Recent reflection has led me to what I am developing as a bit of a thesis for The Post Credits Scene: when you trust human artists with uninhibited stewardship over something they love the results are more vibrant, authentic, and affecting. When business interests take precedence, art loses the distinct imprint and identity of an individual human creator’s hand.
Filmmaking, and creating in general, should always be collaborative. One of the secrets to Pixar’s success, as outlined in founder Ed Catmull’s book Creativity, Inc. is a culture of feedback and subsequent relentless iteration at the core of everything it does. However, there is a difference between collaboration and hijacking the creative process for financial gain.
A significant portion of current pop culture media feels lab-created: developed by committees of boardroom executives, artificial intelligence, consultants or some combination thereof. The Marvel Cinematic Universe pioneered the use of “pre-visualization,” or “previs,” in which significant portions of films have been “shot” in CGI before a script is written or a director is even hired. The benefit of previs is that it allows for experimentation with graphics in the early stages of pre-production, when risks are lower. It also helps to keep visual styles and tones consistent across all Marvel properties. The drawback is that directors, when they are eventually brought on board, are creating movies around significant pre-existing portions of the film rather than crafting a story that is wholly original and unique to them.
It’s this dynamic that has led to some noteworthy Marvel disappointments such as Eternals, where director Chloe Zhao’s voice didn’t mesh with the established MCU voice. Rather than getting a refreshing new take on what a Marvel movie could be from an Oscar-winning indie director, we got glimpses of that, plus a lot of CGI fight scenes that look and feel just like every other installment.
As Scott Tobias of The Reveal put it: “The MCU exists in theaters and on original streaming series, and all the movies and shows have the same visual template in order to make the crossover between projects and media seamless. This severely limits the contribution individual directors can make—in fact, the more iconoclastic the filmmaker, like Sam Raimi (Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) or Chloe Zhao (Eternals), the more compromised the fit—and winds up making movies an interchangeable form of “content,” available in high-res digital streaming in theaters and on your phone.”
There is no denying that from a business perspective, Marvel Studios created a production process which is an unmatched historical success. It’s also created a new type of filmmaking in which individual creators have far less impact on the end result, a state of affairs which I believe is harmful to creating meaningful art.
As a counter-example consider Andor, which is generally considered to be the best Star Wars content created since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 and shifted the narrative concerning what Star Wars is and can be. Creator Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Legacy, Michael Clayton) has said that his “superpower” in creating Star Wars content is that he is not a lifelong fan, allowing him to make bold story decisions without the influence of emotional connections to characters and plot-points. Gilroy was drawn to create a great Star Wars show, despite his lack of emotional connection to the franchise, because he had an original and independent vision of how the story should be told.
Contrasted with 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, a movie in which you can feel the anxiety of a dozen studio executives terrified to make one wrong move, Andor is a breath of fresh air that sets a new standard for franchise storytelling. The show kicks off with its main character murdering someone to get out of a bind. It features the heroes of previous movies (the Republic of the prequels) stripping a planet bare of its resources, destroying indigenous life along the way.
As Adam Vary wrote in Variety, “All of it is at once utterly familiar within the well established world of “Star Wars” and exhilaratingly new, as Gilroy and his small team of writers — namely Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler”) and Beau Willimon (“House of Cards”) — have used the show to explore the prickly sacrifices and moral ambiguity of mounting a revolution against an oppressive, autocratic regime.” And the results? “With each new episode, the social media adulation for “Andor” has only grown louder, as millennials and Gen Xers who grew up with “Star Wars” have become further enthralled by the realization that the family-friendly franchise has proven capable of growing up with them.”
Consider the cases of Avatar: The Way of Water and The Last of Us. In the former instance, James Cameron, the most financially successful director in the history of Hollywood, spent 25 years (with more to come) working on a passion project, bringing his vision of a world that originated in a literal dream to life. Despite its shortcomings, the authenticity behind each frame of The Way of Water is palpable. In the latter case, The Last of Us was brought to the screen by Craig Mazin, a super-fan of the game upon which it is based, and Neil Druckmann, that game’s creator who has spent the last decade stewarding that story and ensuring that any future screen adaptation remained true to the heart of the game.
The secret to The Last of Us’s success is two-fold. First, it’s clear that both Mazin and Druckmann have a deep appreciation and love for the material they are working with. “The way to break the video game curse is to adapt the best video game story ever — not by a little, but by a lot,” Mazin is quoted saying in The Hollywood Reporter. “So I flat-out cheated.” The second is complete trust and support from executives in charge of the project. As Mazin stated when discussing HBO’s feedback on the show “The best network executives are supposed to honestly represent the audience… They are not supposed to write things for us. They’re supposed to tell us how they feel, and we are supposed to have faith in their proxy ability.” HBO is generally considered to be a creator-friendly studio/network, and as such it’s no surprise they also possess a sterling reputation for delivering the highest quality content across a range of genres and styles.
The secret to critical and commercial success is for the studio executives in charge to hand over the reigns to artists who have been gifted with the ability to tell great stories. Tony Gilroy was given freedom to work in the Star Wars universe and created something that he loved and was proud to create, without being bound by undue reverence for what came before, greed for what could come next, or fear of failure. The result was a show that redefined Star Wars at a moment when its future was unclear. If other studios take note and have the boldness to take their hands off the wheel, perhaps they could end up with something just as great.
We would all be better off for it.
Other Stuff
Netflix co-CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings is stepping down.
The Mandalorian Season 3 debuts March 1, and has a new trailer. My conflicted feelings about the future of Star Wars have been revived, but I am glad this show can exist alongside things like Andor.
That 70’s Show followup That 90’s Show is here, and maybe it’s good?