Opinion: Lucasfilm Has Made Its Biggest Mistake Yet

Since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, there has been griping about what steps the new parent company was going to take to ruin Star Wars. When The Force Awakens came out, there were gripes that it was too much like the old movies. When The Last Jedi came out, there were gripes that it deviated too much from the old movies. When Solo: A Star Wars Story was announced, people complained that this was a story that did not need to be told. When The Mandalorian was announced, it was perceived as proof that Disney was failing the franchise because it was moving to streaming, not a major theatrical release. It seems that it does not matter what happens, there will always be some subset of the fanbase unhappy with the direction that the franchise is going. As a studio though, none of these are massive and systemic failures in the way that what happened this week was.

In 2020 at Investor Day, Disney announced that Lucasfilm had acquired the rights to Children of Blood and Bone and would be producing a theatrical adaptation. This followed (at the time) Fox 2000’s acquisition of the rights in 2017 as part of a previously unheard of seven figure deal for a trilogy of books that also included the theatrical option. Then Disney bought Fox and reshuffled the corporate structure, moving the production to Lucasfilm. This was a huge step as it would be Lucasfilm’s first non-Star Wars project since the acquisition in 2012.

This week however, it was announced that Lucasfilm had lost the film rights to the trilogy and author Tomi Adeyemi had taken the project to Paramount where she would write and executive produce the movie, and the movie would be guaranteed to have a theatrical release. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this was because she felt the project was not moving along properly and she did not have enough creative input on the project, both of which are fair complaints to have. The report also cites that Lucasfilm had put a priority on their franchises based on intellectual property that they already owned such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Willow.

This highlights a few issues that Lucasfilm may not have now but may have in the future. Willow is not exactly a franchise that is going to bring in new viewers. Sure people who were kids when the original came out and have fond memories of the movie may now have children and they might watch it, but it’s not something that has been on the forefront of the pop culture zeitgeist since its original release. Indiana Jones is unwilling (for better or for worse) to recast Harrison Ford in the titular role, and when Indiana Jones 5 comes out next year he will be two weeks shy of his 81st birthday. With The Book of Boba Fett, even the likes of fan-favorites Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau are shown to not be immune to ire as people are starting to turn on the Disney+ Star Wars shows. Lucasfilm is looking almost entirely at the past without looking to the future. There are diminishing returns on this and bringing in new franchises like Children of Blood and Bone would have reinvigorated the studio.

This also highlights the ongoing issue with Lucasfilm where they seem to be unwilling to let the creatives behind the project have free reign to do what they want on projects. Leaving the project for “creative differences” happens pretty often for Lucasfilm. Solo: A Star Wars Story was midway through production when Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired from the project. Patty Jenkins stepped back from Rogue Squadron, which was slated for December 2023, because the studio kept stepping in and interfering with the project. The Rise of Skywalker was actually the second name for the project (Duel of the Fates was the first) after Colin Trevorrow was fired from the project and the studio meddled so much with the production that reshoots happened until almost a month before release according to some reports. Adam Driver himself said that he was recording dialogue in a closet of his house for use in the movie. This is a problem and is likely to drive filmmakers away from working with the franchise. In the case of Children of Blood and Bone, if the project does not have a screenwriter attached or a director attached and the project is just languishing, there is no possible reason letting the author of the book write a screenplay treatment would be a bad thing.

Finally, Lucasfilm does have a production issue. If anyone has watched the behind the scenes show for The Mandalorian on Disney+, they will become very apparent that Lucasfilm spent a lot of money developing a cool new technology and they intend to wring every cent out of the investment by shooting every Star Wars show possible on that sound stage. That’s not to say that The Volume is not a groundbreaking piece of filmmaking equipment, its just the fact that there is only one will create a production bottleneck. Season 3 of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Kenobi, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, and Lando (not to mention the theatrical offerings like Rogue Squadron, Taika Waititi’s movie, and Kevin Fiege’s movie) all either use or will use this technology which leads to the production equivalent of planes circling an airport waiting for an open runway. Other Disney subsidiaries like Marvel shoot multiple projects at once, leading to a situation where Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Thor: Love and Thunder, Secret Invasion, Ms. Marvel, Season two of What If…?, I am Groot, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight are all able to come out in one calendar year.

If Lucasfilm does not want to become a relic of the past, they should start looking to new books to bring them some relevance in the modern world. There is no better legacy to George Lucas as a man than to have him be like Isaac Asimov who’s name is on a literary magazine that routinely highlights new science fiction writing talent. It’s a shame for Lucasfilm that they lost out on this opportunity, but it is always nice to see an author get their chance to bring their vision of their work to the screen so congratulations to Toni Adeyemi for getting to breathe rarified air like N.K. Jemisin, Stephen King, and Gillian Flynn.

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