Clueless Guys Answer Questions About Disney Movies

1. This really isn't hard to understand at all. They probably realized that they were wrong. LOST wasn't a waste of time.... It was a huge hit for ABC and made the network a bunch of money. I mean, I doubt the heads of Disney are all huge fans of The Bachelor or Grey's Anatomy either, but they continue to pump out those shows plus others from the same creators. I'm sure Iger (or Chapek now) would give almost anything to have a current show on ABC that generated even a quarter of the hype that surrounded LOST (in fact, Iger almost did... to the tune of offering Bad Robot several hundred million when JJ was shopping around for partners back in 2019).

   I have seen people reference those general quotes before but I don't know the source/context. I would be curious if they actually said "they wanted no part of Abrams," or just that they didn't like the shows. The latter seems very unlikely. Executives are slow to cut off creators who literally abuse people... I seriously doubt not being a fan of a pilot would be enough to say "never again" to a generally well liked and successful producer.

2. I…can't see why Disney would be afraid not to hire the director Lucas wanted yet not afraid to chuck Lucas's story or the beloved Legends canon

   I'm sure that Lucas cared much more about the story and that Disney doesn't bow and scrape like that.

   I think it more likely that they liked JJ's Star Trek "reboot" and JJ was pretty hot at the time. Disney hasn't exactly thought deeply about rebooting the ST. And the suits making the decisions were evidently so clueless they didn't understand basic production schedules.

3. One of the writers who worked on the first season of Lost said that Abrams demanded to include a hatch in the middle of the jungle in the sixth episode. He wanted the mystery of what was inside the hatch to drive the entire first season. When the writer asked Abrams what was inside the hatch he admitted he had no clue and that it would be up to Damon Lindelof to figure out. Sound familiar?

4. Yup… and yet, as frustrating as not starting out with an answer could be… it still worked for much of the show's run, because the mysteries that they actually kept track of had cooperative and excited creators who at least tried to have good answers.

   And that *was* a TV show, rather than a Trilogy.

   The mysteries after TFA were exciting to most fans, and most clearly had at least a few really, really, good favorite answers…

   …And LFL made the mistake of thinking that surprise was more important than really, really good answers.

   It's like when DC Comics figured out people knew Monarch was supposed to be Captain Atom, so they derailed Hawk from Hawk and Dove into Monarch instead, which left both Hawk and Dove and Captain Atom adrift for a few years, for no good reason.

5. I imagine JJ was one of those children who would like to go up to other kids with a close fist and say "Guess what I have in my hand!" before running away leaving them to wonder what it was (and it would have been empty)

6. Why do people equate "mysteries" with "mystery boxes"? They're not the same thing. I don't think most folk understand what JJ was getting at with his TED talk…

8. I actually happen to really like Lost's ending (and I tend to love pretty much everything Damon Lindelof does on television, though his film work, to put it nicely, usually leaves something to be desired; that Prometheus is his best feature film script is not exactly something to brag about, but The Leftovers and Watchmen are phenomenal).

   Lost's finale doesn't answer every question/resolve every mystery – given how many were racked up over the course of that show, there's no way it ever could have – but what it does do is provide a very emotionally resonant conclusion for its characters that is in keeping with their arcs across the series, and in the style of the odder eccentricities of the world that the show exists in. That some of the big mysteries remain unresolved is ok in my book, because I felt moved by what I was actually seeing on screen rather than wanting for a list of answers in the end.

9. I saw some interview with George R Martin where he talked about the audience figuring out plot twists ahead of time. He said that overall it was a good thing that the audience is talking about this as it shows that they are invested. And he also said that changing what the author had in mind just because some figure it out ahead of time is usually a bad idea. If the author has in mind that "The Butler did it" and set that up but then changes it at the last minute to "The up-stairs maid did it." then the story can fall apart.

   As for the setup for TFA, it is a bit lacking and could do with more set up.
   But the basics seems to be this. The NR is stronger than the FO, they have way more territory and thus more production capabilities and more resources to draw on. The FO is more militarized but their fleet/military is smaller than the NR. So if the FO attack the NR they would loose. So the NR sees the FO as a threat but as yet not one that could take them in a all out war. They also know that they could attack the FO and win but there is not enough support for such a war within the NR. So they instead support the Resistance under the table. That gives them something that is an active thorn in the FO's side while also giving them plausible deniability. A war by proxy in a manner of speaking.
   What the NR's end goal is remains vague, possibly they wanted the Resistance to find Luke and bring him back. And Luke could then act like a rallying point against the FO. Failing that, the Resistance keeps the FO busy and disrupts their plans. I doubt they thought that the Resistance could beat the FO all on their own.
   As for the FO, they know what the NR is doing and that they are trying to play innocent.
   They also know that they can not attack the NR with the forces they have as they would eventually loose.
   So instead they build SKB as the ultimate weapon of terror. With it they can destroy not just planets but whole systems and they can do this at great distance. So they can use it to destroy the NR central system and then force everyone to bow to them in fear of destruction.

   At the end of TFA, the set up seemed to be that both the FO and the NR suffered significant looses. The NR lost their central system and a lot of ships. the FO lost their big weapon and a lot of soldiers.
   So the next ep would have them weaker but still around. And could have a war between two somewhat equal foes that suffered looses. But instead TLJ have the FO thousands of times stronger and the NR totally weak.

   Bye for now.
   Blackboard Monitor

10. TFA was full of mystery boxes. they were not just mysteries. they were mystery boxes. They were waiting to be opened.

    Problem is though. Fans speculate loads and are usually disappointed by the outcome. Because unless the outcome is grander than what fans can speculate, which is often tough. Then its usually far less interesting than the fans hoped. And then fans start to berate the reveal because they feel they were cheated. Having already mapped it all out in their heads.

11. I think the more natural next step after TFA would have been to make the Resistance aggressively chase down the fleeing FO criminals. Even if they lost the NR, they won the last movie and still should be more dominate.

    The FO lost their main planet destroying base and so they retreat into the UR. You could even present the Resistance as now overconfident (like how Poe acts in the opening, which is a great set up for an arc) and so they pursue them into the dangerous and unexplored UR. Maybe even establish that they've learned their lesson, they can't allow the FO to hide out again, rebuild, amass more weapons and attack again one day in the future. So even if they don't want to, they feel they have no choice. It's now or never. Or hell, maybe Leia feels she can reach her son, save him, when Han couldn't. Use Han's death as a motivator for Leia to step up.

    But then once they're in the UR, and maybe find their way to the mysterious Exogol, where all the fleeing FO ships are heading towards, they realize Palpatine is really in charge, or is regrowing or something, and they're now stuck, or surrounded, and desperate for Luke to come back to save them. It's almost a reverse of ESB in every way. The good guys chase down the baddies. And now it's Leia who rushes to face her son, instead of Luke. And this way Luke is actually really needed in the story, instead of just the script saying he is. The fact that Leia - the other force user - is now in trouble, or trapped by Palpatine, means Luke is the only one left. ie; The Last Jedi.

    This is not exactly true. Fans weren't unhappy with the answer. They were unhappy that there was nothing in the box to begin with. That's very different. If TLJ and TROS actually followed up on those boxes, because they planned everything out and followed through with it, you might still be disappointed, sure, but it's different than what most of the actual complaints centered around. They didn't care what was in those boxes.

12. When the answer is, "Your Snoke theory sucks, he isn't anybody and isn't even important and now he's dead." then yeah, fans might find that a little underwhelming.

13. Well they technically did answer that question. He was created by Palpatine.

    I think many felt abit underwhelmed about that answer.

14. Except literally none of these dynamics around the FO/New Republic and the relative strength of their forces is indicated in TFA. All TFA shows is that the FO is insanely powerful and the New Republic is extraordinarily weak considering they get blown up in one stroke

15. I always see people saying this, but without having read any EU nonsense, I understood exactly what was going on in TFA as did many others. It's a proxy war with the Republic funding the Resistance.

    Now, I may disagree with a lot of what is going on with the state of the galaxy and I find it a bit lackluster... myself and apparently many others found it to be very obvious what was happening. Yes, it was contrived so we could get Rebels vs Empire imagery again, but it wasn't at all confusing.

    Coming up with a secondary answer after the first answer falls flat was just going to end up embarrassing for all parties involved. TPTB deciding that Snoke is just some random person who was then allowed to be killed off by Rian Johnson is the same as Rey being absolutely no one... oh, nevermind, she's Palpatine's granddaughter. And Snoke...? um, he's grown in a vat.

16. But there was no first answer to who he was. He was killed with no answer. TROS could still have answered that question. And it did. It was just underwhelming for all the grand theories people had.

17. It's like that episode of the Office where Michael Scott promises the entire office a BIG surprise.

    He's basically just trying to stall. He has no surprise. He doesn't think that far ahead. In the middle of the day he returns with surprise ice cream sandwiches and everyone is like "is this the big surprise?" and he's like "pff, nah". And then at 5pm he's about to leave and is reminded by Angela about the big surprise he promised and he just starts panicking and drum rolling until they all file out in unsurprised disappointment.

    That's the ST.

    JJ promised some BIG mystery/surprises, and had no idea what they were. RJ was like here's ice cream sandwiches tada. Everyone was like 'really? that can't be it?" And then at the end of the trilogy, JJ just panicked and made a bunch weird noises until everyone left the theater.

18. I don't know why you say JJ had no answers. It's like saying that if something isn't in the movie-as-released it never existed to begin with, and that the director of a franchise movie has ultimate cosmic power over everything in the final product. Just not how moviemaking works.

19. Yes there was, he was just Snoke. That was the answer that RJ gave us. He is who he is and now he's dead.

    Lando is just Lando.
    Qui-Gon is just Qui-Gon.
    Snoke is just Snoke.

    RJ's answer was a big nothing burger that then had to be retconned into a vat grown something or other.

20. JJ is the writer, director, and creator of EP7 & 9. He could have filled those movies with whatever surprises and answers that he wanted. He could have planned far in advance what was in his boxes and how to reveal them. Whether or not EP 8 ruined any of them. He didn't even know who the protagonist really was until the last moment, or at least radically changed it at the last moment. He certainly had no idea Palpatine was coming back until he stepped up and decided to direct EP 9 and needed to start fixing the story. His story. The one he set up. Rey Palpatine and Palpatine returns is just blabbering idiotic noise hoping to stall so that he doesn't actually have to explain anything, or that people will just sorta file out of the room not expecting him to answer it.

21. In JJ's defense, TPTB decided to kill off Snoke. You can't blame that on JJ.

22. You vastly overestimate the power of the directors/writers that Disney and its studios hire vis-a-vis their employers.

    I thought the much-publicized Snyder and Ayer situations would have given fans a hint that big studios' hired directors don't have anything near GL-level authority but apparently not.

    Even the TLJ bts should tell folks that directors are subject to the whims of the studios.

23. 
    I must admit, I was confuse about the First Order and what exactly they were and who Snoke was. Were they rule the Galaxy like the Empire? It was hard to tell what their reach was. It was only in Visual Dictionary did I learn that these were factions in the Galaxy that were against each other. Even then, I don't think it is as clear as how original trilogy presented the Empire and the Rebellion.

24. So you're saying that Disney-KK told JJ to make Rey a Rey Palpatine, and forced him to bring back Palpatine against his will? That was their interference?

    Come on.

    I get that studios interfere with creatives and their vision. That definitely happens. Although let's be honest, Disney's track record is a little better than WB. WB suits are flailing around reacting to marvel movies. Which is why they did what they did to Snyder's JL.

    And I'm sure Disney-LFL told JJ certain things had to happen. Like...make us a gizilion dollars. Make people like the movie. Get the movie out by Xmas. Don't film the movie twice. And as long as he didn't make Rey a giant dragon, or a droid, or Luke's daughter, I'm sure they were cool with his 'solutions' because that's why they hired him. And he was hired because he once again came up with a solution to fix EP whatever, in a way that apparently the first writer (Trev in this case) couldn't. Why would they have hired JJ, and fired Trev, if they had the answer to solve the script all on their own. They surely would have just told Trev to make Rey a Palpatine. Right? Trev, note: Rey is now a Palpatine. Add a few lines here and here. See ya Monday.

    JJ decided to bring back Palpatine all on his own.

    I'm not. That's RJ's ice cream. JJ had to come up with something to fix that. He could have went with Kylo being the big bad. But they all wanted redemption. That may have been forced on him, even though I think originally the plan, if there was one, was to make Kylo irredeemable. A true anti-hero's journey. But that changed too, even though TLJ set that up rather well. But JJ came up with Palps all by himself. This is why I think they're just basically panicking - for lack of a better word - because they have no idea what their solutions are or should be until the very moment the have to make something. They're just blurting out ideas until something sticks. Until someone later has to fix that too.

25. People expected answers to who he was based on his status. whether its as a dark force user, Supreme Leader of this new order or his part in seducing Ben to the dark side. But him being killed doesn't suddenly answer those questions. it just decides they ain't important. TROS decided to answer that question. And many found it underwhelming.

    He officially is a clone created by Palpatine. This is canon as of TROS. If TLJ had answered that question... There wouldn't have been a second answer.

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Clueless Guys Answer Questions About Disney Movies

Source: https://boards.theforce.net/threads/j-j-abrams-director-of-tfa-tros-discussion-thread%E2%80%94now-finally-discussing-jj-abrams.50052915/page-162

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