Dork Side of the Force
Fansided

No Star Wars for Feige, and I’m ok with that.

By Tim Beisiegel

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 22: Kevin Feige, Executive Producer and Marvel Studios President and Marvel Chief Creative Officer attends the Moon Knight Los Angeles Special Launch Event at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 22, 2022. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 22: Kevin Feige, Executive Producer and Marvel Studios President and Marvel Chief Creative Officer attends the Moon Knight Los Angeles Special Launch Event at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 22, 2022. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney) /
facebooktwitterreddit

At the Las Vegas premiere for The Marvels, Marvel Cinematic Universe president Kevin Feige was asked about the status of his 2019 announced Star Wars movie and if it was still moving forward. His response was one word:

No.

In 2019, I was excited about this new film. Now, I am okay with Feige not running a Star Wars movie. Nothing personal against Kevin Feige. He’s done a great job overseeing Marvel. In 2019, when Star Wars was a rudderless ship with zero direction, adding Kevin Feige was a welcomed change. That’s not the case now.

Back in 2019, we had two directors, Rian Johnson and JJ Abrams, unable to steer the ship in the same direction for the sequel trilogy. Abrams went in one direction for The Force Awakens. Johnson corrected course and took The Last Jedi in another, leaving Abrams to overcorrect for The Rise of Skywalker. The result? Disjointed confusion with minimal strands tying the movies together.

Further, The Mandalorian hadn’t been released yet at the point of the announcement of Feige getting a movie, so that was an unknown factor with unknown characters. Sure Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau were heading it, but it was still a risk for Lucasfilm launching a brand new streaming service. There was no guarantee that the fans would respond well, and Lucasfilm still didn’t know how fans would react to the release of The Rise of Skywalker. In my opinion, it’s safe to say it was a mixed response from the fans.

What changed since 2019?

We loved The Mandalorian. We loved Grogu, or Baby Yoda, as we knew him then. We had the reintroduction of Boba Fett, the live-action debut of Ahsoka, and, of course, the surprise hit Andor.

Yes, there were some missteps (I’m looking at you, The Book of Boba Fett). But overall, the shows are tied into Star Wars’ established storylines. Some are even helping explain the gaping plot holes left because of the directorial shifts between Abrams and Johnson in the sequel trilogy. Star Wars was starting to get the direction and oversight we saw across the Disney aisle in the MCU.

Still giving a movie to Kevin Feige and Patty Jenkins, who was also named in the 2019 announcement, would be counterproductive. We needed one vision, one leader, and one direction, but not the Harry Styles kind. Allowing other directors or showrunners’ visions into the story would have had Star Wars more in the line of the DCEU, which I would say was a steaming hot dumpster fire of a movie franchise, than the MCU that the brand was trying to emulate.

Now, we are seeing the payoff from the reigns being handed to Filoni and Favreau. Ahsoka was peak Star Wars, not perfect, but pretty close to it, in my estimation. We are seeing how Ahsoka ties into The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett and potentially how this will all lead into Filoni’s Avengers-style Star Wars movie with Skeleton Crew on the horizon.

Bringing Thrawn into live-action gives us the big bad to fight, brings the good guys together, and allows for the story to get sorted and more cohesive, moving into the timeline of the sequel trilogy. Keeping Feige in the mix wouldn’t have allowed this to happen, most likely. I am sure that Feige would have given us a good story but would not have been in the same storyline as we now see.

I think Feige would make a good movie for Star Wars. However, I would love for him to be involved in a one-off film than to have something that has to tie in. Something like Rogue One or Solo. This would be like whatever movie Taika Waititi is still cooking up.

I do like the direction that Filoni is taking Star Wars, and just don’t want anything or anyone, even Kevin Feige, to interrupt that.

Home/Editorial