Boba Fett Film Officially Dead

While this may seem obvious after reports of a Star Wars "slowdown" and work on The Mandalorian TV series, it has now been made official. The Boba Fett movie that had been in an on and off status for the last 3 plus years is now "100% dead". The movie was actually supposed to be released after Rogue One but director problems delayed it, moving the Solo film up to the slot. However that film didn't make the expected $1 billion box office causing Disney to over correct by essentially cancelling all movies that were not part of the core trilogy. Once the TV show was announced it was pretty clear that whatever pre-production work done on Boba Fett was re-used for the show (which I wouldn't be surprised includes Fett) making a movie redundant. As of now the known current plans for Star Wars is the Resistence cartoon series currently airing on Disney XD, next Chrismas' release of Episode IX, and The Mandalorian TV show for late 2019 on Disney's future streaming service. Nothing else official has really been revealed beyond rumors and possibilities.

First Image from The Mandalorian

Production for The Mandalorian has already begun as revealed yesterday with the first official image from the TV show. Along with the image, Disney revealed that the show will be 10 episodes long with different directors for each episode. Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels) will direct the first episode with other episode directors including Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).

The show is set at some point after The Return of the Jedi but before the rise of The First Order. In general, Mandalorians are a warrior culture that comes from the planet Mandalore that the Empire had conquered. Fan favorite Boba Fett was from Mandalore and generally most members of the culture tend to be bounty hunters, security and so forth so safe to assume with the armor look and design being an important part of the culture. Considering Dave Filoni used Rebels to expand the Mandorian background more then any other Star Wars creator, it makes sense for him to set up the character and his world for future episode director's to build on.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Coming To TV Next Year

In a post on Instagram, Jon Favreau (director of Iron Man) revealed the title of the live action Star Wars series he has been working on for Disney's upcoming streaming service (maybe 2019 but more likely coming in 2020). As the image shows, the upcoming series will be set early in the 30 year span between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens with what sounds like a very western theme. Its earlier enough in the timeline the title could refer to Boba Fett and have him tell the story of how he survived being eaten in Jedi. Or not. There is so little canon story in the post-Jedi era that the only real limit is the show's budget.

Sneak Peek at Star Wars Resistance

Disney has released the below sneak peek at the new cartoon series Star Wars: Resistance that will premiere on Sunday, October 7 at 10pm ET/PT. The series is set during before Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a focus on the pilots that are fighting the First Order.

Disney Finally Confirms Star Wars "Slowdown"

Back in June after the commercial failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the rumor started that Disney was putting the spin-off films on hold and re-evaluating its yearly Star Wars release schedule. For some inexplicable reason, the company tried to spin the rumors using Episode IX as cover. Any case, Disney CEO Bob Iger finally more or less admitted the hold to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about. And we are just at the point where we’re gonna start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.’s. But I think we’re gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.”

The end result is the rumored Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett films are officially dead and probably Star Wars will move to an every other year schedule. Now personally I think its an over reaction on Disney's fault. One strike and your out for such a huge franchise is short-sighted and reeks of executive cowardice. They took a risk moving the film to an early Summer release schedule which was already thick with competition including their own Avengers: Infinity War film. They also "should" have known that not all the "Star Wars Story" films would be mega hits and been ok with anything at break even or above along as long as it didn't become a habit. Especially when considering the usually reliable Chinese box office has minimal interest in Star Wars. At the very least, another at bat was more then earned by Star Wars and an Episode number doesn't count towards that.

The yearly release IS sustainable, as long as its in the Christmas holiday release period. If anything I would argue that what Lucasfilm needs is its own equivalent of Marvel's Kevin Feige. Someone who is a huge fan of the source material, knows the source material inside and out, enjoys learning more about the source material and can collaborate with others to design a strong story and business reason for each movie while being flexible enough to let the stars and directors do what they need to do to tell a story.

The story of Kennedy is the definition of very very safe bets who takes as few chances as she can. She also has always come across as a CEO whose a fan of the business but not of the product it produces. Creative bets requires a mix of creativity AND business acumen. She has the business skill but never really demonstrated the other. I think people forget her entire career was working with various directors at the height of their power so her role wasn't to mold, say no to them, guide them, etc. but simply to take the necessary business steps and clear the necessary obstacles so they could execute their visions. They were the creatives, she was the business. With the promotion to Lucasfilm her role really for the first time became both and so she fell back on what she knew - safe bets every time. Shoot the few times she didn't take the safe bet on directors, she ended up firing them and going back to the safe bets whose depth of experience allowed her to return to the role she was most comfortable in - the business side. In my opinion, it would be in the best interest to replace Kathleen Kennedy, let her keep the business role she excels in and find someone else to handle the more creative side of the Star Wars universe that she doesn't seem to get or have an interest in.