The Desperate Doctor Doom Debacle

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about the reveal of Doctor Doom in the MCU and the casting news.

So as we all know Robert Downey Jr. is back in the MCU playing Doctor Doom. This news has divided a lot of people, for me personally I am mixed to trepidatious on it. However, before we go any further I just want to address the milk toast folks that go ‘oh MCU fans are toxic they are judging something before they have even seen it’, as their brains slowly trickle down their backs. The whole point of casting reveals is to generate buzz and attention be that good or bad, the whole point is to get people talking so by going oh you’re toxic for talking about it negatively, even your big daddies over at Disney would tell you to shut up.

That said let’s get into it.

I think the biggest issue with the casting is that it ruins Tony Stark’s sacrifice in Endgame and yes I know it won’t be the actual Tony Stark but rather a variant Doom/Iron Man Hybrid. However, to a lay audience they will just go ‘oh look it is Iron Man’ I thought he was dead, and so it will mean people will be both confused and then asking why is he a villain and killing his friends, to a basic understander of the franchise it could almost ruin the character entirely. Though I imagine Marvel Studios will go to great lengths to show how he is not Tony Stark, we may never even see Downey Jr’s face.

From that you have the fact that this Doom will not be the Victor Von Doom that people want, it is a Tony Stark variant, meaning that the actual peasant to ruler Doom may never appear in the MCU. This then means that a character a lot of people were looking forward to has been abandoned for the cynical ploy of getting Downey Jr back. Also it means that the Fantastic Four will have a different origin story as if this variant is from their universe it will be that their Tony Stark went bad, rather than Von Doom existing as a contemporary and even friend in the early days to the Baxter clan.

Personally, I think the best thing that could happen would be that the Tony Stark variant either never takes his mask off and is in fact not a variant and it is Downey Jr playing Von Doom, or that the actual real Von Doom usurps power from the Stark variant at the end of Doomsday and then becomes God Emperor Doom going into Secret Wars.

Ultimately, whilst it is nice to have Downey Jr back, the cynical ploy could add to the MCU’s woes in the long term.

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Cinema Issues: The Era Of The Virtue Signalling Celebrity

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about the era of the virtue signalling celebrity. As many of you may know my position is that celebrities should keep their politics to themselves, no one and I mean no one wants to hear about how a millionaire likely nepo baby thinks the world should be. To make matters worse a lot of the time these people either don’t know what they are talking about or are just reading from pre-prepared statements to try and say the right things to get people to give them praise for being progressive. It is never meant genuinely.

People say oh they are celebrities with a platform they should be championing social ideals and saying this is how society should be, but no, they are not politicians or community leaders they are actors people’s whose job it is to entertain not to moralise or tell you how to live you life.

The issue with things is everyone is afraid of being cancelled, everyone is worried if they don’t say the right thing, take the right position, they might get dropped or lose everything and in that position you don’t have real people anymore you have robots. People who are just going through the motions saying things and doing things simply because they have to.

We should not need to know actors politics, but if we have to their should be an equal balance of left and right wing people in Hollywood. There should never, in Hollywood or anywhere else, be one dominant group that tells the rest how they can think and what is correct thought and what is wrong thought that is inherently dystopian. Yet that is Hollywood, where there is one line to tread, and I think in many ways that is why you are seeing success coming from outside Hollywood and you are seeing people turn away from them, as people hate the Californian bubble.

It’s the fact that not only do these people think they are great and virtuous but it is the distain they have the fans or the watchers that really makes them insufferable as they look down on them and think that they are dirty little people who need to be made to think correctly.

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Star Wars Is A Male Targeted Brand It Is Not Male Dominated

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about Star Wars, yes again, I know I am sorry. My inspiration to write this article came from quotes from Leslye Headland and Kathleen Kennedy about the Star Wars community and how it is toxic and male dominated.

I saw these comments and honestly I laughed, then I felt a little depressed. I think these comments from Kennedy a woman who arguably never ever got Star Wars and from Headland, a woman who keeps trying to convince you she is a Star Wars fan to appear down with the kids, whilst getting basic lore facts wrong, are infuriating. There is a trend amongst these shows that seem to want to take their properties and force in current era identity politics, I have talked about it with Doctor Who, and that is fan blaming. Basically, they make these shows that the fans don’t want and then rather than take any accountability for it they claim it’s the fans fault for not watching the trash they dole out to them.

One only needs to look at the stats for Star Wars to see it is a male franchise, whilst it is open to women, it is mainly men that watch these films and care about the brand. That is what makes the above comments so stupid and out of touch, not every franchise is equally for everyone, some lean more towards women and some towards men that is basic analytics. Yet, that doesn’t fly with what the creatives want, Kennedy has been trying to say Star Wars is a girl brand for years, Kennedy doesn’t understand her audience, you can see her with her force is female shirt for further reference. She doesn’t understand why the Mandalorian works, but the sequels didn’t.

Kennedy wants to push that this is a girl brand so she has a series like Obi-Wan where he is secondary in his own show to a new insert Inquisitor that no one cared about, it is obvious why this happened. The Acolyte with its heavy female cast is clearly trying to take aim at a female audience, and in doing that you have these attacking comments towards guys saying oh how bad the fandom is and how it is male dominated. This they are doing to pre-empt the backlash to the show, because they know it is bad, and they know fans won’t like it, so then the narrative becomes they are toxic. This show will not do well because unlike something like The Mandalorian that was for everyone,here you have a narrative that no this show is only for one type of fan and if you aren’t it don’t watch it.

It is shows like this which highlight why the Star Wars IP is in trouble

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How Disney Is Quickly Becoming The Most Hated Studio In Hollywood

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about the dire state of Disney and how they are facing down a pretty dismal future and why that is.

On paper Disney should be doing well, they have some many classic film franchises, and are well known and in some quarters beloved across the world, and yet at the 2023 box office they had more bombs than any other studio. Moreover, their reputation is so low at the moment that they are having to turn off the comments on their trailers as people are tearing into them and down voting them into oblivion.

So the question is why? Honestly, there isn’t much of any one answer to that there are quite a few and I’ll try to get to what I view as the main few in this piece.

I think the main reason people have turned on Disney is because they represent quantity over quality, they are churning out sequels, prequels and remakes no one wants. They are either using the wrong algorithm or betting hard on nostalgia that doesn’t seem to be coming together in this regard. Look at their upcoming Lion King live action sequel, it has already been down voted to hell and why? Not because it is offensive or even super bad but because it looks soulless and no one wants it, in many respects this comes off as them being entirely out of touch which you could argue almost all of Hollywood is right now. Moreover, in the investors call Bob Iger said that they are content mining, which really reflects how Disney view these properties not as something to be stewarded and looked after but rather something they can make a quick buck out of, and obviously it’s the movie business so you expect things like this, but you don’t expect them to say it.

Another reason why people are turning on Disney and this crosses over with the idea they are out of touch is that they push political messages constantly and towards kids. Film and TV can and often does have political messages and that’s fine but you have to also expect the blowback and the drop off, the idea is that you care so much about the thing you are out there preaching that you don’t care people are leaving. Many people are angry for what they see as Disney pushing out incredibly progressive messaging in their content, which doesn’t line up with a lot of its audience believe, this is the issue with commenting on hot button issues in your content, you create a divide. Moreover, to then go out of your way to call your fans names and try and shame them for not having the same politics as you is another good way to lose business. It seems though not in the immediate term that Disney have learnt this lesson and are trying to get out of the culture war, as they have issued a number of statements saying how they are walking away from the message, but we will have to wait and see.

Finally the third reason I think Disney is loathed at the moment is the idea of audience homogenisation. It is well known that Disney have taken things like Marvel or Star Wars things that have always been traditionally male brands and have tried to make them appeal more to women in the idea of having a wider audience share and making more money. They have done other things with other franchises again in order to try and grow the audience as well, but as it has started to come out with things like Madame Web these tactics don’t work, rather than get a new audience in whilst also retaining your old audience, your old audience ends up feeling alienated and leaves and you don’t get in enough new people to replace them.

If I were Disney I would clean house, they need to get rid of a lot of people that are pushing these sort of ideas, I would go back to making films and tv shows people want, I would listen to fans of their franchises in a meaningful way, I would keep politics out of it or get writers who can handle it in a way that doesn’t feel so heavy handed and I would keep my franchises aimed at the demographics that had made them popular and not try and bring in anyone else as I would know it would alienate the original fans.

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The Death And Destruction Of Doctor Who As A Franchise: It Is Over Folks

Written by Luke Barnes

In this cinema issues article we are talking about how Doctor Who has become a sorry husk or shadow of its former self

Now a quick warning before we get into it, if you cannot handle someone else’s opinion, particularly one you disagree with then you need to stop reading this review and reflect on why that is and maybe get some help. I am allowed my opinion on Doctor Who as you are yours, sending me some death threats because you can’t stand what I am saying is not going to stop me and it just makes you look bad.

That out of the way lets begin, so a quick heads up I have not watched the first two episodes of the new season of Doctor Who and I don’t plan to, I have spoken to people who have and gleamed their opinions, and I have seen clips from it.

However, it seems my previous writing on Doctor Who and RTD was entirely right, I am have been quite vindicated with the latest episodes by all accounts. Doctor Who is no longer about time and space adventures but rather pushing a political message at the audience over and over again until they are begging for it to stop. Case in point there is a scene in the recent two episodes wherein one character brings another to task over their misuse of pronouns, why is this needed.

I have seen some commentary saying that this show is fighting in the culture wars and trying to fight back against growing right wing thought and all this, but I don’t think it is that deep, I just think RTD liked that he got attention for It’s A Sin so decided to keep doing that. My question ultimately with this show is who is it for now. What’s more where has the Disney money gone as the monsters and effects still look as bad as ever.

To add to all this the fanbase has been pretty split, but what is not helping is that we have already seen a number of people involved with the production calling out the fans and saying they are bigots of varying sorts. This does not buy you any good will and instead looks like a show that is insecure and knows that it doesn’t have the viewing figures to feel confident so has to try and shift the narrative. As again I predicted when these new seasons of Who not only don’t save the series but instead kill it for another 20+ years, they need someone to blame.

Despite it being all over my feed this will be the last I will be commenting on the show, but I will say this to you, why watch a show that doesn’t want you to watch it, are you a fan, if so the cast and creatives think you’re toxic, and personally I will not reward them with my rating figure and so will boycott the show. Expect more screaming about how evil the fans are before it gets cancelled for good next year.

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The Coming Drought That Is The Summer 2024 Box Office

Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will talk about the dire issue facing Hollywood this year, the incredibly thin on the ground summer slate.

Now as any good movie fan worth their salt will tell you the summer is the key time to be making money in the film business, the kids are off school, people want somewhere cool to go to get away from the scorching temperatures, depending on where you live, it is the most important time of the year for Hollywood. This normally means that some of the biggest movies of the year are coming out during the summer months sometimes multiple a week, whereas this year there is a drought.

This drought is the result of a few things covid, the strikes, diminishing box office receipts that are making studios far more careful about greenlighting projects. However, it is plain to see, this year we have only a few true blockbusters coming out, with Kingdom Of The Planet of The Apes, Furiosa, Deadpool and Wolverine and really that is it. Add to that a few kids movies in Despicable Me 4, Garfield and Inside Out 2, and a few smaller titles like the new Alien film and Borderlands and you have a very thin slate. There are some weeks in summer where there are no major releases at all and it seems almost nonsensical for studios to be doing this.

Moreover, the films mentioned above, with no doubt a few others I have forgotten, are not all ones people are looking forward to, and that speaks to the problem. Hollywood is worried as they keep putting out films they think are hits, that aren’t, the idea of safe hits is becoming a thing of the past, now as those of you who have read my other Cinema Issues pieces will know this is in no small part due to consumers becoming more choosey as it costs more that ever to go to the cinema these days. Although in addition to that it is also because increasingly Hollywood is becoming isolated, out of touch, with the disconnect between what studios think people want and what they actually do growing by the day.

Why would people want a sequel from over 30 years ago, or a spin off from a film that came out 9 years ago and didn’t set the world on fire. Have studios not learnt that people are sick of prequels, sequels and reboots by now. It is not a huge surprise that a lot of the films that have done well in recent years Super Mario, Barbie, Oppenheimer have been original.

To close this out, things are only going to get worse for Hollywood and the box office. I think that there they may be no billion dollar films this year, for the first time in a long time, I think that Deadpool and Wolverine and Despicable Me 4 will do well and I think the rest will struggle or flop. If I am being really blunt about this, I think Hollywood’s time is done they have run out of good will and good ideas and I think that we need new studios, that operate outside of the California format. We need cinema to become more international and less American so that we can have something that is truly fresh and new.

New Doctor Who: An Effort To Spread Sexual Themes On A Family Friendly Show

Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will talk about Doctor Who and how a show for children is in the process of being turned into a platform to push progressive propaganda to children, who don’t really have any sort of concepts about sexuality and gender roles and what not, when most families are just tuning in to watch a science fiction show about an alien going on adventures.

So before we get into this a disclaimer, as all of you who have read my reviews before will know I am a fairly centrist person politically, there are insane and bad people on both sides of the divide and I don’t think anyone should be hated regardless of their political affiliation, race, gender, sexuality or any of the rest of it. Though I am a harsh reviewer as is my custom I just want good shows that I can enjoy and that aren’t trying to be insidious, as is current year Doctor Who.

Personally, I think Who peaked with David Tennant and has been going down hill ever since, it is well known that the BBC almost cancelled it during the Whittaker tenure, and as many of you will know based on my reviews written then the overt progressive message which amounted to Whittaker turning and lecturing you ruined those seasons for me and drove me off the show. What these creatives don’t seem to understand is that people want escapism and not for their shows to get into hot button contemporary issues. Anyway, I returned to the show, against my better judgement, for the specials and my my the pronouns scene was every bit as bad as the Whittaker era rants, couple that with the Davros incident and how Russel T. Davies handled that and yes I knew things were only going to get worse.

When Davies came back I was hopeful he made some of the best seasons of Who after all, but then I started reading his interviews. In his Who absence Davies had made It’s A Sin a heavy LGBTQ+ show that was lauded, and it seems he has returned to Who to make season two of that show rather than a season of Doctor Who. The issue with this is that Who is a family science fiction show, It’s A Sin was a drama made for a different crowd, the two things are chalk and cheese. Yet Davies seemingly doesn’t understand that, he thinks that the current fans of Who are bigots and he wants to make all of the LGBTQ+ fans of the show feel heard and seen and so now will only appeal to them, if they exist. To call fans bigots when Captain Jack was a popular character is nothing short of nonsense.

Anyway, the new doctor has seconded this by not just calling fans bigots, he has also called them Gammons, UK slang for racist hicks, and told them to touch grass whilst giving a long speech about white mediocrity. I ask you who is this show for and why has the BBC allowed it to be made, it seemingly is going out of its way to alienate any possible viewers it can. It is the same tactic being deployed over and over again, they set up the narrative early on that the fandom are bigots so that when no one watches it or there is a backlash they can go see bigotry as though that will boost viewer counts, its to try and redirect blame from a disaster in the making.

In the same interview the new doctor also said that he wants to defeat a monster by twerking it to death or something like. This is symptomatic of the problem with new new Who this is trying to appeal to TikTok kids who don’t even know what Who is.

I’ll try and keep this brief as I know this will be the most controversial section of this piece. I think it is wrong for a family science fiction show to try and sexualise kids, now let me explain RTD has said in an interview that he wants to use these seasons to create a new religion and to make new generations of kids aware of the LGBTQ+ community, which is fine of the surface. There are also comments, from the new doctor saying that this is the ‘’gayest’’ season yet and it makes you think why does a kids show need to be straight or gay. Indeed the Rubicon was already crossed under Whittaker when the female doctor had romantic feelings towards her female companion. It feels like the show is trying to push sexual themes and what not onto kids either overtly or subliminally and I think that’s wrong. I think that there is no need for Doctor Who to be anything other than family friendly entertainment, it doesn’t need to be straight or gay, black or white, or any of these things it just needs to be fun and it seems like this go around that has been missed.

One has to wonder how far the BBC will let the boundary be pressed and what they will attempt to show in order to push boundaries and if it will even be suitable for families anymore.

If it is not yet clear, this new season of Who is not for you, who I assume is a fan, it is either for kids that don’t know it exists, or it is for marginalised people that have always been very welcomed in the Who community and who already feel seen, this is no longer Who, it is the adventures of the message and co.

Marvel Is On Life Support But Can It Be Saved

Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will talk about how or indeed if Marvel Studios can pull themselves back from the brink. As many of you will be aware Marvel is in somewhat of a bad state at the moment, yes Deadpool and Wolverine will be a success but outside of that what else will be? Will Brave New World or Thunderbolts break 1 billion it is highly, and I do mean highly, unlikely. Many people view Marvel Studios as being in a perpetual decline since Endgame with a few hits here and there, mainly Spiderman related, and undeniably that’s true.

My question here is how do we get back to the hight of Endgame, in my opinion there are 4 key steps that need to be taken in order to right the ship, some will be popular and some won’t be, but all are needed.

Firstly, Marvel needs to stop making things for niche audiences, they made a show like She-Hulk not for general nerds or fans of Marvel but to try and lure in the Fleabag crowd, with the idea that oh they can keep their male audience and then bring in a new or growing female audience at the same time. This as Sony has learnt is not possible, doing things like this lessens your inherent male nerdy viewer base, and though it may increase demographics slightly doesn’t change the fact that superhero content is mainly enjoyed by guys so should be aimed at them. You cannot force an inherently male franchise into all these different moulds to try and get in different groups who likely will just watch that one thing and tune out the rest. You can see this as well with the low numbers of things like Ms Marvel, again it was made for a specific audience and the general Marvel crowd didn’t turn up, the Marvels again it was made for a specific audience and it didn’t perform well, do I need to spell it out anymore?

Secondly, they need to wipe the slate clean and start over. Now I don’t mean a reboot what I mean is give up all this multiverse stuff that has so far left audiences cold, Kang is gone so come up with a new threat and have it be set in 616, or whatever Marvel calls their universe, and leave the multiverse for another day. As well as this you want to focus on your well established and liked characters, I am talking about your Fantastic Fours, your X-Men, hell even a Midnight Sons with Moon Knight, Blade, Dane Whitman, Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider, not Agatha and the coven of who cares, or rip-off Iron Man, or even Wonder Man, who is coming in way too late. Here is the bit that will get some people upset, I believe that Marvel should copy WBD and scrap these projects even if they are done and ready to go for the tax write off and go okay we made a mistake with these projects on characters people don’t know or in the case of Riri people actively dislike, and just let it go down the wayside.

Thirdly, stop it with Disney +, there shouldn’t be any series coming out on Disney + every time they release something like the soap opera dross that was Echo all they are doing is diluting the brand and creating homework for people. When you just had to watch the movies to know what was going on things were far more accessible, marathoning a few movies is far more enjoyable, especially as many of them were good, then sitting down and watching hours upon hours of frankly mediocre Disney + fare so that you can understand a reference in the Marvels. The level of homework that is expected of audiences at this point is just ridiculous. If it were me I would use Disney + for two reasons, firstly to spot light and introduce new characters, White Tiger appears in the next Spiderman film give her an hour long special on Disney +, not a series. I would also use Disney + as a bridge, by that I would use hour long specials to fill in gaps in the world or between films to again set up ideas. Basically I would do 4 or maybe 5 of these type of events a year and nothing else, they would each be about an hour long and that’s it.

Oh and I’d keep the animation stuff going on Disney + as that is fairly inconsequential.

Finally, if things were getting really bad, which I have a feeling that by the end of next year they will be, I would bring back Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans and any other dead character that would get fans to care again, but I believe that this should only be done if they can’t save it any other way as it would create its own problems.

Ultimately Marvel seem hellbent on hacking themselves to death, the Silver Surfer casting news and the fact that we aren’t getting the version of the Surfer most fans would want shows that they are continuing down an identity politics, subversion sort of direction and mark my words they will pay for it, as audiences won’t come back. Perhaps the issue is Fiege himself, much like with Lucasfilm Marvel would benefit from someone new at the helm as Fiege and his masterplan seems to be a thing of the past at this point, unless the plan said to make a bunch of low quality Disney + shows and damage the brand.

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The Death Of Cinemas

Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will talk about how cinemas are putting themselves out of business and how the coming downfall could have been prevented.

So as some of you who follow me on X will know this cinema issues article is inspired by something that happened to me recently. I have a cinema card meaning I can go as often as I like for a monthly fee, and I had booked to see a film at the start of the week which I had to miss due to an emergency of sorts and go later on that same day at the end of the week. Now remember as I had to get another lot of tickets they got more of my money not less, yet the next day I got an email telling me that I was getting a strike for missing a film and if I get three of them there will be some arbitrary consequences. I challenged them on this and they said it was done to make sure the most amount of customers could view the films. Know I am not an expert on what audiences will do but I don’t think in either of the screenings I booked it would have been sold out, and I don’t think there is that mad a rush to go to the cinema anymore that there is ever a chance a screening will sell out. Which gets me down to the brass tax of what this policy is, it is a means for cinemas to attack some of their most loyal customers as in there misguided and deluded way they think that is the problem.

Cinema attendance is rapidly falling, check any number of stats and data elsewhere for proof of it, it dropped off in the pandemic and hasn’t returned, the one two three four punch of rising ticket prices, preaching, streaming and the ever increasing popularity of anime meant more and more people are staying home. Now what are cinemas to do in order to keep the lights on? They think they can sell themselves as premium luxury destinations serving food and cocktails as a means to stay afloat, if people couldn’t afford five pounds for a cinema ticket, more like eight dollars American, how can they afford to wine and dine? They think they can sell the fact that oh they have the best tech, it is the way the filmmaker wanted you to see it, no one other than the purists care about that and a lot of people have good home cinema setups now so again that isn’t getting folks in the door. They can try another tirade against piracy which won’t change or effect anything as with VPN’s its easier than ever to pirate any film you like. They are trying to police those that still come as though they are expecting a mad rush to suddenly come in as one of the cinema owners goes back in time to assassinate the founders of Netflix in utero therefore preventing the streaming future, yet all there policing does is make me not want to go to the cinema anymore. They can put on better films cater more towards anime films or niche interests that might result in new people coming or large groups for an event film, but ultimately they can’t control what gets made.

There is only one logical thing they can do, but they won’t do it. They need to lower costs, I saw something the other day from a exhibitor who said that they should charge the same prices for cinema tickets as they do live sports or concerts, raising cinema prices into thirty to six pounds a go, add about three quarters of the overall amount to that to work out the dollar price, this would kill cinema dead. Concerts and live sports are in the moment events that cannot be replicated again you can rewatch a film at home, moreover these events have a sense of community and fandom in a way the cinema doesn’t, these are activities that are milestones are major events in people’s lives, going and watching the latest Melissa McCarthy film where she poos herself falls over and it smears down her face isn’t that and it never will be.

Yes, if they lowered costs they might initially lose money however, once going to the cinema became more affordable for families or individuals they would be more likely to go more often to get the kids out of the house, they would be more likely to try new films, they would be more likely to be in the building so you could sell them some merch or food. Ultimately whether we can agree on the cause or not cinema is dying, and by that I mean audiences going to the cinema to watch films, the idea that things might one day go back to pre-pandemic levels is increasingly proving unlikely, and the one thing that won’t save cinema is to hike up ticket prices.

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Fire Kathleen Kennedy

Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will talk about Star Wars and the clear differences between Star Wars from a John Favreau and Dave Filoni view and Star Wars under Kathleen Kennedy’s purview. Yes I am aware that she signs off on everything as studio head but I am referring to the Filloniverse as it is known vs everything else.

To get to the brass tax of it this article was inspired after catching up with the first few episodes of the new season of The Bad Batch and then reading an article online about the Acolyte. In both of these things two very different things are being done, on the one hand you have characters that fans have come to know over a long period of time and lots of appearance from well liked characters and on the other hand you have something very new without known characters. Now a few prefaces, I am not saying in John and Dave’s stuff there isn’t new characters there are, there are simply a lot of returning ones as well, and I am not saying outside of the John and Dave stuff there is no recurring characters in the rest of the shows there are, just these feel more forced, I am also not saying there shouldn’t be entirely original stories.

I personally think of these two approaches the one favoured by John and Dave is the right way forward as it expands Star Wars and gives us new characters but does so in a way that feels like they care about the characters they already have and care that fans like them. Whereas outside of John and Dave Kathleen and co seem to want to wipe away everything the fans care about killing off fan favourite characters and wanting to move to entirely new periods in cannon, not to tell interesting new tales but so they aren’t shackled by cannon and so they can stuff the cast with as much diversity as possible. There is a sense that John and Dave understand that Star Wars is for everyone and have strong male and female characters, look at Dinn and Bo-Katan, whereas Kathleen wants only women to watch and so pushes Rey over all the other characters in the sequel trilogy, makes Reva the main focus of the Obi-Wan show and cast the Acolyte tobasically be all women. It couldn’t be clearer to see that Kathleen and her ilk and Lucasfilm hate the male fans who make up the majority of the Star Wars fan base and most likely thinks of them as some unwashed bigots who they can try and take money from whilst calling them names. However, it is clear to see that this isn’t working. The Acolyte is already hated, Obi-Wan didn’t make the numbers in the way they wanted it to and the sequels…. Well there is a reason we haven’t had a numbered film in a goodly while.

Whereas again in the John and Dave sphere The Mandalorian has been Disney plus’s flagship show, The Bad Batch has a dedicated fan base and Ahsoka often trended on X, people want their shows whilst looking at things like the Acolyte and just seeing more of the same messaging and fan hate that ruined the sequel trilogy. Who knows maybe the Acolyte will become another Andor a breakout hit despite who is producing it but somehow I doubt it and I think it will be another round of blaming the racist fans, even though the majority aren’t, for not mindlessly consuming a bad product they didn’t ask for. It is funny how it is never that the product was bad anymore it is always oh the toxic fans.

Ultimately I think Star Wars needs to see the back of Kathleen Kennedy her politics is ruining many a good idea and I think someone who is actually a fan, I don’t believe she has ever watched any of these films of TV shows, should be in charge.

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