I was at work and quite busy so I wasn’t able to listen in on today’s live internet Q&A session with the “Rogue One” cast. However, I did get wind of some comments actor Alan Tudyk, who plays a droid in the movie, made about Ahmed Best’s work as Jar Jar as well as the moderator throwing some shade on the prequels about 25 minutes in. I do not have a transcript but from what I understand, Tudyk inaccurately described Best as just doing a voice over when in fact he was mo-capped on the set and it seems to have been in the context of “heh, I did one better on him.” Nobody corrected him. For that, I would advise Tudyk and company to read this from 2014.
I have to criticize Lucasfilm for demonstrating once more it does not afford the prequels the same level of respect given to the OT and TFA, no matter what they keep telling us. Actions, not words, count. There is no way in hell anyone in “Rogue One” would ever knock the OT or dismiss Andy Serkis’s or Lupita Nyong’o’s work in TFA as “just” voice acting. And SOMEBODY should’ve corrected Tudyk. Frankly, I think Lucasfilm owes Ahmed Best an apology for that. It’s inexcusable.
It’s as though it never occurs to the current regime to advise anyone who works for them on t.v., in movies, and writing books to respect the fan base. ALL of the fan base. I don’t know what the moderator’s alleged prequel joke was but if it was meant as a jab on those films, that shouldn’t be happening at an official Lucasfilm event. I guess they figure we all bought our $30 tickets and it’s too late now, huh?
It also doesn’t seem to occur to the current regime to respect George Lucas. None of them would be there without him yet it seems in many ways they are eager to get us to forget he ever had anything to do with this galaxy he created. It’s clear the philosophy today is to do the opposite of everything Lucas strove to do creatively and to follow trends instead of setting them. Moreover, just as the leadership threw out Lucas’s ST treatments, according to a recent Entertainment Weakly interview with Kathleen Kennedy, Lucas’s ideas for standalone films were also tossed into the shredder. Nice.
Whatever the case, stuff like this is why many prequel fans don’t entirely trust Lucasfilm and why some don’t trust it at all.
Tags: PT defense
starwarsprequelappreciationsociety.wordpress.com 
December 3, 2016 at 3:33 am |
I looked at the specific scene and my guess is: Alan Tudyk simply didn’t know better. He wasn’t aware that Ahmed Best was actually on Set doing doing his Jar Jar performance & voice in a suit.
But i wouldn’t go so far to uncover another “Disney-does-not-like-the-Prequels” speculation here. Finally we will get Jimmy Smits, Genevieve O’Reilly and Saw Gerrera in Rogue One. I hope they drope a comment or two, that the Geonosian Death Star design had flaws, that resulted in the long construction period from ROTS to ANH. That would be awesome 🙂
December 3, 2016 at 9:37 am |
Even if they did acknowledge that the Geonosians were once building the Death Star, it would still feel pretty silly to make up a story that goes completely the other way.
It reminds me of JJ Abrams stating that there won´t be any mention of midiclorians in the new movies, as if he was the one to decide what is valid about the first six films and what is not.
The worst part of this is that the GFFA suddenly feels prety small and predictible, now that we will only get to see characters and events Disney executives approve of.
December 3, 2016 at 5:28 am |
“according to a recent Entertainment Weakly interview with Kathleen Kennedy, Lucas’s ideas for standalone films were also tossed into the shredder”
A dissapointment but not an unexpected one. I always knew that none of those upcoming three spin-offs were based on GL´s story ideas for the standalone films.
So many possibilities and instead we get two Han Solo and Boba Fett standalones and two hours of Rebels stealing the Death Star plans, because who cares about creativity and inovation when you can simply repeat and rehash what has already been proven.
And I´m pretty sure the movies that will come after will only follow this trend.
December 4, 2016 at 6:56 am |
No disrespect Marcek, but keep believing what you believe and keep refusing to support what we have to accept as canon like a cynic, and we probably will keep getting what you believe of as retreads. It is my bleied that if one stop complaining and help make Rogue One a success, we could continue getting more Clone Wars characters in future Star Wars movies (Sequel Trilogy or spin-offs) and potentially get both that rumored Ewan McGregor-led Obi-Wan movie and potentially an Ahsoka movie, since fans want to see that now, even those at Hollywood Reporter. Let’s not spoil other people’s joy of what they like just because you don’t like it (i.e. The Marvel movies and Episode VII). Let’s try to be optimistic and constructively critical here instead of coming off as vocally hateful (not that I’m saying that you are being hateful, it’s more in regards on how your comment can be interpreted by others).
December 4, 2016 at 12:22 pm
I´m 100 % confident Disney and LucasFilm will do perfectly fine with the new canon without my support and acceptant, I´m simply going to ignore it.
They already lost me forever by throwing Lucas´s story for VII, VIII and IX into a dumpster and canceling The Clone Wars.
As far as canon is concerned, I don´t care what is or isn´t canon officialy, all I know is what is or isn´t canon for me personally. It´s up to invidual wiever or reader to decide to what they prefer and what their personal canon is and if you like the new canon, then more power to you.
I-VI, Lucas´s story treatment for VII-IX and The Clone Wars are “my” canon, everything else to me is an apocrypha.
December 4, 2016 at 6:59 am |
Also, if you end up not liking Rogue One, at least say you liked Forest Whitaker’s performance of The Clone Wars’s Saw Gerrera as the best part of the movie. You could at least thank Disney for acknowledging the Prequels as canon in this movie by bringing in Bail Organa (along with Jimmy Smits to reprise his role as Bail) and by also bringing in a Clone Wars character to be played by an Oscar winner. That’s just my opinion though.
December 4, 2016 at 7:09 am
No disrespect as well, but why to thank Disney for doing something – acknowledging prequel era – they should be doing since they now make Star Wars movies. This is part of the universe. They should included more characters, stories from the era.
December 3, 2016 at 6:44 am |
I get the feeling I will enjoy this film more if I try not to think of it as a Star Wars film and just see it as a film about rebels taking on a simplistically evil Empire that had a simplistically evil dude in a black suit defending it. I love Anakin Skywalker in all his forms, all of them. If Rogue One’s dark-suited bad guy isn’t depicted as having both light and dark sides to his character (as was the case in each of the six original films) and is simply a stoic, empty villain who does nothing but carry out brutal acts of violence, I refuse to acknowledge that he’s the same character.
I like my characters interesting, whether they meet the standards of angry fan boys or not. I worry that an attack of the prequels is an implicit attack on complex, conflicted that do not live up to the masculine “ideals” of the general culture. These people complain about Anakin being excessively violent in the prequels and then want him to be even more violent in this film. The contradictory nature of their viewpoint drives me nuts and it seems like for Rogue One, the film makers are letting this segment of the audience be in charge, giving them exactly what they want instead of challenging them and ignoring fans who liked the prequels (including, I suspect, many female fans).
While I don’t believe that directors are entitled to by bossy jerks towards others working on the film, they are under no obligation to take orders from fans. They should listen to them, but be willing to override them for the sake of the story they want to tell, especially when the story challenges the status quo, as both Star Wars trilogies did. If we give viewers exactly what they ask for nothing new will ever be made and no lessons learned about the human experience. Long live the whiny Anakin of the prequels!
December 3, 2016 at 10:16 am |
“If Rogue One’s dark-suited bad guy isn’t depicted as having both light and dark sides to his character (as was the case in each of the six original films) and is simply a stoic, empty villain who does nothing but carry out brutal acts of violence, I refuse to acknowledge that he’s the same character.”
I hear what you’re saying, but consider that during the time of Rogue One (pre-ANH) Anakin was more or less “dead.” Whatever “goodness” was still in him, it was so overwhelmed (“consumed”) by the dark side that it was practically invisible — so invisible that even Yoda and Obi-Wan felt it was a lost cause (hence their recommendation to Luke to kill Vader). Before the moment in the Death Star trench when Vader senses a rebel strong in the Force, Vader/anakin believed his wife and child (singular) were dead. So it would make sense at the time of Rogue One if he were a stoic, empty villain who does nothing but carry out brutal acts of violence. Seeing him this way actually makes Luke’s refusal to see his father as a monster, and Anakin’s return, all the more heroic. Food for thought.
December 3, 2016 at 11:13 am |
Agreed on the portrayal of Vader here in RO… this is all happening just before the events of ANH and in that installment, Vader is very much presented as a non-conflicted, singularly focused bad guy. We never get any sense in ANH of Vader struggling with any aspect of his job or who he is and I think it’s absolutely at the point where Anakin is essentially “dead” inside. Of course, there are also practical production reasons for this too, but you can really make it work as part of the in-universe story.
December 3, 2016 at 3:02 pm |
You make a fair point and I wouldn’t want Vader’s inner conflict to be too visible, but I don’t feel his character in New Hopes is as simple as most people assume. We’re told he was once a Jedi, specifically Obi-wan’s student, and he acknowledges this himself. This alone sets up the possibility of there being some good in him, since at the very least he was good in his past and the dark side corrupted him. They could’ve had a similar element in the new film, in which he’s forced to acknowledge that he was a Jedi at some point and then carries out some mission to prove his loyalty to the Emperor and the motivation behind the mission is to suppress any hint that there might still be good in him (kind of like how the original motivation for killing the younglings was to prove his allegiance to the dark side).
It would add some depth to his aggression and I fear that as it stands there will not be any depth, which may be why they chose this “dead” time period (not just with regard to Vader, but with regard to the Force in general) for their film. Was this even the best period to explore to begin with?
December 5, 2016 at 12:06 pm
How large is Vader’s role in RO going to be, anyway? I suspect it may not be much more than a cameo, which won’t allow for a more nuanced portrayal. I also prefer to see him as the complicated and conflicted character he really is, rather than a typical villain, but I’m not holding out much hope in this case.
December 4, 2016 at 2:05 am |
He wasn’t really that “empty”; moreso broken. He did form a respectful bond with the 501st legion under his command.
December 3, 2016 at 10:22 am |
As far as Alan Tudyk’s comments go, it’s just another example of how some people associated with Star Wars feel they have to prove their geek “street cred.” It’s born of a narcissistic need to be liked — which is practically a part of an actor’s DNA.
December 3, 2016 at 10:44 am |
Wow, I think their is a huge misunderstanding here. Pablo tweeted a while ago that the Han and Boba movie ideas came from George-
I think what Kathy is saying is more along the lines that they had merely brushed over certain ideas for future standalones (including in them the origin of the Jedi) but they didn’t go into any details.
December 3, 2016 at 12:26 pm |
In fact, Gareth Edwards seems very respectful of George Lucas and he often talks about how they put in the movie every design that Lucas liked when he visited them… But as usual they only praise the OT and TFA when it comes to the saga
December 3, 2016 at 12:27 pm
I’m sorry, this post wasn’t a reply to Eduardo !
December 3, 2016 at 11:14 am |
Hey guys, Jimmy Smits in a clip from RO! No lines, but it’d only 20 seconds long, I’m sure he has at least one line in the movie proper:
http://makingstarwars.net/2016/12/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-clip-features-bail-organa/
December 3, 2016 at 12:48 pm |
Thanks for the link! I also hope he has some lines in the movie 🙂
December 3, 2016 at 12:26 pm |
In fact, Gareth Edwards seems very respectful of George Lucas and he often talks about how they put in the movie every design that Lucas liked when he visited them… But as usual they only praise the OT and TFA when it comes to the saga
December 3, 2016 at 1:01 pm |
I could care less about them respecting fandom. What they should respect is the foundations on which they are “building” their movie, and that includes the prequels (and Lucas himself). Not just that, but they should educate themselves and stop talking (or should I say disparage?) about what they don’t know.
December 3, 2016 at 3:04 pm |
I agree, the films should tell a thematically consistent story, even if the details aren’t all consistent. Many of the people hating on the prequels are jerks and it’s impossible to predict what they’ll like anyway.
December 4, 2016 at 2:03 am |
Not going to see the failure of a movie called “rogue one”, and probably wont watch any other new SW movie disney may release.
Disneys frequent dissing of the PT/saga fans (not the OT only “fanboys”), the disgusting remarks made by the writers of rogue one, and the complete disrespect of Lucas’s legacy all garentee this.
Rogue-one to me will just be fan fic. Battlefront 2/elite squadron and the EU already showed us how the death star plans were stolen (Hint: it was kyle katern and X1s doing).
December 4, 2016 at 7:20 am |
Lazypadawan, are you sure these comments by KK, to you, mean she threw away his ideas? I’ll try to be honest with you here in a polite way. Don’t take this the wrong way, but it sounds a tad bit over exaggerating, especially since Pablo Hidalgo said on Twitter, twice now, that the Han Solo movie idea was from George. Maybe this was just said by KK for publicity, when in actuality, she doesn’t really mean that after all. I think she means she’s holding his ideas for later and wants to see how their earlier ideas work first. Please try to not overlook these in a way that would have you believe she’s saying things in a wrong way.
Also, LP, if you don’t believe me, read these tweets from Pablo Hidalgo, himself:
1) https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/805112625046556672
2) https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/805114015735115776
Also, LP, one former user of your site is now pushing for Alan Tudyk to apologize.
December 4, 2016 at 11:00 am |
First off, I have no control over what other people do. If someone is being a pest, it’s on that person. I always urge readers responding to this kind of thing to be respectful.
I’ve seen those Tweets from Pablo. But Kennedy is his boss, so you tell me. It’s her responsibility to communicate clearly and truthfully while giving statements to the media; she’s been in the movie business for like 40 years and she’s been very high profile thanks to her long association with Steven Spielberg so it’s not as though she doesn’t know what she is doing. If Entertainment Weakly misquoted her, Lucasfilm should correct the magazine and insist EW publish an acknowledgement of its mistake. Otherwise, I’m going to take her word for it.
December 11, 2016 at 12:38 am
Pablo is always saying everything is Lucas’s idea. He says the brain chips in TCW clones are George’s idea while Filoni says the chips are his idea.
December 6, 2016 at 3:15 pm |
Hmmm. I already see a few bits and pieces of irrational hate for the new films in the comments here, after seeing quite a bit in previous ones.
We’re better than this, surely. I’ve seen people who like the prequels, and I thought people who like the prequels were mostly like me- optimistic about all Star Wars, refusing to give into irrational hate. Unfortunately, I’m losing this sense.
People yelling that Rogue One will be a ‘failure’ or ‘not a Star Wars movie’ or that Disney are ‘devoid of any creativity’ is what I expect from those idiot prequel-bashers. Not from people here and elsewhere who stand up to prequel-bashing. Disappointing to say the least. Perhaps a lot of us aren’t so different from the prequel-bashers we so claim to be different from.
December 6, 2016 at 7:17 pm |
I have to say disagree with your last paragraph. Not much anyone has said here compares at all to the garbage we’ve had to endure 17 years now from other fans, the media, etc.. It’s just not even in the same league. As I’ve said many times over the past year, if we had to put up with calls to beat Lucas to death with a shovel or “fans” destroying people’s careers and their mental health as just the passion of fans, then we can endure people being somewhat critical of the newer films. Even if you find that criticism annoying or kind of a bummer.
There are still a lot of people around here who are optimistic about Disney’s reign too.
December 7, 2016 at 2:26 pm
That isn’t what I’m talking about though- I never said that it was near the level we’ve been getting for years, but similar patterns are indeed beginning.
December 7, 2016 at 7:10 pm |
I just wonder why, of all the interesting possibilities that they could have done, they had to go back to a story that literally no one wanted to be told. Not so coincidentally, it also features the same aesthetic that OT fanatics have clamored for – the “used future” visage that I detest.
I remember when Timothy Zahn tried to get some mileage out of the ‘stealing the Death Star plans’ story in “Specter of the Past”, like I said in a Twitter post, and he gave up after three paragraphs. Because it’s just not something that is interesting. The relying on the same old OT aesthetic over and over again also speaks of a terror in these people at anything new; these people are afraid that even the slightest deviation from the ‘image’ of the OT will cause a backlash among traditional “fans” that they won’t be able to repair.
So they screw over everyone else, up to and including George Lucas, and artistic creativity while they’re at it.
There was another series that suffered from the same problem. It was called Silent Hill. Silent Hill 2 came out, and it was hailed as the peak of the series. Since then, barring Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill 4 (which were developed by the original team) – developers have tried to give the fans Silent Hill 2 over and over again, with the utmost effort resulting in the literal embodiment of the psychological only horror they claimed they want (SH: SM). And the results have been disastrous. The same fans who said they wanted Silent Hill 2’s psychological style repeated over and over, have torn the games to shreds easily, as they claimed the developers were giving them Silent Hill 2 over and over again – and nothing else; nothing new, no innovation. But, that was what they thought they wanted! 😛 Never mind that Silent Hill 3 was far more terrifying, and has the same inherent style as Silent Hill 1. Never mind that the protagonist in Silent Hill 3 is arguably the person responsible for the whole Silent Hill phenomenon in the first place, in the in-game universe; all the fans saw was Silent Hill 2, as the “face” of the series. Silent Hill’s supernatural aspect is the core of the series, with the psychological coming second; yet everyone involved with the series afterwards elevated a single second entry to a status that was too grand for its constraints, even if it is a really good game, and one of the few examples of games as art.
The moral of the story: Silent Hill 2 was ONE part of the Silent Hill series. One. It wasn’t the whole series; it’s not the end-all, be-all of survival horror. Yet in trying to replicate the game with every single game that came afterwards, the developers who came after the original team basically doomed the series they were trying to save.
I see the same thing happening here. The OT is only one part of Star Wars; it’s not the whole universe, encompassing the many varied stories and characters. Yet it’s being treated by some as the only valid aspect of Star Wars. It’s like Star Trek, and how some people argue that it’s about Kirk and Spock. Except Star Trek is not only about Kirk and Spock. >_> There’s also Picard, and he’s a beast. 😉 And then there’s also Sisko, who’s even greater in stature and power than Picard or Kirk! 🙂 But moreover, Star Trek is about exploration. Likewise, Star Wars is not all about just Han Solo drinking his way across the galaxy, and rebels in grey uniforms fighting stormtroopers with a black clad man with a cape in the background! >:-P And these OT fans who are happy they’re getting loads of o.t.-driven projects are going to be disappointed in the future when they realize all they’re getting IS the OT; no additions, no character building, no expansion. They’re going to turn on the series, and write it off as boring. By then, it’ll be too late to save the series, because everyone would have lost interest! 😛
The only chance to stop this is if Rian Johnson does something really interesting with Episode VIII, and starts to correct the course that J.J. Abrams has started. But I’m not holding out much hope. 😛 I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m not going to just watch any movie that Disney puts out. Rogue One Just Does Not Look Interesting. I wish it weren’t so, but for me it just looks like a boring, plain old action movie. 😛 They’ve gotta do better than this. A Han Solo movie or a Boba Fett movie is not going to attract anyone outside the immediate fandom, and it’s sure not going to move the prequel fans who are feeling neglected off their butts on the couch and into the theaters! 😛 I also doubt the success of Rogue One is going to encourage Disney to make more prequel-inspired spin-offs, because if this is a success, they’re just going to order three more OT-spinoff movies. Because, after all, this is what this is, isn’t it?
Just because it features two or three characters from the prequels like Mon Mothma and Bail, although Mon was originally from ROTJ, doesn’t mean that it’s not inspired by the OT in a major way.
December 7, 2016 at 9:08 pm
There are rumors of another cameo. I’m not reporting it yet because it may not be true but it’ll be a head-exploder if it is.
December 9, 2016 at 10:41 pm |
I wasn’t planning on seeing this in theaters or on dvd, or tv… or the web… it’s a Battlefront game made into a movie with elements from every other generic space film }: / That, and how Disney is treating Star Wars. I learned my lesson from last year and won’t repeat it again.
As for the jab at Ahmed (let alone a jab at Jar Jar perhaps)……. that is unbelievable! Very unprofessional and… and.. GAAAH! Can Ahmed ever get a break! (Unrelated story but I contacted him to offer him a role in my student film… he has not replied and it’s almost the due date, just in a few days, so sadly I lost an opportunity to have Jar Jar in my film, let alone Best going down the Hark Hamil trail since the character is similar to the joker. Oh well, there is still the future)