According to a new rumor, the folks behind Star Wars: The High Republic are allegedly furious with Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and the Luke Skywalker cameo in the season 2 finale.
Taking place 200 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga, this new publishing initiative, consisting of dozens of books, comics, and more, is the most ambitious project that Lucasfilm has undertaken since the Sequel Trilogy. Though apparently, some of the creators who work in the Lucasfilm Story Group are mad at Favreau and Dave Filoni for keeping the Luke Skywalker cameo a secret, thinking that the press coverage has somehow diminished the hype for the debut of The High Republic.
They’d be right, of course, since as far as Star Wars is concerned, everyone’s still talking about that awesome finale and the Last Jedi’s surprise arrival. And this latest report reinforces the speculation that a civil war is brewing inside the studio as to what direction the galaxy far, far away should take from here on out.
Sources tell me that the Lucasfilm Story Group that has been heavily involved in the development of The High Republic is frustrated for several reasons. First, the reveal of Luke Skywalker in the finale of The Mandalorian’s second season took all the oxygen out of High Republic. Who cares about The High Republic if they’re all wondering what happens with Luke Skywalker and his new padawan Grogu (baby Yoda’s revealed name)?
Worse, I’m told they’re furious because they weren’t informed about Luke Skywalker being the season send-off surprise. The people working on High Republic had no idea that Favreau and Filoni would be driving the fanbase into hyperdrive just before they launched a new sub-property that is significantly different. This sort of explains why they struck out at the fanbase reaction publicly.
The fact that Favreau managed to keep this a secret from even some top executives in Lucasfilm has seemingly sent a clear message that Disney wholly trusts the creator. And according to this report, things got even worse when various celebrities began publicly thanking the team behind The Mandalorian.
To them, this is a betrayal of Kathleen Kennedy, who originally put Favreau with Filoni for the Mandalorian. Nobody is thanking KK for The Mandalorian or Luke, and nobody is thanking the Story Group for anything. What all this has done is make a previously whispered-about schism turn into a full-blown public display of the two visions at Lucasfilm. Nobody in their right mind can look at The High Republic and The Mandalorian and conclude those are two sub-properties following the same mission statement under a unified Lucasfilm. And because fans are now picking sides, High Republic seems to be knee-capped by the popularity of The Mandalorian, as well as the fear that High Republic signals a return to sequel trilogy style Star Wars.
All in all, then, it seems that fans are more invested in whatever story the likes of Favreau and Filoni can come up with as opposed to all the rest of the creatives currently working on the franchise. And the rather underwhelming and lackluster premiere of Star Wars: The High Republic last week is the perfect case in point.
