Yeah, I was meaning... I'm surprised no one in the Lucasfilm Story Group stood up for Lucas outlines... but then I've heard a lot of crazy things from friends about Lucasfilm at Disney.

From what I gather the Disney deal with Lucas gave him royalties anytime an original trilogy character was used. From what I've heard through the grapevine, that's why the iconic original characters aren't just retiring to a galaxy far, far away but instead being killed off (and why they aren't a part of the theme parks). Iger and co. are so angry that Lucas still has some stake in the brand that they'll do anything to strip all of the OT out of Star Wars. From what I heard they actually thought of shooting their own early adventures of Luke Skywalker and retconing almost everything so they could then argue in court that the characters only shared names and therefore were their sole property.

Yes, Lucasfilm wanted nothing to do with Lucas' storyline after the prequel backlash (which was the primary reason Lucas sold Star Wars to begin with). They wanted as far away from the prequels as possible... and anything else Lucas' wrote. But, the joke is on Disney. They thought they were buying Guardians of the Galaxy but instead it was closer to Excalibur.

I firmly believe Lucas is a genius. With the prequels he may not have had the directing chops, and his screenwriting has always been mediocre, but his grand plan for the story was brilliant. I truly believe that if Lucas had worked with Gary Kurtz again -- instead of blowhard Rick McCallum -- the prequels would have been much more dramatic and adult in tone.

Yeah, Rebels was pretty good. While Filoni worked closely with Lucas on the Clone Wars series, not too much with Rebels. I enjoyed the show (and yes, it's better than all of the Disney Star Wars movies), but... grey Jedi and time travel really killed it for me. Lucas wouldn't have used either of these things (although expect possible time-travel in the next movie! Abrams loves time-travel to retcon). Anyway, Filoni is now directing some of The Mandalorian... which, yes... was originally supposed to be Boba Fett (again, can't have OT characters!).

From the overt infusion of politics to the misguided storytelling and the bi-polar way they've treated the beloved core characters (plus, BTW, Disney hates the religious nature of the Force... and that not just anyone can use the Force), it's just been sad. I had high hopes when Lucas gave over the brand, but Disney has done everything wrong and certainly killed any enthusiasm I have for it.

What are the chances of the rebels not winning in the end?

Well, good luck to you. I can't do it.

Adam Driver is completely wasted in these movies. Emo Vader... my brain hurts. Everytime he has one of those goofy tantrums I keep hearing "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!"

Well, I wish I could agree, but Han being my favorite character... and reduced to a dead-beat dad before being killed in a scene that didn't feel that it had any real emotional resonance sucked all the cool out of the movie for me. TBH I almost walked out of TFA... I wanted to like it, but hated everything they did. Oh well

[SPOILER FOR THE CLONE WARS BELOW!!!!]
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Personally, I liked the animated Clone Wars (if you ignore the obvious filler episodes). The only thing I disliked was that they brought Darth Maul back. He was 100% dead but because he was a fan favorite - "Screw consistency, we're bringing him back". Because being cut in half and falling down a bottomless pit is definitely survivable. But other than that, I enjoyed it.

I quit Rebels after a few episodes. The Clone Wars was decent but Rebels is waaaay too kid friendly for me. Every death happens off-screen, the character designs and everything. Just BLEH.. But that is the tax to pay for being broadcasted on Disney Channel I guess. The Clone Wars was luckily on Cartoon Network.

*lol* That's the best description of the character I've ever seen. I already hated Anakin from EP II and III (EP I-Anakin was okay), but Kylo really makes you want to turn off the TV (didn't watch the new films in cinema).

When the first trailer for EP VII came out I was kind of excited. It looked like Star Wars, which was a great thing after the disappointing prequels. But now... Now I wish we could (at least) have back the Star Wars from EP I-III. VII and VIII were just bad! I fell asleep the first time I tried to watch EP VIII (no joke, I really fell asleep).

I don't expect anything from EP IX. I'm not excited for the return of Palpatine, I don't care what they do with Leia and I don't even want to know anymore wether Rey is a Skywalker or related to Palpatine. EP IX can't save that trilogy anymore, no matter what they're doing. My only hope is that we'll see some Ewoks (trailer looks like they'll visit Endor). They're furry... ehm, I mean funny!

Yeah, that's probably the only downside of the Rebels. Though 3rd and 4th seasons acrually did became more mature - Ezra using Force Mind Control to make some stormtroopers kill themselves, a few important character deaths, some arguments among Rebellion that they're loosing and it's time to resolve to terrorist tactics...

Darth Maul brought from the dead was ok for me. Though I can understand why for some people it can be off putting.

Damn!, my friends have bought the tickets and obviously me too. I´am masochist.

Despite of prev films didn't convince me. Ep VII was a uncover remake of IV, and ep VIII was a kick in my eggs.

This trilogy is going to be the worst of the three. Pictures looks great but the plot... buf!

Knowing Abrams sure will be a few of things "because potato".

Actually A New Hope was the only one of the original trilogy that had real budget constraints; after it became the biggest money maker of all time Lucas had no problem getting huge budgets for ESB and ROTJ.

You might be thinking of the limits Movie technology had...CGI was a good 10 years in the future when ROTJ hit theaters.

I liked the Clone war series a lot more then the prequels.

I find the prequels and the Disney era films both much more flawed then the OT, then but in different ways.

I think the first two prequels had some good ideas but were badly executed;the terrible dialogue between Anakin and Padme in AOTC being a good example. The guy who wrote "American Graffiti" with it's great dialogue wrote this?????

It's not so much I want to defend the Disney films, but that I really have problem with people who think the SW films were just going great until Disney took over. IMHO the Franchise was already damaged goods as far the movie went from the way Lucas messed up the prequels so bad. Only ROTS was a decent movie...and even that was not in the same universe quality wise as the original trilogy.

Hell both Phantom Menace and Force Awakens were pretty much reamkes of A New Hope.

Well, I love Rebels for two reasons:

1) More than any of the Dinsey films, Ezra's story feels like Star Wars IMHO (although I haven't yet watched season 4) but most importantly...

2) Rebels uses TONS of Ralph Mcquarrie consept art from Star Wars (A New Hope). McQuarrie was a master concept artist.

https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/star-wars/271058/how-ralph-mcquarries-art-inspired-star-wars-rebels

If you're a big fan of Star Wars, I highly suggest you take a look at...

The Star Wars

A graphic novel published by Dark Horse translating Lucas' very first Star Wars draft.

The time has come to tapdance on NuStar Wars' grave.

A 4 billion dollar franchise going up in flames might just be the best Christmas gift of all.

I've never been the biggest Star Wars fan, tbh I always liked some video games like Jedi Knight much more than the movies (even the original trilogy is overrated imo).
But still, it's a bit sad to see what a disaster those new movies apparently are, tarnishing even all the movies before them by giving idiotic endings to the characters from the original movies.

I went ahead and read the whole plot on Wikipedia a few days ago. I'll still see this film at some point, if a group of friends are treating me to a trip to the theater or when it's on TV / Disney+. At the very least, there's still headcanon. =)

You know, i am a Star Wars fan. Always have been.Im not hardcore. I love the stories as simple as they are.The original movies as well and some of the old canon stuff. The new movies?. First one was basically a rehash. Last one was ****.Lets be honest. It was. For all those saying Rian brought new ideas -- doesnt work with SW . And this current one - im not ashamed to sail the high seas for it since i paid for the last two a few times (just to confirm my impressions). Lots of flash. Initial impression? - Felt like parts of rehash of RoTJ tbh. Sections of the movie....Too much information for people to .Too much switching locations and action.I didnt like it.
AND for those to read up on the leaks over the past months?. Most of them are TRUE :(. Whatever happened to Anakin and Skywalker family being core to this saga?.

FWIW Rebels and Mandalorian were much better at being "Star Wars".....

I was a big fan of Star Wars myself until I saw Ep 7. Watching the trailers, I though just MAYBE, they were somehow introducing Revan. Then I got the movie and said to myself, I already saw Ep 4. Ep 8 was just all over the place, and I eventually I'll watch Ep 9... whenever it comes on TV.

Disney would have been fine if they had done the movies in a completely different era that hadn't been written about. I get they wanted to make it their own universe, but they didn't have to remove Expanded Universe to do that. They didn't have to invalidate (as far as I know) the chosen one storyline. They didn't have to entice the older fans by having them on screen in the new movies for minor roles, where they didn't have much screen time.

I'm rambling on now. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'll be genuinely surprised when I finally see it and say "that's a Star Wars movie!" I'm not holding my breath though. Sadly I have much higher hopes for the fan film Vader, Episode 2.