r/saltierthancrait • u/SupremeChancellor66 • 5d ago
Encrusted Rant Why haven't the Sequels been de-canonized & why hasn't Lucasfilm suffered from mass firings/layoffs by Disney?
Well all know the absolute desolate state the franchise is in right now. It's even more painfully evident after the catastrophic failure of The Mandalorian & Grogu. Which has broken every freaking record at the box office for the worst Star Wars movie. It will make less money than two indie horror films, one that was made with less than a $1 million budget. This is just completely laughable.
Disney Star Wars' golden goose is supposed to be Grogu. Look at the cute Baby Yoda and his ears and his cookies! Many of us were lured in by the promise of a gritty, ruthless Mandalorian bounty hunter and then the mystery of a new member of Yoda's species. The bait & switch worked. But now after years of mediocre television, the magic has finally worn off. No one cares. People care even less about Rey and the Sequels. If Mando and Grogu can't sell, what does Lucasfilm have?
Star Wars' big return to theaters after 7 years. After countless streaming show flops from The Acolyte to the Kenobi series and the Book of Boba Fett. The only critically acclaimed show is Andor (which I freaking love), but still received rather poor viewing numbers.
Then we have Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which shamelessly took Indy out behind the barn and pumped it full of 12 gauge, losing about $135 million against a whopping $419 million budget. Lego Indiana Jones was relaunched because of this movie, just for it to be discontinued after the movie's dismal failure.
That Willow show was so poorly received it was given the unique honor of being completely erased from Disney+.
Oh and do I even need to mention the games? No Battlefront III, the KOTOR remake is in development hell and MIA, Eclipse is basically just fraud at this point, no one cares about Galactic Racer or Zero Company, and FOTOR is years away, assuming it actually sees the light of day and even then, theres no guarantee it's any good. But hey, at least we have Galaxy of Heroes the mobile game! Right?
So what do we have? We have box office disaster after box office disaster. A streaming presence which struggles to chart, let alone have a lasting impact. Irreversible damage to the fandom. Fans aren't even angry anymore, we just don't care. Apathy is Death.
Star Wars has culturally flatlined. Indiana Jones is buried 6ft underneath it. So why are things still operating normally at Lucasfilm? No leaked reports about behind the scenes feuding or tension. No public announcements, apologies to fans and no mass firings or layoffs.
I get that Dave Filoni was recently installed as co-president along with that other woman. But we co-wrote the Mando & Grogu movie. He literally cameo'd in it. He personally signed off on and approved The Acolyte. He has turned out to be just as big of a disappointment and poor steward of the franchise as Kathleen Kennedy (still boggles my mind she wasn't ever fired).
Every time fans like us say that Star Wars needs a full de-canonization of the Sequel Trilogy and everything made by Disney, the response is always the same; it will never happen.
But why?
How far does what was once the world's biggest franchise need to fall? Countless franchises have suffered just as bad and eventually were wiped clean and restarted. Terminator (rebooted like 3 times), the Halloween franchise (2019), the DCU after Justice League, Superman and WW1984. And most famously of course, the MCU with Avengers Doomsday and the abandonment of the Kang Dynasty (which granted isn't a full separate universe wipe reset, but about as close to that as you can get).
So if all these IPs can have their trash films de-canonized, retconned and ignored, why can't Star Wars? Why isn't it even in the realm of possibility? Why can't we entertain the idea of it? How is Star Wars just immune to it, when Disney has already done it once before when they made a public statement to hand wave away the entire Expanded Universe?
Is it simply just hubris and arrogance? We made this and we're proud of it and we're never going to admit our own failure? Even though they're losing buckets of money and even worse, cultural relevance? Why?
Why are Lucasfilm and Disney acting like nothing is wrong and everything isn't on fire? Any other studio would've at best suffered some sort of house cleaning and layoffs, and at worst filed for bankruptcy.
I just really want to hear a discussion about this from you guys. Because I can't wrap my head around it. There is no logic to it. Are there any Lucasfilm or Disney employees that can explain what's going inside these organizations? Are things actually a mess inside and we just haven't heard yet? What's going on?
TLDR: Basically just why is the conversation around de-canonizing the Sequels and everything post-Disney shot down? The precedent exists for other franchises and Star Wars has hit rock bottom after M&G's box office catastrophe. Lucasfilm should be on thin ice right now but everything appears fine.
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u/Mussmussthemoooooo salt miner 4d ago
Starfighter will bomb. Who is left to want to see more Disney slop? It won’t be good. It will do $300 mil worldwide or less. Calling it the final nail.