Disney, Taylor Swift, Letterboxd, and Meta Are All Living on Borrowed Trust

So Disney dropped the news that Jon Watts will be directing Star Wars Episode X. Um, that's, you know, the director of the Sp- the latest Spider-Man trilogy, Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home.

Um, and it's intended to be a new trilogy continuing the St- the Skywalker saga.

And I just had a lot of thoughts because, um, on the one hand I feel like, great, you're bringing in a director that you've worked with on the Marvel side.

Um, clearly he's to be trusted because of how well the s- latest Superman trilogy did.

Um, the numbers, the rising stars, the, you know, rising cachet of, you know, Tom Holland and Zendaya.

Um, but then while you're announcing it, you're also saying that he's gonna direct the Skywalker saga and bringing back Rey, who [laughs] wasn't the most popular of characters from the last s- uh, Star Wars sequels.

So in a way, I kind of felt like they were kneecapping him by setting him up to potentially fail, um, by bringing up all this like, you know, bad feeling and drama that everybody kind of felt from the last, you know, sequels.

And instead of letting the man cook, who clearly, you know, could, based off, like, his work for Spider-Man, um, here they are kind of, you know, making it almost impossible for him to make anybody happy [laughs] you know? Um, aside from that small population of, you know, Rey fans, um, who want to continue seeing her story.

And I think that, um, this is, um, a thing that has become a problem for Disney because of the six years that they've spent essentially trying to figure out what went wrong with Star Wars.

They've tried prestige TV with Andor, which was critically loved, but it had very low vi-viewership.

They've tried IP nostalgia with Obi-Wan and Boba Fett.

Neither one of those really worked.

Um, Watts is k- isn't like an ava- avant-garde pick or the bold swing, kind of like Andor.

Um, he's the guy that's proven to make a crowd-pleaser for a franchise that has been failing, kind of like he brought back Spider-Man after the Amazing Spider- The Amazing Spider-Man movies with, um, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

And so part of, like, what, you know, I think needs to be done is the fact that Disney needs to stop listening to the fans that are very hardcore and very loud and obnoxious about where they think the Star Wars universe should go, right? Um, I think we're having kind of that retrospective of maybe The Last Jedi was the best, you know, Star Wars movie in the sequels.

Um, but everyone still has, like, that bad feeling of like, well, they got rid of Rian Johnson, and then, you know, they went back to J.J. Abrams, who, you know, directed The Rise of Skywalker, and that movie pandered way too much to fans and ended up being like the worst of the bunch.

And so now it's like y- they're grasping at, like, straws trying to, like, pick back up the IP that they know is very valuable to them.

If, like, they're able to really make the Skywalker, you know, um, uh, story really come out and like resonate, um, would be great for them, right? 'Cause all of a sudden they can pick up, we, you know, kind of put these sequels to the side and, you know, let's go back to, like, the Skywalkers.

And that's why I think th- you know, to some extent you need to let the creators cook.

You need to let the writers and the wr- uh, and, and the directors that you're bringing in and trusting to do what they're gonna do and let them do, do that thing, right? If I trust that you can rebuild the ...

And you've proven that you can rebuild the Spider- Spider-Man, um, franchise, then, like, I should let you do the same for Star Wars.

Um, so that's kind of like, uh, uh, a, a, a thing that's here.

Like, it, it's a marketing decision and a PR strategy to announce it in this way.

And so, like, that's why I wanna talk about it, 'cause it's like-

Yeah

So Disney dropped the news that Jon Watts will be directing Star Wars Episode X. Um, that's, you know, the director of the Sp- the latest Spider-Man trilogy, Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home.

Um, and it's intended to be a new trilogy continuing the St- the Skywalker saga.

And I just had a lot of thoughts because, um, on the one hand I feel like, great, you're bringing in a director that you've worked with on the Marvel side.

Um, clearly he's to be trusted because of how well the s- latest Superman trilogy did.

Um, the numbers, the rising stars, the, you know, rising cachet of, you know, Tom Holland and Zendaya.

Um, but then while you're announcing it, you're also saying that he's gonna direct the Skywalker saga and bringing back Rey, who [laughs] wasn't the most popular of characters from the last s- uh, Star Wars sequels.

So in a way, I kind of felt like they were kneecapping him by setting him up to potentially fail, um, by bringing up all this like, you know, bad feeling and drama that everybody kind of felt from the last, you know, sequels.

And instead of letting the man cook, who clearly, you know, could, based off, like, his work for Spider-Man, um, here they are kind of, you know, making it almost impossible for him to make anybody happy [laughs] you know? Um, aside from that small population of, you know, Rey fans, um, who want to continue seeing her story.

And I think that, um, this is, um, a thing that has become a problem for Disney because of the six years that they've spent essentially trying to figure out what went wrong with Star Wars.

They've tried prestige TV with Andor, which was critically loved, but it had very low vi-viewership.

They've tried IP nostalgia with Obi-Wan and Boba Fett.

Neither one of those really worked.

Um, Watts is k- isn't like an ava- avant-garde pick or the bold swing, kind of like Andor.

Um, he's the guy that's proven to make a crowd-pleaser for a franchise that has been failing, kind of like he brought back Spider-Man after the Amazing Spider- The Amazing Spider-Man movies with, um, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

And so part of, like, what, you know, I think needs to be done is the fact that Disney needs to stop listening to the fans that are very hardcore and very loud and obnoxious about where they think the Star Wars universe should go, right? Um, I think we're having kind of that retrospective of maybe The Last Jedi was the best, you know, Star Wars movie in the sequels.

Um, but everyone still has, like, that bad feeling of like, well, they got rid of Rian Johnson, and then, you know, they went back to J.J. Abrams, who, you know, directed The Rise of Skywalker, and that movie pandered way too much to fans and ended up being like the worst of the bunch.

And so now it's like y- they're grasping at, like, straws trying to, like, pick back up the IP that they know is very valuable to them.

If, like, they're able to really make the Skywalker, you know, um, uh, story really come out and like resonate, um, would be great for them, right? 'Cause all of a sudden they can pick up, we, you know, kind of put these sequels to the side and, you know, let's go back to, like, the Skywalkers.

And that's why I think th- you know, to some extent you need to let the creators cook.

You need to let the writers and the wr- uh, and, and the directors that you're bringing in and trusting to do what they're gonna do and let them do, do that thing, right? If I trust that you can rebuild the ...

And you've proven that you can rebuild the Spider- Spider-Man, um, franchise, then, like, I should let you do the same for Star Wars.

Um, so that's kind of like, uh, uh, a, a, a thing that's here.

Like, it, it's a marketing decision and a PR strategy to announce it in this way.

And so, like, that's why I wanna talk about it, 'cause it's like-

Yeah