There’s a lot of talk online lately about the negative discourse of a vocal minority of Star Wars fans. This isn’t a new thing, sadly – The Phantom Menace‘s Ahmed Best recently revealed that he suffered severe depression due to the hatred of Jar-Jar Binks – but it seems to have increased as of late in the wake of controversial movies like The Last Jedi and Solo. Now, a would-be filmmaker of the franchise has warned fans to be careful what they wish for.
Much of the backlash against those recent Star Wars movies stems from the fact that some people don’t think they meet their expectations of what a film set in that galaxy far, far away should be, even leading some to raise funds to remake TLJ in their own way. In response to this, director James Mangold has taken to Twitter to comment that this sort of thinking could be bad for the franchise.
Mangold, who’s reportedly working on a Boba Fett solo movie, didn’t name any names, but it’s not hard to work out that he’s particularly aiming his statement at Star Wars fans. He warned that the backlash could lead to “bolder films” being replaced with movies made by committee, saying:
At the point when work writing & directing big franchises has become the emotionally loaded equivalent of writing a new chapter of The Bible (w/ the probable danger of being stoned & called a blasphemer), then a lot of bolder minds r gonna leave these films 2 hacks & corp boards.
You could argue that we’ve already began to see an example of what Mangold’s saying in the DC Extended Universe. After the negative reaction to Batman V Superman, which exhibited a strong authorial tone, we got Justice League, which was effectively made by committee as it passed through so many hands.
Likewise, rumors point to Lucasfilm moving away from Star Wars Anthology films in the future and generally shying away from potentially risky or bold moves to avoid the reception the past two installments have received. Some fans might be glad that we may not get something as audaciously different as The Last Jedi again, but it’s hard to deny that – like Mangold says – it’s not a good sign for Hollywood filmmaking.