Does the Star Wars Franchise Already Need a Reboot?

There's been a rumor floating around for weeks now that Kathleen Kennedy, George Lucas's hand-picked successor for head of Lucasfilm, is out at Disney. Whether she is stepping down or is being removed is all part of the scuttlebutt, but the speculation is rampant.

While some are saying "they wouldn't fire her just because of Solo!", those people ignore the bigger picture. Whereas Kevin Feige's Marvel Universe has had a nearly perfect score (taking the first two middling Thor films aside), the Star Wars films have only had one slam dunk with both critics and audiences, and that was The Force Awakens. The other three have all faced some sort of blowback.

Anyone will tell you that fundamentals are what drive consistent performance, and with this franchise, they are just not there.


Rogue One mostly won over critics and audiences (except me), but only after massive reshoots due to a poorly-received trailer, and a difference of opinion internally on the final act: director Gareth Edwards wanted to kill everyone off, but lead Felicity Jones had signed on for another film, so there was clearly another plan.

And that's just it: there doesn't seem to be a plan. Whereas Lucas carefully guarded his well-architected universe, Kennedy allowed the very first film to turn its back on the canon. That, in and of itself, would not have been an issue since that film turned out to be terrific. But what followed clearly is an issue.

While The Last Jedi was underway filming, the final film of the third trilogy went through two directors. Josh Trank was fired after his conduct on set of The Fantastic Four raised concerns. The eventual final product there only made that decision seem smarter.

His replacement was Colin Trevorrow had just come off Jurassic World which, while raking in the dough at the box office, underwhelmed in nearly every other respect. But he up and left before TLJ even hit theaters. Why? Most of the speculation revolves around the choices director Rian Johnson made to discard key characters and aspects of the storyline that had been been established by JJ Abrams in the first film of trilogy #3.

Then there was the hiring of the directors behind 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie for the eventual Solo standalone film. The disaster that ensued led to their dismissal, the hiring of Ron Howard, and nearly the whole film being reshot. If you're keeping track, that is now two films with massive reshoots.

Which rings us back to 'the plan'. You don't have to reshoot an entire film if you have a plan. And you certainly don't have to do it twice. And whether you liked TLJ or not (I was on the fence after one viewing), there were definitely issues with the consistency of the character development and pacing. And though plenty in the twitter-verse want to call guys like me entitled manbabies because we take issue with the product, the reality is it just wasn't good enough.

Most people aren’t entitled manbabies.

— Very Incivil Homo 😡🏳️‍🌈 (@SJGrunewald) June 28, 2018

To be honest, though I was initially excited by Johnson's hiring, looking back one realizes that Johnson is not a sci-fi director. He has made one sci-fi film, but his other works have been quirky, to put it mildly. I'm ecstatic that Abrams is back for the last installment, but Johnson getting the reins for another trilogy is quite frankly concerning to many - myself included.

So we are back where we started, which is: who is running this show? Solo underperformed after costing a lot to film and market, three directors were fired from four films (well, four directors technically, since one film had a team of two), and massive reshoots were required on two of the four films. That smacks of a lack of leadership and vision. And while I criticized Gareth Edwards's lack of the latter when watching Rogue One, it is pretty clear now the problem is at the top.

So who should take over? That's a tough question. There are answers obvious and not-so-much, but here is my list.

JJ Abrams

Rumor has it that he has been approached and shot the idea down without much consideration at all. That could be because he doesn't want to walk on Kennedy's grave before its been dug, or it could be because he has a genuine lack of interest in the weight of all things Star Wars being on his shoulders. However, he also delivered the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back, and the best one since as well.

The negatives on JJ are slight: the direction he took Star Trek seemed to many to be unimaginative. And while he has done some sci-fi, it tends to be more of a homage than inspired filmmaking. However, as producer, not director, he would be guiding the ship, not driving it. And let's face it: maybe stealing the idea of an alternate timeline from the Trek films would allow us to erase TLJ.

Brad Bird

His  resume is absolutely spotless. He got his start on Amazing Stories, for crying out loud!! Even his sole flop, Tomorrowland, was an utterly spectacular piece of throwback Disney-style filmmaking that had this viewer wanting to cheer from his couch. Bird has shown an impressive ability to integrate genres with The Incredibles films, which took spy films, superhero films, and sci-fi and rolled them all into the best Pixar films there are. Because of his Pixar experience, his roots at Disney run deep, and the trust is there. There is nothing Bird has touched that has not turned to gold, even if the dollars at the box office don't always show that.

Most of all, Bird has a distinct vision in his work that shines through so much that people actually take issue with his consistency in that regard. The Star Wars franchise could use someone with that type of vision. Bird would be my top choice.

Kevin Feige

It isn't going to happen. Why not? Because Marvel is actually more popular, and makes more money than Star Wars now. Shocking as that is to say, it is the truth. I also don't want Feige to take over. With the exception of the Captain America movies, the Marvel movies quite frankly are dull and formulaic McGuffin movies with no depth to them. Though that is what a lot of Americans want, and he is giving it to them, that is not what Star Wars needs.

George Lucas

George has been alternately vocal and quiet about where the franchise has gone since he sold it, and like Sergeant Murtaugh, probably thinks he's too old for this, but he knows what should be happening. He knew what the prequels should have been about, even if the execution was abysmal because of his atrophied directorial skills, and love of effects over performances.

And let's face it, we all know that his involvement would make the next film afterwards the most successful of them all. Even if he does want to make it about midi-chlorians.

Coming up: more thoughts on the choices for the franchise's directors, and who should write and helm the next phase of films in the Star Wars universe. But do you think a change is needed at the top? If so, who do you think should take over?