Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Star Wars Movies

  • Patty Jenkins Clarifies the Status of ‘Rogue Squadron’

    Patty Jenkins Clarifies the Status of ‘Rogue Squadron’

    During Disney’s 2020 Investor Day presentation, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced that Patty Jenkins had signed on to direct Rogue Squadron. At the time, the film was slated for a Christmas 2023 release but following a production delay in 2021, the film was removed from Lucasfilm’s slate in September 2022 leading fans to believe the film had been canceled. Now, in the wake of her departure from Wonder Woman 3, Jenkins has provided some clarity on the development of Rogue Squadron.

    In a statement released through her Twitter account, Jenkins detailed the interconnected nature of her work on Wonder Woman 3 and the production delay on Rogue Squadron. “I originally left Rogue Squadron after a long and productive development process when it became clear it couldn’t happen soon enough and I did not want to delay WW3 any further,” said Jenkins. “When I did, Lucasfilm asked me to consider coming back to RS after WW3, which I was honored to do, so I agreed,” added the director.

    Jenkins continued on to say that while Rogue Squadron has been bumped off the Lucasfilm release slate, the film is still in “active development” and that she is still very much a part of it.

    [Lucasfilm] made a new deal with me. In fact, I am still on [Rogue Sqauadron] and that project has been in active development ever since. I don’t know if it will happen or not. We never do until the development process is complete, but I look forward to its potential ahead.

    Patty Jenkins

    The last bit comes as a bit of a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. As Jenkins points out, the development process doesn’t always end in a film being released so don’t hold your breath waiting for this one to hit theaters.

  • ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Writer Still Hopes for a Sequel

    ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Writer Still Hopes for a Sequel

    Star Wars has grown quite a bit since its purchase by Disney. They started off with a new trilogy that further explored the aftermath of the original, tested out some unique spinoffs, and went on to establish a variety of TV series on Diseny+. At the moment, Andor has been dominating the Internet with a prequel series to Rogue One, but it’s not the only prequel entry with the protagonist’s name in the title.

    Back in 2018, we had the first prequel film that featured Alden Ehrenreich in the leading role of a younger Han Solo. Sadly, the film wasn’t quite the box office draw that many hoped it would be, but it still told an interesting story and has a set up that still hasn’t seen a payoff to this day. It seems writer Jon Kasdan agrees, as he’d love to return and tackle a sequel even after all this time.

    The reason for a Solo 2 is if there’s a great reason and certainly I’d be game if there was…there were so many great characters we were able to establish, and for me, the strongest argument for a Solo 2 is the movie was Alden’s journey to owning that mantle, and by the end of it I thought he really did, and he didn’t get the fun of getting to just inhabit it for a movie, so I’d love to see him back.

    Jon Kasdan

    Any project tackling one of the original trilogy’s main casts was going to face an upward battle. Ehrenreich‘s recasting was an inspired and fitting choice, but the controversy surrounding it led to Lucasfilm preferring to digitally de-age its actors, such as Mark Hamill reprising his role as Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian. For now, we’ll have to wait if they might decide to tackle a sequel at some point, or at least pick up where the film left off.

    Source: YouTube via ComicBook.com

  • Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Trilogy Timeline Remains a Mystery

    Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Trilogy Timeline Remains a Mystery

    Rian Johnson made one of the most divisive projects in the history of Star Wars in 2017’s The Last Jedi. Even so, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy signed Johnson to a deal that allowed him to create a trilogy of films that would exist outside the Skywalker saga and explore all new parts of the galaxy. Even as Lucasfilm continues to develop and produce new projects for Disney Plus and plan new theatrical releases, any advancement on Johnson’s trilogy has stayed out of the news.

    Johnson has stayed plenty busy, writing and directing 2019’s Knives Out and its sequel, The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which will premiere on Netflix this December. In speaking with Variety, it seems clear that developing more stories around Knives Out star Daniel Craig’s clever detective Benoit Blanc is his top priority.

    If each one of these [Knives Out sequels] can really be what Agatha Christie did, if it can be not just in a totally new location and a new cast, but also trying something exciting, I’ll keep doing it as long as Daniel [Craig] and I are having a good time. I’ll keep making these as long as they let me.

    Rian Johnson

    If the Knives Out franchise is at the forefront of Johnson’s work, where does that leave Star Wars? Lucasfilm has untitled Star Wars releases scheduled for 2025 and 2027, but it doesn’t sound like fans should expect either of those to be one of Johnson’s projects. When asked when fans could expect to see his Star Wars trilogy take off, the writer/director was pretty candid about the prospects.

    I have talked to [Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy] about it and we’re still talking about it. I had such an amazing experience making The Last Jedi. It’s entirely a matter of scheduling. For me, putting this [Glass Onion] out and making the next one of these [Knives Out sequels]…the answer is I don’t know.

    Rian Johnson

    When pushed a bit further by Variety about whether or not the trilogy will happen at all, Johnson simply said, “God I hope so.“

    Not exactly a vote of confidence by Johnson, but it isn’t a death knell either. While Johnson’s Star Wars films may never hit the screen, Lucasfilm seems to have found its sweet spot on Disney Plus, giving fans plenty of Star Wars content to look forward to for years to come.

    Source: Variety

  • Disney Updates its Cinematic Release Slate for the Coming Years

    Disney Updates its Cinematic Release Slate for the Coming Years

    The cinematic experience is partly enjoying a film in theaters while also going through the continuous reshuffling of release schedules. Not every release manages to stay consistent due to production conflicts and various challenges that come together. Blade has recently faced some troubles as it lost its director and naturally was postponed, but surprisingly many more films from Marvel followed with a whole new slate. That isn’t all, as Disney used the opportunity to update its entire slate.

    Disney’s upcoming 2024 release will now include:

    • 3/1/24 – Elio
    • 3/22/24 – Disney’s Snow White
    • 5/3/24 – Captain America: New World Order
    • 5/24/24 – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
    • 6/14/24 – Inside Out 2
    • 7/5/24 – Mufasa: The Lion King
    • 7/26/24 – Thunderbolts
    • 9/6/24 – Blade
    • 11/8/24 – Untitled Deadpool Movie
    • 12/20/24 – Avatar 3

    Fantastic Four is scheduled for 14th February 2025 with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty set for May. They have also added two untitled Marvel films for July and November. They wrap up the year with an untitled Star Wars film in December, the first cinematic entry since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. Avengers Secret Wars is now scheduled for May 2026 with three more Marvel films already given a release date. Avatar 4 joins that same year in December with its fifth entry already planned for 2028. They also already mapped out another untitled Star Wars film in 2027.

    It definitely looks like Disney has some big plans for the coming years and it’s crazy to think just how mapped out they are until 2028. Of course, the last two years only have one entry each, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see more Marvel films get scheduled once we near the Avengers release. It looks like their next

  • James Earl Jones No Longer Voicing Darth Vader Himself

    James Earl Jones No Longer Voicing Darth Vader Himself

    James Earl Jones was the one to give Darth Vader his iconic voice ever since the first Star Wars film was released in 1977. Yet, we could still hear his iconic take on their character in the recently released Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. Yet, that wasn’t actually Jones’ voice anymore as after 45 years it has changed with age.

    So, Disney and Lucasfilm took a different approach and relied on a synthetic speech recreated from archival footage to create a new dialogue. They worked with the Ukrainian synthetic speech artist Bogdan Belyaev that brought the latest return of Darth Vader to life even during the war that is still ongoing in his home country. Even while there were concerns about his and his team’s well-being, they wanted to power through the situation to highlight they can push through such harsh times.

    Jones has signed off that his voice can be used even if he’s no longer directly involved, and Lucasfilm still continues to credit him for it even if he didn’t sit in a recording booth to bring the voice to life. It does also set a rather curious question regarding the future of actor’s being used in projects even if they’ve passed away.

    Marvel did recently acquire the rights tod o the same with Stan Lee even if we’ve not seen what exactly that’ll entail quite yet. The co-creator of Marvel has been an avid fan of appearing in the media for years, and it does seem like something he’d love to see continue even after his passing but there’s a bitter question to be asked about using someone’s existence long after they’ve passed. We’ll have to see how these kinds of topics will be handled in the future.

    Source: Vanity Fair

  • Rian Johnson Still Hoping to Work on His ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy

    Rian Johnson Still Hoping to Work on His ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy

    When Rian Johnson worked on The Last Jedi, it was revealed that he’d be developing his own Star Wars trilogy. There were no details revealed on just how exactly it was going to tie into the greater mythos or even the direction. Yet, the fan reception of his Star Wars project can still be felt to today but that has seemingly not deterred the director from hoping to tackle this project.

    In an interview with Empire, while promoting his upcoming Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion, he reveals that he still actively is in talks with Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy and that he’s definitely hoping to adapt his trilogy eventually; even if schedules are continuing to postpone this project indefinitely.

    I’ve stayed close to Kathleen [Kennedy] and we get together often and talk about it. It’s just at this point a matter of schedule and when it can happen. It would break my heart if I were finished, if I couldn’t get back in that sandbox at some point.

    Rian Johnson

    It’s great to know that he’s still working on his trilogy and Star Wars is still expanding with its new Disny+ series. So, while the cinematic aspect of the franchise is currently on ice, there’s hope that once Johnson wraps up his work on the Knives Out sequels for Netflix, he might potentially start work on his take on a galaxy far, far away.

    Source: Empire

  • ‘Rogue One’ Returns to IMAX With ‘Andor’ Sneak Preview

    ‘Rogue One’ Returns to IMAX With ‘Andor’ Sneak Preview

    It looks like Lucasfilm found the perfect way to promote the upcoming release of Andor. While it was postponed to September 21st, it does look like they will build up to its release with a re-release of the Star Wars film, Rogue One. It is currently eyeing an August 26th release in select IMAX theaters as revealed by Fandango, which included the following tease as it’ll also include a special preview of the Disney+ series Andor.

    Experience Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in select IMAX theatres. Plus, get an exclusive look at the new Disney+ Star Wars series, Andor! In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

    Image

    So, it’s quite the treat for fans of Rogue One that are excited to see what the upcoming prequel series has to offer. Andor will explore the earlier days of Diego Luna‘s character Cassian Andor. There are still no exact details on how the story will evolve, but the first trailers have teased that they are sticking to a similar vibe from the spinoff film.

    It’s still crazy to think that we haven’t had a film release in the franchise since 2019 and there is currently not a single one in production. Lucasfilm has focused all its efforts on Disney+, which still offers some exciting and sometimes even experimental projects but it does feel like something is missing when it comes to whatever their plans are on expanding the franchise.

    Source: Fandango

  • Taika Waititi’s ‘Star Wars’ Film Reportedly Eyeing Early 2023 Production Start

    Taika Waititi’s ‘Star Wars’ Film Reportedly Eyeing Early 2023 Production Start

    There have been many theories on when we’d finally get a new Star Wars film. Lucasfilm has been solely focused on their Disney+ ventures with Andor on the horizon and the recent release of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Patty Jenkin‘s Rogue Squadron was originally going to start filming to release next year, but it looks like Taika Waititi‘s upcoming original film is the one that’ll start production sooner rather than later. In the latest Heat Vision entry for The Hollywood Reporter, they reveal that the film is eyeing a 2023 production start.

    As the piece points out, Waititi has hinted that he’s not quite done with the story and that we may not see it anytime soon, but their sources are pointing out that they’re very likely to start next year. The only thing that could postpone it is Lucasfilm, which has become a bit infamous for how it tackles its film division and has become a reason for pushing out releases.

    Waititi is jumping into his next project quite quickly, but there have been hints that he has another project on the horizon. So, he may once again be overscheduling himself, such as he revealed that he edited Thor: Love and Thunder while still wearing his costume from playing Blackbeard on Our Flag Means Death. So, we’ll see if there will be an official announcement in the near future.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Disney+’s ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Was Originally Pitched as a Movie Trilogy

    Disney+’s ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Was Originally Pitched as a Movie Trilogy

    Lucasfilm’s latest Disney+ series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, saw the return of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen in their iconic roles from the Prequel Trilogy. Many wondered how the series came together and what may have led to the project ending up on the Disney+ streaming service. It turns out that writer Stuart Beattie initially pitched the project as a film trilogy. Initially, he wrote the first of three films that would eventually be stretched out into the six episodes of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

    I wrote the film that they based the show on. So, yeah. I spent like a year, year-and-a-half working on it. And then, when the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after Solo came out, I left the project and went on to other things. Joby came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six. So, I did not work with them at all, I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff

    Stuart Beattie

    He goes on to highlight how he initially pitched the project to Lucasfilm, which would’ve been three stories that explore the different stages of his evolution into Ben Kenobi from the Original Trilogy, most notably how we meet him in A New Hope.

    So when I pitched my Obi-Wan story to Lucasfilm, I said, ‘There’s actually three stories here. Because there’s three different evolutions that the character has to make in order to go from Obi-Wan to Ben.’ And the first one was the first movie, which was the show, which was, ‘Surrender to the will of the Force. Transport your will, surrender your will. Leave the kid alone.’ So then, the second [movie] was thinking about where Kenobi ends up.

    Stuart Beattie

    He also highlights that very transformation and wanting to explore that storyline of how he goes from the man we see in the Prequels into the role of sacrificing his life to let Luke Skywalker follow his own fate.

    And one of the most powerful and probably the most powerful moment in all of Obi-Wan’s story is that moment where he sacrifices himself in A New Hope. Great moment, you know, makes you cry. But, if you stop and think about it, it’s a pretty sudden thing, to just kind of go be fighting a guy, to see Luke and go, ‘I’m gonna die.’ You know, that to me, that required forethought. That required pre-acceptance that this was going to happen.

    Stuart Beattie

    Hearing that an initial film idea was stretched out into the first six episodes doesn’t seem too surprising given the slower pace of the project. Obi-Wan Kenobi has strengths but there are moments where it felt like it was initially planned as a singular film that was broken down into three arcs with two episodes each. It was marketed as a limited series, which makes it curious that the initial pitch of a trilogy could’ve been made for at least three seasons. So, we’ll have to see if they backpedal on the idea after all.

    Source: The Direct

  • Gary Oldman Originally Was Going to be the Voice of ‘Star Wars’ General Grievous

    Gary Oldman Originally Was Going to be the Voice of ‘Star Wars’ General Grievous

    Here’s a rather interesting reveal but it turns out that Gary Oldman originally was going to voice the iconic Jedi hunter, General Greivous. While he didn’t play him on set, it seems that he sadly was replaced due to the union discussions at the time. In an interview with Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Oldman only confirmed that he had originally recorded for the voice role by nonother than George Lucas himself.

    I did a voice for Star Wars…was it General Grievous? What happened was something to do with union stuff and non-union stuff…Lucas directed me through the whole thing; yeah, he was terrific.

    It’s always interesting to find out what may or may not have been. The actor sadly doesn’t go into much detail to highlight just how exactly he was going to tackle the character, whose famous raspy voice and dying breath pushed him forward to take vengeance on Obi-Wan Kenobi.

    While the character has long passed away in the Star Wars canon, they could revisit his days before he turned into what he had eventually turned into to highlight his transition. It would be the perfect opportunity to have Oldman give it another chance to voice the character in just a very different step of his life. With the various Disney+ projects, anything is possible.

    Source: Apple Podcasts via Twitter