Disney is failing at Star Wars in stories, lack of coolness and merchandising.
* I will discuss the unorganized boycott and issues a segment of fans have with Star Wars.
* Freaking Disney has forgotten to merchandise Star Wars movies and destroyed the cool aspects of it.
UPDATE NEW POST: Google Trends shows that what matters for Star Wars is Vader, Yoda, Jedi, Mandalorian and light sabers.
Last Jedi story did not just disappoint but triggered boycotting anger
John talks Star Wars describes the partially organized boycott of Solo a Star Wars Story which was a backlash to the Last Jedi. The main gripes of the Last Jedi was how the characterization of Luke Skywalker was betrayed in that movie.
Solo reviews have been at best lukewarm reviews and key reviewers indicate the movie is boring and predictable.
John also mentions the reduced amount of family ticket sales. The Londo character being declared a pan-sexual hurt.
I had not heard about the pan-sexual until this video. The Social Justice Warrior aspects do not help.
Lack of new Jedi and lack of new coolness
I will support a good Obi-Wan film or even an Obi-Wan trilogy. But this may not address some franchise problems of lack of lot of new Jedi and lack of new coolness.
I would like to see moving on to new stories in the universe by making the Star Wars Universe more expansive. More expansive means bigger and better. Bigger fleet battles, means more spaceships which is more toys.
No one talks about Storm Troopers as being cool. The Villains need to be dangerous and a threat and not jokes. When you are a high galactic space army and you are beaten by living Teddy bear savages with logs and rocks then you are a joke. Kylo Ren is punk who whines and gets beaten by a novice. Snoke goes down like a chump. Captain Phasma went out like a punk twice. General Hux is weak. Winning or losing to villain punks diminishes the heroes.
Captain American fights Red Skull, Hydra and Winters Soldier. Avengers fight an alien invasion, Ultron and Thanos and the Black Order. Marvel is not perfect… Ultron was less than it should have been.
The Clone Wars animation made cool named Clone Troopers. Clone troopers were competent and became more Boba Fett like. They had unique colors and also addressed the merchandise aspect for kids.
– The rebels or the Republic side needs to be competent and large in terms of army and number. The ridiculous underdog aspects need to be changed.
The rebels or Republic having no gear is a missed merchandising situation and creates stupid stories.
In the post-Lord of the Rings trilogy world and a post-Avengers Infinity War World, we need amped up battles with lots of Jedi and Sith and new cool characters and not just rehashes of the old.
Stories, Stories and story quality
Use more story writing teams. Get your stories and plots right. Get your story arcs figured out.
Marvel is winning with story writing teams. Coolness cannot be created without the writing to setup the situations where coolness can shine.
In an interview earlier this week, the pair likened the process of developing a Marvel movie to the process of breaking a story in a TV writers’ room. Each film begins with what is essentially a two-month brainstorming session, during which the pair — often joined by a Marvel executive and Anthony and Joe Russo, the brother team who directed both Civil War and its predecessor, The Winter Soldier — hole up and work through various story ideas.
Talking to McFeely and Markus, … they are intensely collaborative.
Drawbacks of Marvel’s filmmaking process include the inevitable hiccups and complications that happen anytime you bring multiple people into a creative process. Markus and McFeely must stay in touch with the creative teams of all the other Marvel movies to ensure that the franchise’s continuity remains intact and characters stay consistent from film to film, and they have to do it all while sticking to release schedules that are announced years in advance.
The MCU is now structured more like a serialized television show than a collection of marginally related movies. Civil War was just a small-scale test run for the two-part Avengers: Infinity War (2018 and 2019). Infinity War will feature as many as 67 different Marvel superheroes.
Marvel comic books have writers retreats. It is a gathering of writers and editors at Marvel to discuss future stories, characters, and plots. Marvel, to its credit, has been really good at keeping the retreats’ happening on its own terms.
The MCU non-Avengers movies are building the Universe. They are expanding the number of cool and interesting characters and elements.
Star Wars needs to learn some lessons from Marvels Star Wars which is Guardians of the Galaxy. They have Swashbuckling fun. The original Star Wars had swashbuckling fun.
Where is the coolness and the Jedi and lightsabers?
The Jedi need to be cool and there needs to be a lot of them.
Are kids who went to the Last Jedi saying. I want to be broken down Luke?
Kids at Disneyland and at my house love the lightsabers and want to be cool Jedi, cool clone troopers and cool Bounty Hunters. They play with cool Star Wars ships and vehicles.
There needs to be innovation there.
Mauls double sided light saber.
You are freaking Disney and you have forgotten how to merchandise your Star Wars movies.
Space Opera with Samurai need to have more cool Samurai for each generation.
A Space Western needs to have cool Cowboys and cool Indians. You also need a lot of both.
UPDATE:
Some funny Star Wars comments –
Oh, I’m afraid the boycott will be quite operational when your friends arrive.
George Lucas: wow I made a mistake with Jar Jar Binks.
Disney: Hold my blue milk
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.