(probably) accidental tracking of (probably) useless information

[rose_griffes]

So have y'all seen the "leaks" for Star Wars IX? Because it's a lot.

If you haven't stumbled across them, they're widespread: real? fake? leaks for IX, along with speculation about what they mean. Such as: LucasFilm is testing audience reactions to different endings! The sequel trilogy is in trouble! (I mean... it is. But that's not new information, nor is it as dire as some make it to be.) They're gonna have flashbacks of young Luke training Leia because they need to reframe Luke as a hero (yet again)!

Rey is Palpatine's grandchild! Matt Smith is playing a character who is taken over by Palpatine's spirit! Rey actually does go dark for a bit and Kylo saves her from the Dark Side! Leia dies and her force ghost joins with Luke's force ghost and they help Rey defeat the Palpatine-connected MacGuffin! Kylo Ren is going to die to save Rey, and she'll bring him back to life with her new resurrection powers! These leaks don't talk about Finn, and that's bothering me as much, if not more, than the weird stuff that the leaks are saying!

Given just how not-good some of these "leaks" sound, maybe I should be grateful that Finn hasn't been mentioned.

Anyway. Abrams and the IX acting crew are--possibly--doing a few reshoots. I forget the term used, but last-minute reshoots are a thing that happens with some regularity in film production, so that's unlikely to be significant. Unless you're a youtuber who wants to get clicks for your theory about how LucasFilm and Star Wars IX are doooooomed.

Comments

[shadowkat]

Oh dear. These leaks are abysmal - they sound horrible. I can't imagine the fandom embracing that story-arc. If they do that, I'm skipping the movie and just waiting until it comes out on rental. Also they will lose half the audience. This makes Last Jedi look rather good in comparison.

[rose_griffes]

Here's the thing: a good chunk of The Last Jedi storyline got leaked at some point--I'm not sure exactly when, because back then I was avoiding leaks--and people said "Nah, those can't be real."

Then the movie came out. And yeah, Luke Skywalker really did refuse to train Rey, and almost killed his own nephew way back when, and appeared as a force entity and didn't actually do any light-saber fighting and then died.

And while plenty of us dislike TLJ for that, among other things, the movie did make a good profit. Critical reviews were excellent. A large part of the general audience was okay with the movie. People with openly negative reactions are in the minority, and we're lumped into a crowd that includes misogynists, racists, and Russian trolls. They're not as much of the "I don't like TLJ crowd" as Disney says, but they do exist.

I highly doubt that episode IX will fail in a big way. I think it will make a profit, even if it does all of the things that these "leaks" say. How much of a profit, and how profitable Disney-owned LucasFilm will be later on? That's a big question mark.

My hopeful side is obliging me to say that there were plenty of fake leaks to go around during this same time period for episode VIII. And I think that reshoots are a good way for a film production company to hide some of their planned story ideas from people who like to leak information. So... we'll see? Fingers and toes crossed.

[ljwrites]

I couldn't even finish reading one of these supposedly credible leaks because it was so ridiculous. I think the one I started reading is the one you mention here, too. Some of these are just technically infeasible (recast/animate young Luke and Leia for an intensive action scene of substantial length and make it believable on the big screen? Doubt) or contradict earlier promises (Leia will not be recast, and they don't have Carrie's voice/footage to do some of this stuff). That's not even getting into the story implausibilities like Ben Solo reversing his development from the past 2 films on a dime. And yeah, Finn and Poe basically don't exist? Huh.

Of course nothing is impossible and we could have the TLJ situation all over again. It's why I'm doing what I did for TLJ and holding off on going to a theater unless I get the go-ahead from someone I trust.

[rose_griffes]

Yeah, the leaks that would be technically hard to execute due to lack of footage are definitely the least credible ones.

TLJ really brought to light how unprepared LucasFilm was in making the sequel trilogy, and IX has the same prep time as VIII. Less, even, given when Abrams was made writer/director. Granted, Abrams may have had a bigger picture in mind from VII that he can mine for IX, but given how fast he churned out the script for VII, maybe not. Not to mention the obstacles from VIII that Johnson put into place.

So: yeah, I'm nervous about Kylo Ren getting a last-minute redemption that is unearned based on the writing from the previous films. Or him getting a whole lotta screen time to earn that redemption. And I'm really nervous about anything and everything connected to Finn. And worried about Poe and Rose as well.

I'm basically planning to do the same as you: wait until I get some kind of confirmation that this is worth watching in theaters. My threshold for "good enough to see in theaters" is pretty low, but there are still plenty of things that could be dealbreakers for me.

[rose_griffes]

Hang on. I just thought of a way to have the younger Luke and Leia flashbacks without technically going against what they said about not casting a new actor in the role: have Billie Lourd do it. If the flashback is what has been reported - the twins post-Return of the Jedi sparring in some kind of helmeted armor - it would be easy to have Lourd play Leia's part and use both makeup and digital manipulation to enhance the resemblance to her mother in her mid-twenties.

Lourd is even the same height as Fisher. o_O

I'm not really into the idea (especially since "Leia reveals to Luke that she's pregnant" is yet another way of centering Kylo in the narrative), but it's possible to do without bringing in someone else who hasn't been in the sequel trilogy.

[ljwrites]

I hadn't thought of that! It's an interesting idea, and it technically violates their promise not to recast Leia but within forgivable parameters.

[shadowkat]

I went and looked after posting this response last night and discovered there's a lot of contradictory leaks at the moment. One has Rey as Luke's daughter. The one that makes sense is Matt Smith being Palapatine (because I know Matt has been cast in an undisclosed role).

Oddly, I didn't mind any of the Luke stuff in Last Jedi. That was on of the few things in the film that worked for me. The character arcs in of themselves didn't bother me -- it was the execution. The movie was so cluttered and busy, it was hard to follow and frankly boring in places. Case of a director with too many ideas and bad editing.

They've probably done with GoT did to avoid spoilers as much as possible -- which is to film multiple endings and multiple scenes. (It worked and didn't work for GoT -- the ending still got spoiled before it aired.)

I have to say, I'm no longer invested in Star Wars. They sort of lost my interest with Last Jedi. But I was also more interested in Han, Luke, Leia and their story than the new characters...so there's that.

[rose_griffes]

I'm on the fence about the material for Luke in TLJ, which leads me to believe that the ideas for him weren't the problem. It was the execution of those ideas. Which is what you've said, so... essentially, I think I agree with that.

[fleurviolette]

It seems like it could all be a red herring or something fake to create some buzz for the film. Usually I assume the 'leaked' info is false until I see it for myself.

Other wise, y i k e s.

[rose_griffes]

I'm mostly entertained by most of these "leaks". If they're real, there's nothing I can do. It will be a terrible movie, but that's months away. If they're fake, they're hilarious and I hope somebody out there is having a great time thinking them up.

[fleurviolette]

Agreed, that would be absurdly hilarious!

2015 was a fun year for films. What happened, you know?? I miss it all.

[elperian]

All this just has me going - rather not going to see it until it's been THOROUGHLY SPOILED AND I KNOW THE MAJOR PLOT POINTS. It just ain't worth it to me otherwise.

[rose_griffes]

Reliable spoilers are months away, so I'm mostly in entertainment mode with these "leaks".