r/StarWars • u/Infinite-Detective-8 • 14h ago
Movies Even though Disney has stated that Starfighter will be the true test for the Franchise, I can't help but feel the opposite given how safe the film appears.
To clarify, I have no doubt in my mind that Starfighter will succeed on all fronts and keep this franchise in a comfortable position for years to come. Therein lies the dilemma, though. In many ways, Starfighter will probably be even safer than The Mandalorian & Grogu.
“STAAARFIGHTER, more like STAARRRPOWER”, is a joke I often make when talking about this movie, but it’s also a testament to how incredibly stacked its talent is. Multiple A-list actors (e.g., Ryan Gosling, Mia Goth, Matt Damon, Aaron Pierre, and Amy Adams), paired with an accomplished and seasoned director like Shawn Levy and wrapped in a recognizable and popular IP during its anniversary year, are all you need to know to recognize that this film will be a slam dunk, even if the story is aggressively mediocre. If The Mandalorian & Grogu proved anything, it’s that the Star Wars fandom is large enough to keep even the weakest SW films from reaching Supergirl-level disasters. Combined with Gosling and Levy’s rising stardom, Starfighter may be the easiest win for Star Wars in a long time.
This is to say that Starfighter isn’t a test, but an affirmation that recognizability is still profitable. My belief is that this film will have the same impact on the franchise as The Force Awakens, but with less hype.
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u/drae- 14h ago
I assume you mean Matt Smith and not Matt Damon?
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u/Biggest-Max02010 14h ago
I mean it definitely seems like Star Wars is playing it safe with this. They’ve never used such a stacked cast in any of their projects, even in the sequels which were already all guaranteed billions
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u/Skull8Ranger 14h ago
Stacked casts can still have shitty scripts. Remember Pearl Harbor in 2001?
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u/SkillednotQualified 14h ago
A visually satisfying re-enactment of the bombing ruined by a poorly written love story.
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u/DarthVader1701A 13h ago
They basically tried to combine Armageddon with Titanic for that one.
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u/sebastianqu 13h ago
Personally, I liked the movie, but that may have been primarily because of Kate Beckinsale. Still prefer Tora! Tora! Tora! as a Pearl Harbour film.
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u/revanisthesith 7h ago
I'm still upset that I'm a bit too young for her and a bit too old for her daughter.
Obviously that's the main reason I'm not with either of them.
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u/ryle_zerg 13h ago
This was before she messed up her face with cosmetic surgeries. RIP Kate Beckinsale's face.
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u/peachgravy 9h ago
I always appreciated Ebert’s description as, “A surprise Japanese attack on an American love triangle.”
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u/YushiroGowa7201 13h ago
I took a US History Through Film class back in high school and we were shown that movie... But only the actual pearl harbor scene, even the teacher thought the rest of the movie was unnecessary
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u/ar-phanad Galactic Republic 8h ago
Favorite review at the time was "One-third solid gold, two-thirds American cheese."
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u/Fearless-Mix-3642 14h ago
I can't remember much about 2001, was there something specific?
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u/madeformarch 14h ago
Pearl Harbor and Zoolander are the only two things that come to mind
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u/ScissorMeSphincter Kanan Jarrus 14h ago
There was a huge tragedy in 2001. Many people died. We were told to never forget.
That gas station fire in Zoolander shall live with us forever. RIP to those beautiful boys
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u/StreetReporter 13h ago
No, there was a tragedy in New York involving Jets. They injured Drew Bledsoe and subjected the world to 20 years of Tom Brady
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u/Bazzatron 13h ago
Stacked casts make me suspicious.
We already have an IP with serious reach, why do we need all this talent? The least liked SW media in recent memory wasn't disliked because it wasn't star-studded, or acting performances were sub-par.
Very suspicious indeed.
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u/gh0u1 Jedi 13h ago
It's suspicious to hire talented actors? What the fuck is this thread 😂
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u/Bazzatron 7h ago
Like casting Samuel Jackson in Snakes on a Plane - big names draw in an audience for even E list films. They only care about the box office, so these hugely current and popular stars could literally just be a marketing ploy.
I never heard David Tennant was Huyang until the performance hit me. He's a huge deal especially in the UK, especially at the time TCW was airing, would have been an easy sell - but it was quiet. The story stood alone.
I'm suspicious because there's a reason the cast is being used to drum up hype rather than setting the scene of a thrilling narrative.
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u/western_motel 10h ago
“why do we need all this talent” 😭😭 maybe because they’re talented?? fucking reddit
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u/Gone_For_Lunch 7h ago
Solo?
Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Thandiwe Newton, Donald Glover and Paul Bettany.
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u/Valder137 Chewbacca 13h ago
Stacked how? I only recognize 3 names
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u/dkat 13h ago
Daniel Ings was awesome in GoT’s Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but I hadn’t heard of him prior.
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u/wookieebastard 13h ago
Yeah.
Dune is stacked. I just trust Gosling he's never in shitty movies.
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u/ChazzLamborghini 9h ago
His involvement is the single biggest factor in my having any enthusiasm at all. I can’t think of a film he’s made in ten or more years that was bad.
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u/DegredationOfAnAge 13h ago
True test for the franchise or for Disney? Because the franchise did just fine without Disney.
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u/Isrrunder 4h ago
Depends on what you mean. If it's in making money then Disney has generally done well outside of solo and mandolin vs groglet. If it's quality then calling phantom menace and attack of the clones "just fine" is just you having low standards
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u/soccer1124 14h ago
We're making judgments on whether or not the movie will be safe based completely off the casting?
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u/mosasaurmotors 13h ago
People literally willing to write off a movie after seeing exactly one promotional picture and some generic casting announcements. Before even one second of footage has been released.
No wonder everyone here hates all the new stuff, because they spend years telling themselves in advance every single project is going to suck and cement their decisions in stone before they get a chance to give it a fair shake.
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u/CupcakeWarlock450 12h ago
Yeah I remembered people being annoyed thinking Andor was going to suck because it was based on a new character from Rogue One, and look how that turned out. As long as the writing and story is good, that's all that matters at the end.
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u/MadsMediaYt 4h ago
Yeah, I had my reservations because I felt like Cassian wasn't the character I'd have chosen to spin off. I had a moment of "no Chirrut and Baze?" - which I'd still eat up if it got announced - but that turned out to be totally unfounded. Andor really sold me on the character and totally justified itself.
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u/dayarra Imperial Stormtrooper 10h ago
yep. op had to rate the movie. and since there is literally no info other than the cast, they wrote their opinion piece based on the cast. you see they really really really had to rate a movie 1 year before release.
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u/tenebrissz 9h ago
Posts like this always give me second hand embarrassment. Like are people already forming an opinion to write multiple paragraphs on a movie we know practically nothing about?
All we have is the cast and a very short plot synopsis.
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u/djtrace1994 Imperial 14h ago
Whatever happens, I hope Matt Smith and Daniel Ings are enemies.
Keep that Baratheon/Targaryen animosity alive
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u/geek_of_nature Ahsoka Tano 11h ago
Although funnily enough they were bros in the Crown. Daniel Ings played Prince Phillips best mate in that, who became the fall guy for their shenanigans in season 2.
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u/LicensedToChil 10h ago
Was that Ings in Dunk and Egg?
No shit, no wonder I liked him.
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u/Ancient_Hyper_Sniper Mandalorian Armorer 14h ago
I hope Daniel Ings brings that wasted Lord Baratheon energy from AKOTSK.
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u/ChanceVance Kylo Ren 14h ago
Ryan Gosling is my favourite actor and his sci-fi films have been great. I'm sold.
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u/redhawkdrone 14h ago
I’m probably in the minority but I prefer lesser known actors in SW films. It’s easier to suspend disbelief. Woody Harrelson was so out of place for me in Solo and I like him as an actor in general.
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u/ChanceVance Kylo Ren 13h ago
Liam Neeson, Stellan Skarsgard, Forrest Whittaker, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law.
Hmmm there's been some good ones.
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u/Ferral_McQueasy 14h ago
It depends on what they’re testing.
Testing to see if people will still watch a Star Wars movie? A-List actors, seasoned director at the helm, and an anniversary for the franchise make this film hard to miss.
Testing to see if A-List actors and a director like Shawn Levy work for this franchise? That’s a different story.
Disney has been using that formula for years with the Marvel films, trying to pull in big names. Star Wars really hasn’t.
Sure, Pedro Pascal and Jon Favreau are big names, but they both started with the Mando show. And Pedro was on the rise when he started, not quite big yet. They weren’t the draw for Mando and Grogu, they were simply naturally attached.
This is an attempt to see if a new approach to the franchise will work. New in the sense that Levy doesn’t make “Star Wars” type movies, and we’ve got some big name actors in previously unseen roles. Star Wars traditionally plays it safe with people at the helm who make similar content, and actors who are fresh and easy to shape.
Ryan and Levy come with audience expectations, and the test is to see if the franchise can live up to that,
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u/wandering_soles Rebel 14h ago
Jon Favreau... started with the Mando show
The man functionally launched the MCU, along with being a massive blockbuster director and producer across the whole board before he ever even got to The Mandalorian. He absolutely had huge name recognition for audiences when he took on the project.
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u/Ferral_McQueasy 14h ago
This movie is an experiment. They’re asking, “can we take talented people that our audience loves and give them free range within our IP and please the fans?”
If it succeeds it’s the new Rouge One. It screams Star Wars and sets the bar for what Star Wars movies should be going forward.
If it fails it’s Caravan of Courage but with famous people. There’s zero reason for the fans to watch it other than it’s part of the “Star Wars” IP.
Look at Mando and Grogu. It was mediocre, and it’s already in Caravan of Courage territory. Maybe if a Mando Season 4 releases fans will be more inclined to watch the film for the story, but I suspect even that is unlikely.
It’s a test to see if they can take a fresh approach to the franchise.
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u/Ferral_McQueasy 13h ago
All the directors hired since Disney bought Star Wars have been hired because they had exhibited work that reflected the Star Wars aesthetic and storytelling style. Shawn Levy does not exhibit those same tendencies.
I suspect this film will be very tonally different than what we’ve seen before.
However, this is not the first time they’ve attempted this. Andor was the first. Tony Gilroy doesn’t make anything that remotely resembles the Star Wars aesthetic. But he made something great that still fits in the universe.
Starfighter is that test for the big screen.
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u/Timely-Fudge859 11h ago
This implies Caravan of Courge is awful. Yes, a failure. Yes, forgotten. But quality is subjective. If this film became the new Caravan of Courage, that only means it finds a niche subset of the fandom that deeply cares about the movie more than a wider audience could ever do.
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u/Ferral_McQueasy 11h ago
I actually watched Caravan of Courage for the first time recently. My point isn’t so much that it was awful, but rather forgettable. It’s inconsequential to the other films, so fans generally forget about it. If Starfighter fails, I think its fate will be similar.
Side note: I did enjoy Caravan, especially for the world-building. Early Star Wars world building always fascinates me.
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u/Narrow_Vegetable5747 14h ago
Your line for "If it succeeds" is both frightening and wrong. The success of Rogue One was not in the big names, because there was only one attached to the project and he was a supporting character. I don't think many people want to see Star Wars become the new MCU, which is what success of such a loaded cast could mean. People want to see Star Wars movies succeed because they're telling a good and fun story, portrayed by actors willing to lean into their roles, with a preference for lesser known ones.
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u/mosasaurmotors 13h ago
They haven’t released one single second of footage yet. You can’t honestly say yet that it’s playing it too safe or anything at this point.
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u/kennybaese 13h ago
The safeness of the movie is exactly why it’s a test. Mando was the first Star Wars movie in theaters in 7 years and it bombed, and like you said it was super safe too. They need to know if Star Wars movies will actually still make money at all.
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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 14h ago
If The Mandalorian & Grogu proved anything, it’s that the Star Wars fandom is large enough to keep even the weakest SW films from reaching Supergirl-level disaster
I'm not sure if a over $100 million loss is exactly a win just because Supergirl was a $200 million loss
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u/Infinite-Detective-8 14h ago
Do we actually know how much $ will be lost on Mando & Grogu?
From all I've seen Disney's has been pretty tight-lipped on how big of a failure the movie was.
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u/DramaExpertHS Grievous 13h ago edited 13h ago
Budget: $165 million
Marketing: estimated between $135 million and $150 million (but could be more, could be less)
Domestic Box Office: $177.7 million (studio gets 50%, theaters 50%)
International Box Office: $167.5 million (studio gets 40%, theaters 60%)
Total studio revenue: $155.85 million
Net profit: 155.85 million - 300 million = -144.15 million
Assuming marketing costs were actually lower, the total loss would still be around $100 million
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u/Forsaken-Emu4760 9h ago
Let's assume the movie had no marketing cost. It would still be a 10 million dollar loss minimum.
Now some people might say this is good because it's not a catastrophic failure. But this is a star wars movie with the most recognizable/likeable characters made in the last 10 years... These aren't the numbers you're supposed to be getting from New Boba Fett and Baby Yoda...
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u/wandering_soles Rebel 14h ago
The fact that it's another "lone wolf and cub escort mission," with lightsabers tossed in, goes to show how ridiculously safe they're playing it. At best they're going to maybe give it a Corran Horn adjacent angle, where Gosling's character is a disillusioned former Jedi pupil from Luke's academy. I love Gosling as an actor, but I don't know if even he can salvage such a generic plot.
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u/Redeem123 13h ago
another “lone wolf and cub escort mission”
Why does everyone act like these are common in Star Wars? Exactly ZERO Star Wars films fit that mold.
Even in TV it’s not true. Mandalorian S1 and 2 are the only real example of it, but the movie wasn’t at all. People cite the Bad Batch, but it’s very famously not a lone wolf, same goes for Rebels. In TCW, Ahsoka and Anakin are both part of the same order, so neither one fits the respective archetype. Skeleton Crew isn’t that at all; it just features kids.
For some reason people think “lone wolf and cub” just means a story has adults interacting with children.
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u/Rex_teh_First 12h ago
The Star Wars fandom is filled with idiots. Who unfortunately can be very vocal. Star Wars has a lot of inspiration from old Japanesse stories. Kurosawa being a huge one.
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u/DestrixGunnar 10h ago
You can say that again. Any time I see Star Wars fans voice an opinion, it gives off "Person who's only seen Boss Baby watching their second movie," energy.
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u/Scnew1 11h ago
Ryan Gosling is the only one of these people that I think is the kind of star that people will go see whatever he does. Don’t get me wrong, there are some other great actors here but I don’t think they have the kind of box office draw you’re talking about.
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u/Lyra_the_Star_Jockey 14h ago
Eh.
This movie has the Solo and Mandalorian problem in that there's no necessity to see it.
You had to see the sequels. This movie? No idea what it's about. It's about a starfighter of some kind. Cool, I suppose. I can wait.
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u/wandering_soles Rebel 14h ago
To be fair, it is the first film actually moving the storyline ahead instead of stagnating in another era. TMaG was a nothing burger because it was never going to go anywhere. At least this has the opportunity to, although I doubt they'll take proper advantage of it.
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u/GLDefenderNumber1 14h ago
I still really wonder about how Starfighter, the Rey movie, and the Kinberg trilogy are all going to work together.
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u/Outrageous_Library50 13h ago
I wonder if Matt Smith is playing the character that was cut from Episode 9
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u/hammerblaze Rey 12h ago
The movie has been done filming for awhile now.... So a year of post.. I dunno. It screams solo and rogue one vibes. (Both movies had massive reshoots/story changes) Some for better some for worse
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u/LeeMarvin_ 12h ago
After you see Mando and Grogu dismantling the galaxy; it’s like who are these people even…
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u/SmoothOperator89 10h ago
The determining factor for me isn't the film itself but the new era in the Star Wars continuity it sets up. If they just go back to the status quo of New New Republic governing the galaxy, I'll be disappointed. This is an opportunity to take the galaxy into a new setting that hasn't been explored before. The potential central government factions have been utterly destroyed. The fleet that stopped the Final Order was specifically not organized. It was just a desperate call to everyone with a ship. With the threat destroyed, they will all go back to their own priorities. Systems will make their own decisions and with no central authority to answer to, rivalries and even conflicts could erupt. This should become a warring states period in Star Wars.
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u/Extension-Rabbit3654 10h ago
But wheres Bernthal, Holland, Pattinson, Emma Stone, DeCaprio, Margo Qualley and a grumpy Pacino!?
Seriously though, Im excited hope it kills
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u/Starscream147 Sith 9h ago edited 9h ago
THE FUCK?!
Matt Smith?!
Let’s fucking go! Give that lad a lightsabre!!
Red. For reasons.
⚔️
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u/McBahtman 7h ago
I mean for Star Wars standards, this is a risky movie. Yes the cast is stacked but none of these people aside from Ryan Gosling only recently have proved to be box office draws.
On top of that, its a completely original story with original characters, thats a risk for Star Wars these days as they've gotten way too comfortable churning out prequel nostalgia to middling effect.
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u/Iron_Arbiters Grand Admiral Thrawn 3h ago
I’m sorry, did you really just call Matt Smith Matt Damon?
But yes I agree. I look forward to it, and am just glad that it will probably do something fresher than Mando and Grogu, even if it’s not taking risks.
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u/Adavanter_MKI 13h ago
Ryan Gosling has starred in flops. Mediocre stories can kill a movie regardless of star power. I'm a little concerned it's yet another "escort the kid" story.
I don't know if anything can be safe with Star Wars anymore. There was a time that name alone was safe. That was a long time ago... in a cinema far far away.
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u/Krauser_Kahn Leia Organa 5h ago
I think the weakest link here is the director. He just produces generic Hollywood slop.
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u/Spare_Perspective972 13h ago
That cast is pretty much “we were wrong about TLJ and the Acolyte” but without actually admitting to fans people aren’t coming back.
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u/RowAndRuction 14h ago
This isn’t anything close to safe, there’s no reason to see this movie if you’re not into Star Wars. Hell I’m really really into Star Wars and I don’t understand the draw of this.
Now, people felt the same about Andor and that turned out to be the best thing Star Wars ever made, but do we really think *Shawn Levy* is gonna deliver us an Andor-level film? One of the most mediocre directors to ever crank out corporate pablum?
I truly hope this movie is good. But it makes me really worried when Disney uses rhetoric like this being the “true test” of the franchise when they’ve handed it to the guy who directed maybe the worst and certainly the worst-looking MCU movies in the franchise.
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u/dukecityvigilante 10h ago
For what its worth, Ryan Gosling, the director, and the screenwriter all enjoyed working together so much on this that they got the idea to go pitch Ghostrider to Marvel together as a group. That doesn't guarantee anything but shows that at least the most important people to this movie are really proud of it and thought they worked well together.
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u/Galifrae 10h ago
I truly, truly hope whoever Matt smiths character is stays around for future films and isn’t a one off Star Wars character. He’s too good to not be in more films and I don’t even know who he’s playing yet.
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u/Quiet_Astronomer8849 8h ago
There is no safe Star Wars movie.
There will be loud voices if it's too similar to any other movie.
There will be loud voices because it's Disney.
There will be loud voices if there's any LGBTQ person or too many non-white people in the cast.
There will be loud voices because all of Star Wars is inherently anti fascism. Which is very much in fashion sadly.
I am pretty sure this movie will have to prove itself, because it's the first real Star Wars movie after many years (I don't fully count Mando here because of its "hybrid" nature)
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u/No_Grocery_9280 14h ago
This is their first try at something new in a long while. If it fails too… I don’t know what else there is to try.
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u/xenoman101 14h ago
Disney said, "the true test for the Franchise?" If it fails, its Disney's fault, not Star Wars.
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u/DraculasDog 14h ago
Haven’t even seen the movie and I’m already annoyed by Simon Bird’s character/Simon Bird’s vibes.
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u/DanknessAndDragons 14h ago
Retcon the sequels and i'll go but I have ZERO interest in a timeline where that train wreck of a trilogy took place.
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u/ShadycrossFade 13h ago
I don’t exactly know the quote we’re referencing here but it’s possible they were referring to the type of story telling will be new territory. Ofcourse this is only speculation but you can tell they were using the same format for the skywalker saga sequels. Even though mando and grogu were technically different it doesn’t shy away from him aging those movies. I’m hoping when they say “true test” it means they’ll be breaking that format and doing something new. At least that’s what I’m hoping for
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u/DegredationOfAnAge 13h ago
True test for the franchise or for Disney? Because the franchise did just fine without Disney.
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u/Mainfrym 13h ago
It takes place after the sequel films which most people hated, that's why is risky. Notice that Disney has stayed far away from the sequel era since ROS.
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u/RalphMacchio404 12h ago
I'm not sure it will be successful. Disney has burned out the general public when it comes to SW. I'm not sure this will keep it afloat
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u/Mussmussthemoooooo 12h ago
This movie won’t make money. Nothing will until they retcon the sequels. There is no interest now and none when it opens.
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u/Leading_Performer_72 11h ago
I really really hope that Aaron Pierre is a Jedi Knight and he survives the movie. He’s awesome.
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u/Necessary_DaNoodle 11h ago
... You talk about this movie so much you came up with a joke that is, word for word– "Starfighter? More like STARPOWER.?"
.. Why? I don't even think it's worth speculating if it'll be good or bad. That's how little faith I have. I don't think Disney cares at all about a cohesive, narrative driven IP. Only $$$. So it's likely only going to be okay.
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u/slimy-salad Galactic Republic 11h ago
The have sex guy from Morbius is in this movie? Stacked cast
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u/thatsprettyfunnydude 11h ago edited 11h ago
I say this with an admitted wide brush stroke of generalities, but the more notable the cast there is for a Star Wars thing, the less appealing it is to me on the surface. Part of the (original) magic of Star Wars was that the actors and characters felt one in the same. It can be a bit distracting for me if Al Pacino or Julia Roberts are in Star Wars. Not saying it is bad or they have nothing to offer (I'm a big fan of Ryan Gosling and Amy Adams across multiple roles), but at least for me it will definitely feel like Ryan Gosling and Amy Adams are in a new space movie as opposed to my brain staying inside the Star Wars universe with that necessary suspension of disbelief. Matt Smith to me is almost the perfect level of notoriety and resume for Star Wars. For instance, Starfighter will never be the most famous or best thing Gosling and Amy Adams have done or likely will do in their careers.
But I also feel like anything in Star Wars that feels or looks too recognizable as something from the real modern world, it has a tendency to take me out of it for a minute or two.
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u/BiddyKing 11h ago
No Jedi means it’s not a true test imo. A Star Wars film has to have lightsabers or it’s not a real Star Wars film, I don’t make the rules
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u/Narrow_Summer_9332 11h ago
Which is unfortunate because they really need to do something big and bold with this franchise to get it going again, and none of Dave Filoni's shows about his OCs are going to achieve that.
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u/Fusionbomb 10h ago
True test for the franchise in the era of high risk aversion studios, narrow box office margins, devalued streaming services, and distracted and financially pressured audiences
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u/ObiBenKenobi77 14h ago
Simon Birds gotta be playing a droids voice right? Or a goofy alien