star wars lucasfilm

In what might be considered some of the biggest “DUH” news of the week, it seems Disney/ Lucasfilm has figured out that hiring untested directors for ‘Star Wars’ films (based solely on their current popularity with fans) is not the best path to creating successful films, and is going to change course. According to Collider (via ‘Star Wars News Net):’

“Disney is done experimenting with new or unusual filmmakers and will go back to proven veteran talent who they know can handle a big budget Star Wars production in an effort to prevent future production chaos, drama, and firings.”

Of course this comes after all of the drama that surrounded the production on ‘Solo,’ which would have been acceptable if the film had done well in the box-office, but its middling success is just not enough for the franchise, and Lucasfilm knows it needs to make some changes and avoid a lot of the drama and bad press that has been plaguing its productions as of late.

‘Solo’ was not the only film to have reshoots and director problems, with ‘Rogue One’ going through some similar issues before its release, and the original director for a ‘Boba Fett’ movie being let go (and the movie shelved until recently) because of reports of his actions on set for another film. While it made sense from a certain point of view for Lucasfilm to seek out artists to push the franchise in new and interesting directions, they made a mistake in not vetting those individuals to ensure they could handle productions of the size and scope of ‘Star Wars’ and make sure that those directors were also on the same page as Kathleen Kennedy and the writers and producers she works with that oversee the ‘Star Wars’ films. There’s nothing wrong with new and exciting directors if they have the skill set, but throwing a multi-million dollar movie at them and expecting them to maintain the level of art in their craft and meet all of Lucasfilm’s expectations when they have never done anything like that before is a lot of expectations. It is no wonder they ran into problems.

Here’s hoping the new hiring practices yield less stress and better results going forward.