A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

On Quora, member Thomas Tisher asks: What's your choice, Star Trek or Star Wars? My reply: That’s  way  too binary. I mean, seriously. Why would anyone even have to choose between the two? The two franchises have different storytelling styles, and even though they tell stories that involve space travel and strange planets, they’re not even in the same genre. Star Trek  is a utopian, optimistic vision of how Gene Roddenberry and his creative airs see humanity’s future. It’s not hardcore science-fiction, partly because the franchise began as a TV show in which the tech was loosely based on scientific principles but was mostly made-up for the sake of storytelling. In addition,  Star Trek  allowed Roddenberry and Co. to comment about social and cultural issues (especially war, sex, the Cold War, racial equality, etc.) on television without interference by the network censors. The trick, of course, was to present stories with social commentary adde...

Why did Star Wars video games give a "Very Special Thanks" to George Lucas in the credits? George Lucas is the (now-retired) founder and CEO of Lucasfilm Ltd., the parent company of LucasArts Games, which was originally named Lucasfilm Games. Lucas also created the  Star Wars  movie and television franchise in the 1970s, starting with  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,  in 1977. All of the  Star Wars  video games, whether they were published directly by Lucas Arts or by entities such as Atari (whose  Star Wars: The Arcade Game  was a personal favorite of mine when it was introduced in 1983) owed their existence to the films. Without Lucas’s space fantasy set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” the programmers, game designers, graphics artists, salespeople, and composers might not have even gone into the video game industry in the first place. So it is natural that many of those individuals who playe...

© 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Will Kevin Feige's Star Wars film spell the end for the George Lucas era? No. The “George Lucas era” ended in the fall of 2012. In case you didn’t notice, George Lucas sold his company, Lucasfilm Ltd., to The Walt Disney Company, for $4 billion (half cash, half in Disney stock) in October of 2012. Lucas stopped making  Star Wars  live-action films in 2005 but continued to work in the franchise as creator and executive producer of the CGI animated series  Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  He did not micromanage that 2008–2014 show; he leaned on Dave Filoni, Catherine Winder, and others for that, although he signed off on all of the big storylines, such as the return of Darth Maul, the one-off appearance of Chewbacca, and the Mortis story arc. He also said many, many times that he had  no  plans to make any more  Star Wars  films set after  Return of the Jedi  and t...

™ Lucasfilm Ltd. On Quora, Jason Lowman asks: Is there such a thing as Grey Jedi? Grey Jedi exist only in the minds of  Star Wars  fans who are enthralled with the idea that a Jedi Knight can use both the dark and light side of the Force without suffering the fate of Darth Vader or Assajj Ventress. Other Quora members, such as Mike Prinke and Eric Lowe, have written extensively on the topic of the  non-existence  of Grey Jedi. They’ve pointed out the same facts about the “Grey Jedi” mythos, which are: There’s no mention of “Grey Jedi” anywhere in the official  Star Wars  canon, especially in the material that most counts: the eight (soon to be nine) Skywalker Saga films, the three existing Lucasfilm Animation TV series, or any of the canonical novels, comic books, or post-2014 Lucasfilm-licensed video games None of the maverick Jedi characters seen or mentioned in the aforementioned canon are Grey Jedi. Not Qui-Gon Jinn. Not Ahso...

Are Star Wars animated series only placeholder canon until the movies decide what actually happened during that time frame? No.  Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels,  and  Star Wars: Resistance  are coequal in canon to the live-action films. Especially  Star Wars: The Clone Wars,  because that series was created and executive produced by George Lucas and was the last  Star Wars  content he personally oversaw. The only animated series that meets the “placeholder” criteria is the 2003–2005  Star Wars: Clone Wars  2-D micro-series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and co-produced by Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network. Intended as a means to bridge the three-year in-universe gap between  Attack of the Clones  and  Revenge of the Sith,  Tartakovsky’s series was just one of many elements in Lucasfilm’s multimedia Clone Wars campaign, as well as a backdoor pilot to George Lucas’s CGI animated series.  Star Wars...

Marvel Special Edition #3 Featuring Star Wars  collected issues 1-6 of the official Star Wars comics adaptation. Cover art by Ernie Chan. © 1977 Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Is Star Wars part of the Marvel Universe? No. The  Star Wars  franchise (including films, animated and live-action TV series, and novels) properly belongs to Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company founded in 1971 by George Lucas, who ran it until October 2012. That’s when he sold Lucasfilm and all of its intellectual property to The Walt Disney Company for $2.2 billion in cash and $1.855 billion in stock. Marvel Comics, which itself is now also owned by The Walt Disney Company, has had a long relationship with  Star Wars,  starting as early as 1976. Back then, the comics publisher was one of the first companies to show interest in Lucas’s space-fantasy film set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” Marvel artist Howard Chaykin created the very first...

On Quora, Mike Austin asks: Where in the Star Wars timeline does The Mandalorian TV show take place? My reply: Jon Favreau’s  The Mandalorian  is set between the fall of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the First Order, during the New Republic era. Or, in franchise terms, it takes place between  Return of the Jedi  and  Resistance/Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Per the show's official description:  After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.. It’s not set at any time where we can see a young Han Solo, Chewbacca, or any of the major characters seen in the feature films.

On Quora, member Saif Ramiz asks: Will Luke Skywalker have a cameo in The Mandalorian ? My reply: Contrary to rumors or speculation to the contrary, it is not likely that Mark Hamill will make a cameo on  The Mandalorian  as the galaxy’s sole post-Battle of Endor Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker. The Mandalorian  is set between  Return of the Jedi  and  The Force Awakens,  which would   not necessarily preclude an appearance by Hamill as Luke if the story really called for it. But the setting is closer to the immediate post-Endor era (five years after the destruction of the second Death Star) than it is to the Sequel Trilogy), which makes any cameos by Hamill problematic at best. There’s also the fact that the show has already been shot and is no longer in principal photography; the premiere is less than two months from this writing, and the 10-episode series’ cast list, which includes Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed from  Rocky ) and N...

What do some Star Wars fans have against Gray Jedi? Grey Jedi do not exist in the  Star Wars  canon. They did not exist in the canon prior to 2012, the year that George Lucas decided to retire and sell his company, Lucasfilm Ltd., and all of its intellectual properties to The Walt Disney Company. They also do not exist in the  Star Wars  canon in the post-Lucas era. There are Force-wielders like Ahsoka Tano and Maul, former members of the Jedi and Sith Orders, respectively. There are also the fugitive Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus and his Padawan Ezra Bridger, plus the Bendu. And, of course, there are non-Sith Dark Siders such as Kylo Ren, the Inquisitors (which, I believe, were invented for the old Expanded Universe but made canonical by  Star Wars Rebels ), and Supreme Leader Snoke. But there are no Grey Jedi. Grey Jedi are figments of the imagination created by some  Star Wars  fans who write fan-fiction. It’s a hamfisted attempt to create her...

Is there any chance that a young Han Solo and Chewbacca make an appearance in Star Wars: The Mandalorian? No. Not a chance. The series’ position in the timeline does not permit it. The Mandalorian  is set between  Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi  and  Star Wars: Resistance,  two stories   which are set before  Star Wars - Episode VII; The Force Awakens. Per Deadline Hollywood, which quotes the show’s creator, Jon Favreau: “After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the  Star Wars  universe.  The Mandalorian  is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic,” the  Iron Man  and  Jungle Book  filmmaker posted. So, no. There is no chance that we’ll see the character of Han Solo in this new series set “a long time a...

1977 poster promoting Star Wars. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation On Quora, Marielle Jenna asks: What is the name of the first Star Wars movie of the Original Trilogy? My reply: Officially,   the name of the first  Star Wars  movie of the Original Trilogy is  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. Originally, though, 20th Century Fox released writer-director George Lucas’s now-iconic space fantasy adventure on May 25, 1977 as  Star Wars. The studio, which financed, marketed, and released the film (indeed, owning the rights in perpetuity, although that’s now a moot point since The Walt Disney Company now owns Fox  and  Lucasfilm) allegedly refused to allow Lucas to include the  Episode IV: A New Hope  subtitle in the main titles sequence. Per Lucas’s account in the director’s commentary, Fox executives feared that audiences would be put off by seeing an “Episode IV” subtitle at a time when no other  Star Wars  ...

If the Star Wars series was remastered with every lightsaber choreography redesigned and dialogues given more attention, would it be profitable for the company making it? What? Hell, no! First of all, what you’re suggesting is not technically a  remastering.  What you are really saying here is  Why doesn’t Lucasfilm simply remake the entire pre-2015  Star Wars  series with new choreography and improved dialogue. Why on Earth would you suggest such a thing? I mean, just because a technically adept fan made his own version of  Star Wars  Scene 38 with computer animation software to make the iconic lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader more dynamic, and just because fans raised on video games and the faster, more intense lightsaber fights of the Prequels think it’s  amazeballs,  it does not mean that the vast majority of  Star Wars  fans   want a remake that “improves” the lightsaber duels or the di...

Although the novelization was published in advance of Star Wars' May 25, 1977 release, George Lucas's film is not based on a pre-existing novel or short story. Poster © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation.  Are the Star Wars movies based on books? No. None of the nine  Skywalker Saga  films or either of the two  Star Wars  Anthology films is based on any pre-existing novel or short story. To recap, the  Skywalker Saga  films consist of: The 1999–2005 Prequel Trilogy ( The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones,  and  Revenge of the Sith ) The 1977–1983 Original Trilogy ( Star Wars  or  A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back,  and  Return of the Jedi ) The 2015–2019 Sequel Trilogy ( The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi,  and  The Rise of Skywalker ) The two   stand-alone Anthology films are 2016’s  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,  which is a direct prequel to  A New Hope  (and is ...

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know (or should know) that one of my pet peeves is cognitive dissonance. It doesn't matter if it involves politics, interpersonal relationships, or pop culture, but I am easily annoyed when people willfully ignore facts and publicly express notions that are based on personal opinion or political dogma. For instance, in the Star Wars fandom, there is a subgroup of fans that continually ascribe decisions made by Lucasfilm Ltd., the production company that creates content for both the Indiana Jones and the Star Wars franchises to its parent company, The Walt Disney Company. No matter what it is - whether it's the announcement that a new film or TV series is being considered or that a new book is going to be published, it's never Lucasfilm that gets credit (or the criticism) for the decision, it's Disney.  Allow me to illustrate by sharing yet another Star Wars- related item from Quora. In the Star Wars category, Jensen...

On Quora, I keep on seeing questions such as this one: Does George Lucas still own the Star Wars franchise after it was taken over by Disney? My answer: © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  No. When George Lucas sold his company, Lucasfilm Limited, to the Walt Disney Company in 2012, he sold  all  of the rights to intellectual properties Lucasfilm owned, including: The  Star Wars  franchise and brand, which includes the five  Star Wars  films produced by Lucasfilm before 2012. 20th Century Fox owns the distribution rights for those until 2020, at which time the rights will be transferred to Disney. Fox, however, still owns the rights to  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope,  in perpetuity   because the studio financed the making of the film in addition to releasing it. The four  Indiana Jones  movies and the  Young Indiana Jones  TV series ,  which Paramount Pictures ...