Loose Lips Sink Starships

The last time I wrote on this blog was on the leading up to the release of Force Awakens- Obviously, in the near 3 year-gap that has occurred since I wrote here, much has changed with Star Wars and Disney (and rather dramatically I may say). While I could go in the future and talk about the positive, today I'd rather discuss a disturbing turn of events that has taken place in this very medium...





Firstly, anyone who has read this blog knows that I was very hesitant with the idea of an Episode VII being made- and that in my own eyes, in order for this to work, George Lucas's story treatments needed to be central and drive forward the story. Needless to say, It became more and more obvious as time went by that the movie had little of GL's DNA, and this was only confirmed a few weeks before the release of the film when George sat down with Charlie Rose and even went as far as to call Disney "White Slavers".

Since then, a certain portion of fandom that has been very fond of the Maker have wished to see what those story treatments where exactly about. And well, getting information on that has been difficult to say the least.

My suspicions that something fishy had occurred during the "divorce" between George and Disney/LFL where only heightened when the Making of TFA book was cancelled and JW Rinzler, longtime editor and writer for LFL had left the company shortly before the release of TFA. And only until this last weekend, Jonathan was writing a blog detailing the time he worked with Lucasfilm going from 2001-2015, giving us an inside into life in Skywalker Ranch unlike anything we had seen before. Just as he was getting into the production of ROTS, the blog was shut down and JW cancelled an appearance he had with the podcast Star Wars Junk. (The blog series was even titled, The Rise and Fall of Star Wars) 

If you have been paying attention, it's no mistake that Disney/LFL have been going to extreme lengths to hide anything related to the "behind the scenes" development of its content. Not only has the Making of Rogue One book been cancelled (presumably to prevent the reshoots drama from getting out), even actors who where involved in the making of said films can't speak about the making of such things. RebelForce Radio, a well known and respected Star Wars podcast, recently revealed that LFL had reached them out saying that they couldn't use Sam Witwer for their film commentary of Rogue One, nor could they use James Arnold Taylor for a Clone Wars commentary (even stranger considering the show was made during the Lucas era). Adding to this we have the fact that negative commentary against Disney is being censored in the Jedi Council Forums, and that several members who have been critical about TFA and Rogue One have been banned and "perma-banned".

All of this brings to mind the fact that during GL's tenure of Lucasfilm, the public and the media acted in a vile and despicable manner towards the creator, simply because he was doing the films he wanted to do ( you certainly don't hear people saying that "Disney raped their childhood" or something along those lines). Not to mention that no one who disliked what had occurred during the making of the films was silenced (David Prowse was eventually banned from coming to conventions, but still talked crap of George). George allowed for the fans to know what went on behind the scenes, and few of the people who worked with him had much of an issue with the man.

Compare it with the current age of Lucasfilm, in which anything that might be known about the making of it's products is silenced and put to rest, and criticism that hits their way is (by the look of things) being silenced in some corners of the internet, really brings to question just as to how big the tentacles of Disney's PR machine is and to what lengths it is willing to go to preserve it's own image.

Now, you may ask yourself, why is this happening? Is Disney so afraid that the fans will turn against them if they know the truth about GL's treatments, the reshoots of Rogue One, and the firing of Lord and Miller that they are willing to take any measure necessary to make the discussion continue as they wish?

The saddest thing about all of this, is that it brings to mind the fact that perhaps now more obvious than it ever has been, we can now say with absolute certainty that the era of Lucasfilm as we knew it under George is simply no more. LFL, has become "the very thing it sought to destroy" little more than a clog in the ways of Corporate Hollywood.

At some point, though, the truth will come out (because let's face it, secrets don't last forever, especially in the Internet age) and when it does, the
people won't be surprised.

Because in a way, some fans already question their decision-making and stewardship over the franchise.