The "STAR WARS" Franchise took a MASSIVE Hit when....

That's fine and we fans have a say in not paying to see the film.

It's funny you think that but something like this already happened when fans complained about Jar Jar in TPM. Lucas responded by reducing his role to cameos in the next 2 movies. Did the Star Wars franchise take a massive negative hit over that?

Or what about the Mr. Plinkett reviews of the prequels? Does that constitute a massive negative hit for the franchise?







I disagree. A passionate fanbase has a right to voice their strong approval or disapproval. I'm not saying that the filmmakers should religiously answer to every whim of fans and enslave every artistic expression of their film to it. But it's probably wise on their part to listen to some of the -major points of feedback. You will ultimately feed a process of alienating some of your fanbase if you don't.

When making a genre film like SW (Star Wars), a filmmaker does well if they seek to satisfy 2 audiences: the general audience and the established fanbase. Disney pretended to be seeking to satisfy the established fanbase in TFA by rehashing ANH. But there were already early signs in TFA that the storylines of the Disney trilogy wasn't genuinely interested in the established fanbase: beyond-the-ordinary plot holes, removing Luke Skywalker from the story, and Rey's inauthentic connection to the Force. TLJ expanded and confirmed that. Hence the backlash. And there was a small box office drop off that might carry over even stronger into episode IX.

TLJ failed to develop characters and storylines that the established fanbase typically care about. Rey being a SW in-universe MarySue was reinforced. And Luke's entire characterization was the most objectionably uncharacteristic thing in SW since Anakin's excessive whinyness given he would eventually become the Darth Vader we know of the OT. It had contrived agenda writing written all over it. Disney only cares about the general audience (and their established Disney following).


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By comparison consider 2 Marvel movies: Iron Man (1) and Black Panther. Neither of them are probably superhero genre masterpieces like the Nolan Batman films. Like Disney SW, they owe a certain amount of their storytelling to watered down formulas and PC themes geared towards appeasing general audiences. Both were intentionally made so to create more general audience appeal. Both were expected to be modest box office successes. Both surprised their studio with having more success than anticipated.

A likely reason for that is (whether by accident or by design) there was an authenticity to some of the major characters and their development that the established fanbase identified with. It came off as adequately authentic and respectable (despite formulaic issues). Especially was that true with the casting of Robert Downy Jr. and his portrayal. Disney clearly isn't learning lessons from some of their MCU successes in their handling of SW. They've chosen to put Disney butts in SW seats.


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As far as Abrams being influenced by the fans social outcry, you must not know Abrams very well. He has never listened to fanbases. He's always used the filmmaking formulas of heavily rehashing classic stories and hooking audiences with fake intrigue and fake storylines... better known as "mystery box". There's no reason to believe that he will do anything beyond that with episode IX. You will get your wish of a bunch of Disney channel characters running around in an OT SW universe. And it will likely further alienate the "complaining", disapproving fans that you feel bring shame to the franchise. Just don't be surprised when it shows up in box office drop off.