." So he sold out his company.

This left the gate open for Disney to ditch a lot of his earlier work and ideas, apply all their fresh new "inclusion and diversity" requirements, and take the story in directions Lucas probably never would have, and in the process, wreck the franchise for all time for the biggest fans.

Disney definitely made some stupid moves, but I put more blame on Lucas for taking the story backward when he should have taken it forward.

[Martin McCaffery]

The first thing Lucas should have done was to hire someone to write and direct the films. He needed to just accept the Stan Lee role in the Star Wars universe. Take an "Exec Producer" or "Created By" credit, do a walk-on in every film, collect the royalties and go away.

[Lyle Romer]

I'm not really a Star Wars geek -- I like most of the movies but I wouldn't know a mitty-klorian if I saw it.

Here, from my perspective (and with hindsight), is what George Lucas should have done.

First of all, he should have ditched the "nine-movies" idea. He waffled on that idea in various places anyway.

Then, when he wanted to get back into the Star Wars world, he should have made Episode 7, 8 and 9 instead of doing 1, 2, and 3. That way he would have been on new ground, storywise, and could've taken the story anywhere he wanted. He could have done it in two movies, or four, or whatever.

THEN, he could have gone back and made ONE movie, not necessarily three, that told the story of how Luke got to be born and Vader got to be Vader. He could have left out most of the claptrap dialog from those early movies that everyone hated, and who knows, he might have even had to excise JarJar from the mix too, to save time. The result could have been a better overall story that wasn't so disjointed.

But instead of that, he felt he had to make trilogies or else, I dunno, the fans would throw rocks at him? So, with 1,2,3, he was hamstrung by everyone knowing the eventual "unhappy" ending. He had to jump through all sorts of hoops to make the plotlines match up. Everyone hated the forced dialog and piled on heaps of criticism. Lucas eventually decided he was done making Star Wars movies because "Why would I make more? People just complain." So he sold out his company.

This left the gate open for Disney to ditch a lot of his earlier work and ideas, apply all their fresh new "inclusion and diversity" requirements, and take the story in directions Lucas probably never would have, and in the process, wreck the franchise for all time for the biggest fans.

Disney definitely made some stupid moves, but I put more blame on Lucas for taking the story backward when he should have taken it forward.

Agree, especially on the prequels. Either they should have been one movie or there should have been one that was Anakin from child to becoming Vader and then he could have done two more from that point that had the rise of the empire from that point until the events of "A New Hope." Dragging the Anakin becomes Vader story over 3 movies was not good. Including all of the galactic Senate stuff made it worse. If I want to watch the Senate (which I don't) I'll turn on CSPAN.

What Disney did was just ruin the magic of the franchise. The first of the new trilogy was basically a remake of the original with Luke as a girl, a diverse cast and some nostalgia cameos. Granted, I'd rather look at Daisy Ridley for 2 hours than Mark Hamill but they could have come up with a more original story to put her in.

[James Wyrembelski]

And if they go wide, will they do the usual stupidity of requiring two weeks? If they allow one week dates, we might be a player for one or two of those. .

You'll never guess what the terms are

Just heard. Two weeks @ 50%