oh dear it really has been a tough few weeks for Disney Star Wars fans hasn't it not only did the sudden cancellation of the acolyte send literally dozens of people into a is on social media don't worry though guys I'm sure that petition for season 2 will totally make up for the horrendous reviews and cratering viewing figures but it was also followed by the disastrously bad reception of Star Wars Outlaws an ambitious open world game where you navigate the violent criminal underworld with this handsome chap which sounded great in concept but turned out to be
a buggy boring poorly written mess that failed to make good on its promise to let you choose your own destiny and basically soft locked you into being a virtuous morally upstanding good guy no matter what you said or did morale was already low amongst the Disney Star Wars fan base but at least they still had one Shining Light on the horizon to guide their way a Beacon of Hope in an encroaching sea of darkness and spare the Glorious return of Ray Palpatine it's a bold strategy cotton let's see if it pays off for him the
movie was first announced at Star Wars celebration way back in April of last year where Daisy Ridley stroe out onto the stage to uh not exactly thunderous Applause Not only was she returning to the role that both launched and killed her acting career without even seeing a script because one didn't even exist yet but the film was going to be directed by charmine OED shinoy a feminist actor this documentary filmmaker who for some reason was now put in charge of a $200 million Star Wars movie really uh okay sure reactions could be best described as
mixed for reasons that I'll get into later in the video but whether they loved or hated the idea it was a project that a lot of people were at least curious about after all it's been half a decade now since the last Star Wars movie came out and that one wasn't exactly a winner by anyone's standards how exactly were Lucas film going to turn things around well here we are a year and a half later and we're still no closer to knowing anything about this weird Phantom project no script has been finalized no filming schedule
announced no additional actors attached there's not even an official title for the thing yet Jesus Christ George RR Martin Works quicker than this inevitably the rumors began to srl that the project was in trouble and in recent weeks they seem to be ramping up pretty quickly some people have claimed that fil and has been pushed back to the end of 2025 or even 2026 and others have suggested that the movie might have been quietly cancelled without an official announcements but how plausible is this really I mean would they actually have the balls to [ __
] can the return of their biggest uh star would they ever live down the embarrassment of it is it possible that the ray movie will never see the light of day well going purely by Lucas film's past performance I'd say yes it's entirely possible because let's be honest here they don't exactly have a great track record when it comes to finishing projects like this Rogue Squadron Rangers of the new Republic the Boba Fett Movie Benny offen Weiss's Trilogy Ryan Johnson's Trilogy GMO del Toro's Jabba the hot movie Damon Lindelof movie Kevin feige's movie all of
them have come and gone over the years all of them were announced to Great Fanfare and then quietly shut down when it was obvious they were going nowhere at this point I think it'd be easier for me to name the Hollywood creatives who haven't been attached to some kind of Star Wars projects usually because they happen to be flavor of the month and it was a quick and easy way to get positive headlines for the studio case in point Tao yti Star Wars movie that was announced way back in 2020 when he was arguably at
the height of his success since then White's career has bombed harder than the anola gay and the only update we've had on the project is that it's been indefinitely shelved Or how about Patty Jenkins fresh off the success of 27 's Wonder Woman Who was promptly hired to direct Rogue Squadron it really seemed like a match made in heaven until Wonder Woman 1984 came out and basically destroyed her career overnight the point I'm making here is that when a studio develops a reputation for announcing big ambitious projects with one hit wonder directors that never actually
get made there's less and less reason to believe anything that they have to say and the News blackout surrounding the ray movie Only reinforces the suspicion that this Project's going absolutely nowhere by this point a year and a half down the line the studio should really be starting to build some kind of hype for this movie giving out little scraps of information about the production announcing the names of the big stars that have signed on and teasing exciting story developments all stuff that's designed to wet people's appetites build up their anticipation and generally keep the
project in the public Consciousness so far we've had absolutely nothing not just from the studio themselves but the industry insiders as well there's been no script leaks no rumors of sets being or filming locations being scouted out nothing this kind of pre-production work usually starts at least 6 months to a year before shooting actually begins and the fact that there's been nothing at all suggests it'll be late 2025 before this thing even goes into production and that's the best case scenario for all intents and purposes it's currently a project that doesn't even exist and hasn't
progressed beyond the ideas stage in almost a year and a half and let's be real here if you still don't have any good ideas after 18 months of slogging away You're probably not going to get any but let us take our creative hats off for a second and look at this from a purely business point of view any major Star Wars movie like this is going to cost at least $250 million to make if not much more I mean rise of Skywalker had a confirmed budget of over $400 million which is [ __ ] absurd
to be honest but it doesn't surprise me one bit with Lucas film that being the case any movie that they put out is going to have to make back at least a billion dollars just to break even never mind turn a profit it and be honest with yourself for a second considering how unpopular and divisive Ray was as a character considering the devastating box office decline of her three movies do you really think another film about this character is going to magically turn it all around all it's really going to do is waste hundreds of
millions of dollars that Lucas film can ill afford to lose that could have been spent on far more worthy projects and further damage a brand that's practically been mauled to death over the past few years no matter what perspective I look at this from whether it's creatively or financially I just can't think of any good reason to move forward with this movie it just doesn't make any sense to me and if I had to take a guess here I think Disney know this even if Lucas film don't I think they were pretty shocked by the
reaction to the acolyte which probably shares a lot of creative and political sensibilities with the ray movie considering the choice of director and I think they've decided to quietly wind down the project before it goes too much further will we get a big dramatic cancellation announcement or will it just be another AB project to join the long list of failed Star Wars ideas that quietly faded away Into Obscurity I don't know but something tells me we won't be seeing Ray in a galaxy far far away anytime soon anyway that's all I've got for today go
away now
