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Director JJ Abrams has offered some diplomatic criticism against Lucasfilm for how it handled the newest flagship Star Wars trilogy, with respect to an apparent lack of a narrative blueprint across each of the three films. As has already been widely discussed and passionately argued online, fans were shocked and disappointed at how many seemingly clear intentions and established storylines were disregarded across The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.
Speaking with Collider, Abrams revealed that originally he was only slated to direct The Force Awakens. But when Colin Trevorrow dropped out on Episode IX, Abrams found himself in the unenviable position of inheriting an iconic series, and tasked with bringing a story he started to a conclusion–even though Rian Johnson, like Abrams before him, followed his own creative vision and took the story elsewhere in the middle. While Abrams never directly names Lucasfilm in his comments, he does allude to broader problems for directors and actors down in the trenches in all filmmaking.
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“Having a plan, I have learned–in some cases the hard way–is the most critical thing, because otherwise you don’t know what you’re setting up,” said the director. “You don’t know what to emphasize. Because if you don’t know the inevitable of the story, you’re just as good as your last sequence or effect or joke or whatever, but you want to be leading to something inevitable.”
Abrams added even if a plan isn’t honored in the end, “you always need to be able to respond to the unexpected.” But, if what Abrams says is the full picture, it is pretty damning to learn that while Marvel is capable of rolling out multiple years-long phases filled with groups of films and TV series as part of a bigger story, Lucasfilm (and Disney, its parent company) was effectively flying blind on a single trilogy.
The Bad Batch, which came out this month, is the most recent in a long line of both recent and upcoming Star Wars spinoffs. It was recently announced that Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic is no longer in development, The Book of Boba Fett (set to premiere in December) and Ahsoka (which doesn’t yet have a solid release date) are moving forward as planned.
