Kathleen Kennedy: We Can’t Recast ‘Star Wars’ Fan Favorites

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/05/solo-star-wars-characters-recast-lucasfilm-1234725408/

I don't really have an issue with Kathleen Kennedy as many fans seem to. But this has to be the dumbest statement to make when we're literally one week away from the debut of OBI-WAN KENOBI with Ewan McGregor, a recasting of a famous character that actually worked.

Worse, this makes me dread that Disney feels even more encouraged to do CGI necromancy.

You know that other studios (not already assimilated by Disney) will be jumping on this bandwagon sooner or later. It's inevitable.

I kinda sympathise, to an extent. The difference between the Prequel era and Sequel era, is that with the Prequels fans had to get used to recasts because they had no other option. The ridiculously conservative pockets of fandom could complain - and they did - but at the end of the day, all they could do was tilt at windmills.

Now, in the age of CG actors and deepfakes, fans can actually demand digital doppelgangers of their favourite actors, and that's a problem. Poor Alden Ehrenreich did a solid job, but portions of the fanbase were never going to give him a chance. The difference is, as long as you have randoms pumping out Ford deepfakes, it makes the chances of popular reappraisal much more remote.

Do I think Disney should stick with CG recreations? Fuck no. The very notion depresses the shit out of me. But technology and fandom have developed to a point where I honestly don't know if recastings can be accepted the same way these days, if at all.

Just end it altogether. Do we really need more star war?

It's actually pretty amazing how she appears to have learned all of the wrong lessons from SOLO.

(Most importantly, she appears to still not get that no one wanted that movie - the problem wasn't recasting. And equally importantly, it should've been LANDO, not SOLO.)

And from what I can tell, Kennedy & Co. are terrified to try telling any story that happens post-Risewalker. Every single project happens either between the OT and the ST, or way before the PT.

They could learn a few lessons from Uncle George on that one. The Clone Wars animated series may have been derided at first (the 'movie', very much deservedly so) but it grew into something that the kids who had the Prequels as their first trilogy could continue to enjoy. While I've enjoyed the retro bent of the TV shows so far, they need something for this trilogy's kids.

I'd almost bet money that most fans would be perfectly fine with Alden showing up as Han again, be it on The Mandalorian or anything else. Ditto for Glover as Lando. Nor would they take much issue with Sebastian Stan as Luke and someone else as Leia.

I just find all of it baffling. Star Wars fans have been rolling with recasts for decades, up to and including folks like Rosario Dawson taking over beloved characters. The only people obsessed with A.I.-voiced deepfake digital mask monstrosities are Disney and toxic basement-dwellers who opinions don't matter anyway. The rest of us are fine with new actors.

I'd actually even watch a Solo 2 with Alden, despite not much liking the first one, because the sequel would presumably deliver what we actually wanted from the first film - Han Solo, captain of the Falcon, getting into adventures smuggling stuff past the Empire.

I'd have happily watched the planned (and now canned) Solo 2 and Solo 3.

I still say they should just combine them as a miniseries on Disney+.

I personally have no interest in The Continuing Adventures of Young Han Solo; SOLO was fine, it's fine, but utterly non-compelling and it never justifies its existence. Alden does what he can; the script is bland, there are no real stakes, and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It looked pretty, I'll concede, but short of forcing myself to do a rewatch of every SW film, I can't imagine watching this again. And frankly, maybe not even then.

I'll keep saying it: they should've made LANDO. Keep Han Solo's role to a cameo. Give us our space scoundrel!

People have such a peculiar definition of "fine" these days. Used to be when a thing gave no reason to justify its own existence, you could just boo it off the stage, as is right and proper.

I find the phrase 'justify its own existence' to be peculiar, to be honest. These franchises hark back to old-timey serials/pulp fiction, where the goal wasn't to be culturally significant, but just fun. Solo, for all its flaws, presents an entertaining story. What does it need to justify, exactly? I take issue with the idea that fantastical storytelling is required to provide some kind of spiritual nourishment 100% of the time. Sometimes, a yarn is good for what it is.

"Merely a good yarn" never seems to be what people mean though. (It also doesn't seem to really be what most people thought of Solo - cf. MichaelFight's post above - but I never saw it myself.) Everybody seems to use "fine" now in roughly the sense of "well, it didn't kill any of my loved ones, so I guess I can't muster up any negative feelings towards it" - even if their actual opinion on the film doesn't seem to indicate that it's a meaningful improvement on staring at a wall for a couple hours. It's bizarre. I'm not demanding that every movie be a life-transforming spiritual epiphany, but come on.

All I strive for at a matinee is having a fun time in a theater for roughly two hours in the afternoon, and moving on with my life.

The worst thing to happen to Star Wars and Marvel was how overhyped they got.

commodorejohn wrote:

even if their actual opinion on the film doesn't seem to indicate that it's a meaningful improvement on staring at a wall for a couple hours.

Bit of an exaggeration there, don't you think? You've never had an evening after a tough day at work, or a hungover Sunday afternoon, or any other circumstance where you just need a film to be sufficiently entertaining to while away a couple of hours? You've never had a film that just scratches a particular itch for you, even if you know it's hardly a masterpiece? Half of the shit we talk about on these boards is stuff that at least 50% of the world thinks has zero value, but we love it, flaws and all. And sometimes just enjoy when we need a dose of something, be it gore, action, visuals, or just inhabiting a particular universe for a while. The only bizarre thing to me, is the idea that this is something that still needs to be debated.

Stockslivevan wrote:

All I strive for at a matinee is having a fun time in a theater for roughly two hours in the afternoon, and moving on with my life.

The worst thing to happen to Star Wars and Marvel was how overhyped they got.

I've had my fair share of "Eh, that was fine" movie experiences. In this case, "fine" usually means okay, or good-with-reservations. I typically don't get worked up over them unless they become hills to die on in the ONLINE CUTURAL BATTLEFIELD

Oh so like that one SW movie, Mond?

(Glances around nervously)

I can certainly say that I've never really felt much personal hype for any Star Wars, at least recently. The height of that was back in the 2000s with the prequels. Despite whatever I felt about TPM and AOTC, I was still hyped to an insane degree for ROTS. I remember subscribing to premium membership on the official Star Wars website just to get exclusive access to photos and magazines. I haven't done anything like that for anything well over a decade.

If anything was amped up during the sequels, it was my curiosity. Part of why my hype wasn't up was because I was already pretty skeptical of TFA. It just felt like a movie trying desperately to target disgruntled GenXers that only cared for the OT, rather than something truly expanding Star Wars.

That 95% reflects my own view on the sequel trilogy. Everyone around myself was going ape shit over TFA, while I was shrugging and thinking "I guess?"

The last few years have solidified my stance that I'm far more long term invested in Star Trek.

For what it's worth, I actually ended up liking TFA a lot more when I saw it a year later on blu-ray. Maybe because by then not everyone was over the moon over it. Or it was because ROGUE ONE was so deflating that I was able to enjoy Abrams' jovial energy a lot more that time.

I still haven't given TROS a rewatch. I didn't even dislike that film as many other have.

And like you, Trek is more my speed. But I kinda figured that out a decade ago when I was rewatching all the Trek shows on Netflix.

Well as a disgruntled Gen X'er, I can say The Force Awakens was a remarkable breath of fresh air from the cobwebbed Star Wars factory.  And for a moment it felt like all the drag, the sheer weight of the SW baggage was left behind and we were off at hyper-speed into new adventures.  And then Last Jedi happened.

WHO DARES SPEAK THAT NAME?!? You fooooollll....

JONES SAID THE THING