Much like anyone signing on to do any of these "extended universe" movies should know that they're going to be very hamstrung and not have lots of creative control, I just cannot fathom that the directors were that surprised. It honestly sounds like they were probably given far more than expected and then showed exactly why the studios don't do that on these. It sounds like they were making a comedy homage, kinda like GalaxyQuest to Star Trek. Which that could be fun, but they're not going to let that fly right now. They literally just darkened the franchise up with Rogue One.
I'm totally cool with expanded universe type stories such as Rogue 1 (And I don't mean EU from the nerdy books that all the geeks read). There's a million awesome stories that could be told within the scope of the universe. BUT, Han Solo shouldn't be one of them. Either it will be completely polarizing and offensive to at least 50% of star wars fans, and therefore lame. Or it will be so totally milquetoast to avoid offending anyone that it'll be completely pointless.
Or the absolute worst thing will happen - it'll be tailored towards children ala Jar Jar, and it could completely taint the Han Solo character for all time.
Ugh, have fun bitching an moaning when you find out how much it will straight up ruin Star Wars for you. Remember, according to their universe, the prequels are canon. They will almost certainly try to right those wrongs at some point. And sorry but Star Wars is actually ridiculously shallow material to work from (with lots of flaws that made the original films endearing, but will make elaborating on things a total fucking mess, personally I think it already has and that people are just blinding themselves to it, but you can see people realizing it already as just look at how feelings towards Episode 7 have already changed and how people after losing the afterglow are seeing the massive problems with Rogue One), fleshing it out is not going to end well, much like it has not ended well for pretty much any other franchise.
I don't think people really understand how limited Star Wars really was. They really should have just done their own thing and just have vague connections. Tell an entirely different era, have people reference characters or find little easter eggs and things, but trying to add more is just asking for disaster.
It really baffles me that they go "yeah the Star Wars universe was shit, we're going to ignore pretty much all of it, now let
us flesh it out, it'll be
sooo much better!" and people are buying in. It will end up the same way.
I disagreed with Han being killed in EPVII.
Such a bad idea. It makes his character a lot less fun, much more serious and tragic, which is *not* what the smuggler is supposed to be. Smuggler is supposed to be the secular cynical businessman. Tragic noble deaths should only come for the mythical swordsman. Han being killed makes about as much sense as Indiana Jones being killed.
So I mean, that bridge has already been crossed. I think a young Han Solo movie could be fun. But there are so many of these things coming out and let's be honest the quality has suffered so much, that I'll probably wait on it.
Han's character arc in the original movies is one of the most important, its right up there with Luke and Vader. While it was actually overblown, as he really didn't change that much, it was still important. He went from being a vagabond focused on his own interests to being reliable and selfless. That is already a pretty serious change. He was never the "cynical businessman" not even in the original trilogy. They tried to bill him as such, but very little of his actions supported that other than they tried to establish that he was that way prior to encountering Luke and then minor characterization to play foil for the plot (first he has to be cynical of the Force, then he has to pretend to leave when his part of the deal is done). I honestly have no idea why they tried to re-establish that in Ep7 either, as it made no fucking sense and shit all over one of the primary things that made the original trilogy good.
I agree that I think Han is handled very poorly in Force Awakens, but I disagree about the outcome. I just think they needed to handle that better. I think it could have made for interesting development for Kylo Ren, but they had to pull stupid "we have to have a father twist!" idiocy. Why would they think Han's plea with Kylo mattered when they basically act like Han's been an absentee father? And then they even fuck that up. Kylo himself treats him as just part of his development, meaning it was like Han had no actual emotional connection with him. He didn't kill Han in anger or even with any real malice (didn't even seem to care that Han wasn't in his life), he did it because he thought that was just something he had to do to achieve Vader like ability. Sure they had the Fallout Boy roll tear but come on that scene was a fucking joke.
I think if you're unhappy about them making an old Han less fun, you shouldn't be optimistic about where things are going to go based on how they're changing things, judging by how Rogue One went (and is lauded for going dark).
Agreed 100%
I've said it a thousand times already -- nobody is asking for this story to be told. What made Solo great was his mysteriousness and elusiveness. When we learn his story, no matter how cool it may be, it's going to diminish Solo's appeal. Remember when we leaned Boba Fett's backstory? Yeah, how'd that work out? Ugh.
Agreed. But I honestly feel that way about the entirety of Star Wars. I genuinely think that people will eventually look back on this era as every bit as bad as the prequels because they intentionally set out to try and not do the same thing the prequels did, but will end up accomplishing the same thing. Which is reveal the follies in trying to flesh out a universe that is only there to serve as a backdrop to a fairly shallow storyline, and the things they're doing to try to make it continue to work just reveal that, and also are going to end up shitting all over the good parts of the originals. The prequels real failing was not the greenscreen CGI junk (it just highlighted the problem with what they were actually doing), it was that they ruined the characters. We already had all that we needed of and for the characters in the original trilogy. They weren't even deep characters, which is why it worked well, they were shallow cliche characters and were well cast.
The new characters in the Force Awakens were decent, and the best thing about it, unfortunately they're tying it too much to the original. Rogue One on the other hand tries way too hard to add more of the original, at the expense of characters (no new ones worth a damn, not that it matters they're all dead now anyway, they were literally throwaway characters, but hey we get more Tarkin...), essentially just trying to serve as a character build for Vader ("look how badass and evil he is!") which actually doesn't jive well with the original, and hurts the aura that the original trilogy built. Sure its not as bad as CGI Yoda bouncing off the walls and flipping like he's Sonic the Hedgehog mixed with Mario, but it really is doing the same thing and is completely unnecessary. Monsters are scarier the less of them you actually see. Not to mention it makes his redemption harder to accept.
probably has nothing to do with story. Ford very likely only agreed to do that film if he would be killed, such is his life-long stance on the Star Wars universe...and good for him. I wish I had that power.
From what I've gathered, it was literally a requirement. And he wished he'd insisted on it decades ago. And I can fully understand why. Star Wars Fans. The best solace though is how the old addage of be careful what you wish for is going to crash over them eventually.
My hopes for this one are only slightly higher than my hopes that the next time I see one of the prequels that I will love it. Rogue One set the bar for any new movie and I honestly don't think they will be able to meet it.
I hope by "set the bar" you mean low. Rogue One is mediocre as all get out, but it is setting up that they are going to full on shit all over the originals by trying to flesh out things that don't need fleshed out and in no way help. It makes Leia into a Donald Trump level lying political jackass moron ("I'm on a diplomatic mission, I mean sure you literally just saw my ship a few minutes ago perfectly refuting that, also well guess that whole bit about us intercepting your transmission makes no sense now either..."). Also, the original trilogy wasn't that dark. And changing the tone is going to seriously fuck things up.