‘The Mandalorian’ Movie May Be Disney’s Worst ‘Star Wars’ Mistake Yet
Lucasfilm’s principle architect of destruction, the irredeemable Kathleen Kennedy, recently dropped news about Disney’s next direction for the already-crumbled Star Wars franchise, and it includes a host of projects designed to dive deep into the series’ past, present, and future. News has already come out that Mary Sue-extraordinaire character Rey will be making a return, but this predestined failure might be small potatoes compared to a confirmed big-screen Mandalorian film.
According to Kennedy, the movie would wrap up the story of Din Djarin and Grogu in theaters, as opposed to a new season of the show. This, perhaps, is one of the worst ideas the company has greenlit since The Last Jedi, and it could spell big trouble for both Lucasfilm and its parent company.
The announcement came at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London, England, alongside news of a Star Wars film taking place 25,000 years before the Battle of Yavin (presumably), and a New Jedi Order film, which takes place 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker. The Mandalorian movie in question will supposedly end the story of Djarin and Grogu, two characters who have since become sidelined in their own show, but it will also reportedly incorporate elements from sister shows as well.
Of course, Dave Filoni will be directing the film with Jon Favreau supposedly acting as producer, though it remains to be seen if he’ll have a hand in the writing process. Whatever the case, it seems that Disney is eager to jumpstart the dead Star Wars cinematic universe, which was mothballed in the wake of colossal disasters such as The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and of course, the pointless Rise of Skywalker.
And it’s a terrible idea, right across the board.
Rob Keyes, the editorial, brand and PR director for Valnet-owned access media shill sites ScreenRant, CBR, and Collider, posted a recording of the big announcement from the Star Wars Celebration 2023 event.
Kathleen Kennedy reveals the upcoming Star Wars movies, expanding the timeline 25,000 years in the past with Dawn of the Jedi, and 15 years after Episode 9 for New Jedi Order. #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/4fiYjtmDtK
— Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) April 7, 2023
Unfortunately, most users didn’t share his enthusiasm, and were quick to voice their fatigue and frustration over the company continuing to beat a horse they themselves murdered with a cannonball.
User Admiral Snackbar tweeted “Only the shills are excited for this. The rest of us with functional cognitive ability know it’s going to be hot woke garbage. Star Wars is dead. R.I.P.”
Another user posted a spot-on encapsulation of the Disney Star Wars business model by referencing the spoof film Spaceballs, which lampooned Star Wars’ lucrative merchandising strength.
And user Sean Peter-Budge chimed in with “Fantastic. I look forward to hearing of their cancellations in 2-3 years.”
That, perhaps, is the most accurate take of the bunch. It’s entirely possible that this one film, or several of the announced projects could get cancelled before they even enter production.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. Several big Star Wars projects were canned by Disney before they hit the airwaves, including a film by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the animated Star Wars Detours, a Boba Fett feature film, an Obi-Wan trilogy, Rangers of the New Republic, Rogue Squadron, and of course, a new trilogy helmed by the heinous Rian Johnson.
First, it’s clear that Disney is trying its best to ignore its own lying eyes as it skims inevitably over the viewership ratings. Season three of The Mandalorian has lost a large chunk of its audience, and that number continues to drop due to an unfocused story, boring subplots, continuity errors, and needless character shuffling. What was once Disney’s strongest Star Wars property has since been designated to the basement.
From a financial perspective, it’s easy to see why Disney is announcing more films. They believe – foolishly – that simply putting more Star Wars out into the theatrical market will somehow net them much-needed profits in the wake of a financial crisis. This, hot on the heels of the company laying off thousands of employees, firing the incompetent Bob Chapek, and bringing Bob Iger out of cold storage in a desperate attempt to fix the company.
However, Star Wars is not just any property, and Disney will have to put out some serious cash to pay for both production, and marketing costs. Doing so in the wake of plunging stock prices and a customer base alienated by the corporation’s ultra-Woke ideological and political stance is the epitome of insanity…which is precisely why Disney is going for it.
The Mandalorian has lost its luster as a hit property, and even the adorable little Grogu can no longer carry the show as he did in the first two seasons. Fan goodwill was shredded in the wake of The Book of Boba Fett, while Filoni and Favreau keep running around trying to recapture the football after a series of torturous fumbles caught on slow-cam. Why waste so much money going big-screen, as opposed to wrapping up this tale on Disney+, which carries far less expensive production costs?
Second, why do it at a time when the viewership ratings for season three are dragging, the same as every other Star Wars TV property that has since debuted? The answer is simple – Disney, Lucasfilm, Filoni, Kennedy, and to a certain degree, Favreau, cannot admit they screwed things up. This is the double-down game that the Left love to play, and it doesn’t matter how much money is lit on fire like that scene from The Dark Knight. It’s not about the money. It’s about sending a message!
The message, in this case, is that all the bad writing, incompetent direction, divisive political rhetoric, and pointless story arcs are somehow good, and what better way to (try and) convince everyone, than by closing out a dying show with a theatrical film? This is corporate posturing of the worst kind, and it’s done for the purpose of trying to convince the customer base that everything is peachy-keen, when in fact, it’s closer to a person suffering vertigo whilst wavering precariously off the edge of a cliff.
That isn’t the only reason that this project is a bad idea, either. Let’s not pretend that it’s all about one property wearing thin on its audience. There’s also the smorgasbord of other Star Wars projects that Disney and Lucasfilm intend to oversaturate and dilute the market with, to disastrous end.
They include the following:
• Skeleton Crew (2023)
• Ahsoka (2023)
• The Acolyte (2024)
• Lando (Undated)
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And of course, season two of the incomprehensibly nightmarish Andor, for the sake of torment. On top of these announcements, there are other projects circling the halls of Disney, including a Taika Waititi Star Wars film, and another from Shawn Levy (Free Guy, Deadpool 3). That’s a lot of material coming down the pipe, and a sign that Disney is quite desperate to resuscitate the corpse of the stellar franchise that it single-handedly killed upon acquisition.
Finally, there’s a third glaring problem with this announcement. According to snippets of news that have come out so far, this movie will attempt to reconcile all the plotlines from The Mandalorian era, which includes The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and perhaps more. The Mandalorian represents the last real link to the original Star Wars trilogy timeline, which is why it resonated with fans at the beginning. A feature-length film could, and probably will kill it, permanently. Once it’s gone, the linchpin of Star Wars goes with it, forever.
Whatever the rhyme or reason (or lack thereof) surrounding this bizarre announcement, one thing is for certain – Disney is terrified over what’s happened in the space of the last few years, and the problem is only getting worse. Under normal circumstances, a healthy company staffed with competent scribes and creative heads seeking to branch Star Wars out into many different directions would be a smart move.
Here, however, it already feels like a company scrambling to greenlight as many projects as possible in the hopes that they can find a winner. That’s not possible, given the current lack of talent that has turned the company away from its traditional core values, and led it by the nose through a series of never-ending catastrophes. The Mandalorian is not a theater-worthy franchise, and neither are the rest of the shows tied into its particular timeline.
This is a bad mistake, but nobody is shocked at the revelation that a mismanaged company is willing to waste hundreds of millions more in the middle of a financial tailspin. This is a company that brought Bob Iger out of retirement, at which point he openly and decisively doubled down on the very same stupidity that brought Disney to this point in the first place. Any announcements that follow are simply coming from the lemmings following the leader into the mouth of the volcano.
NEXT: Kathleen Kennedy Spins New Narrative For Star Wars: “Quality Is Always Everything”
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