Just Some Thoughts On…Recent Star Wars Announcements

So Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu has been announced as a film. Yay?

I get that people do care about The Mandalorian. I care about The Mandalorian. I’m just wondering if enough people care about The Mandalorian to justify a film-either a film released exclusively to Disney+ or something that makes it into the theaters, is there enough of a fanbase to justify it let alone the potential to draw in a casual viewer? The general Star Wars fan alone will not necessarily make it a success.

I don’t know. I know ‘Baby Yoda’ has made it into the popular consciousness. I’m not talking about the character but rather the image that everybody calls ‘Baby Yoda’. But that doesn’t mean a movie sized group cares about The Mandalorian TV series. It just means that one character in broad strokes has made its way into the mind of the general public. Little kids, especially girls, think the character is adorable but that doesn’t mean there’s enough resonance for a Mandalorian movie. 

Personally I’m excited for any Star Wars film. Every announcement gets me a little jazzed and I will squeal like a schoolgirl should there be a movie completed and it’s given a release date. It has been far too long since Star Wars has been in its home.

I’m a slut for Star Wars. But to keep myself and others being slutty for Star Wars you need to get giving us the good stuff. Do not hope niche material will be big because it has the Star Wars name attached. I’m just thinking that this is an idea that got bounced around in a particular bubble. It sounds good in an echo chamber, but it never made it to people outside of the group discussing it to see if it was genuinely good.

…Ahsoka: Season Two. Why?…

And then there is the announcement of the development of Ahsoka: Season Two.

Was it really good enough to get more? It was eight episodes just for the heroes and villains to trade galaxies. The only dangling plot thread that was resolved was that of Ezra Bridger, but that was a leftover from Rebels and not from Ahsoka. It was all setup with no payoff.

The character of Ahsoka eventually took a backseat to other characters without their name in the title of the show. Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger became waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more prominent and important to the story with Hera Syndulla and even Mon Mothma often getting more play and development than Ahsoka.

Ahsoka and the rest of her associates were far from compelling. Huyang was far more interesting as were the occasional cameo character. While they were fanservice, they highlighted a distinct lack of characterization of the main players.

And then there was the villain. Thrawn was a villain that made no smart decisions. Rather than stop his opponents, he inconvenienced them. This tactical genius did nothing to stop anybody. The only interesting villains were the Night Sisters.

The action of the show was slow with Rosario Dawson moving like an arthritic in her action scenes. She was outclassed by, well, everyone she was paired with. That was when the action consisted of more than extended shots of characters walking of looking.

A vocal component of the fanbase is pushing Dave Filoni as some kind of Star Wars savior on social media. While he does have some good stuff out there, he’s not a Star Wars god. Ahsoka was adequate at a good point and The Mandalorian is starting to lose its edge.

I’ll watch it out of curiosity to see if they can overcome what I felt were issues in the first season, but I don’t think they will be able to do so. Disney and Lucasfilm learn no lessons and never seek to improve. They blame the audience for not liking what is produced rather than try to understand where they went wrong.

I am greeting these announcements with cautious optimism. Cautious because I want to see them, but I am also concerned that they’ll just be a mediocre content and not a return to form for the science-fiction universe that I love so much.