New Star Wars movies, HBO Max has a new name, a Harry Potter Remake, plus — what I've been watching
Catching up on the last month's worth of news.
I’ve missed writing here for the last month or so, so I wanted to share my thoughts on a couple of the biggest developments.
Are there finally going to be some Star Wars movies?
Earlier this month, Star Wars fans got (part of) what we’ve been hoping for for years now: announcements of new movies with actual details. Since the release of The Last Jedi in 2019, there has been a constant series of rumors, leaks, semi-announcements, and subsequent cancellations of new Star Wars films. Finally, at this year’s Star Wars Celebration in London, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy rolled out a trio of directors and some casting announcements for three new movies to be released in theaters in the coming years.
The first is a movie from Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold, set 25,000 years before the existing movies and telling the story of the first Jedi to wield the force. It was described as a “biblical epic.” We will have to see how Indiana Jones turns out, but Logan is one of the best comic book movies of all time, reinventing the X-Men world as a gritty R-rated western. Because of what he did with Logan, Mangold could be a prime candidate to tell an entirely new kind of Star Wars story. I’m cautious but optimistic about this movie. I’ve been saying for years that this series needs to do something entirely new by either going into the distant past or future, where history hasn’t been written yet and totally new kinds of stories can be told. A biblical epic set 25,000 years in the past in a world where the Jedi don’t yet exist sounds about as close to that wish as you can get.
The second film announced is the one that is the most aggravating to me as it does the opposite of the first: double-down on the current era of storytelling that focuses on the same well-worn period of time between the original trilogy of films and the sequel trilogy. As I wrote last month, I’ve decided that Dave Filoni is the center of everything wrong with Star Wars from a creative standpoint. So, a film directed by him, set in the same time period as his Mando-verse shows (The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, The Book of Boba Fett, etc.) and focusing on the “escalating war between the imperial remnant and the New Republic,” is exactly the kind of movie that I think leans into this franchise’s worst tendencies. Why do we need yet another prequel-ish movie focusing on yet another small segment of the timeline between the stories that have already been told?
The only upside to this project is that it seems as if it might be serving as a sort of conclusion to the Mando-verse timeline. Back at its 2020 investor day conference, Disney announced that all of its Mando-verse shows were building towards a mega Avengers-style crossover event. If I’m right that that is what this film will be, I’m hopeful that means it will close that chapter of Star Wars storytelling and allow it to move fully into the future. Maybe Lucasfilm’s plan has been to spend the better part of this decade closing what they see as gaps in the storyline before permanently moving into new eras. I just wish they would make that clear.
Last, the team announced a movie starring Daisy Ridley returning to her role as Rey from the sequel trilogy. We’ll see her training a new generation of Jedi after the conclusion of The Rise of Skywalker. Fulfilling the second of my two wishes, we will finally get to see Star Wars go forward into uncharted territory once again for the first time since the launch of the sequel trilogy in 2015. Unshackled from any pre-existing part of the Star Wars timeline, the creative team on this film has freedom to take Star Wars to totally new places. What does the galaxy look like in the aftermath of the First Order’s defeat? What does a new kind of Jedi Order look like? How does Rey process Ben Solo’s complicated legacy and her feelings for him following his death? Who does she look to for guidance with Leia, Han, and the rest of her adoptive family gone? What kind of conflict faces the galaxy, and how can the creators avoid yet another repeat of “authoritarian regime with mysterious masked leader vs. scrappy band of rebels”?
These are some genuinely interesting questions that we’ll get to see answered while the groundwork is laid for a new galaxy-wide story arc. I’ve always liked Daisy Ridley in the role of Rey and am excited to see what she can do with the character given a clean slate and a creative team that has hopefully learned some lessons from the mistakes of the most recent trilogy.
The critical question with each of these movies is, of course, “will they actually get made?” The graveyard of cancelled Star Wars films is filled to the brim these days, far surpassing the point where Lucasfilm should get any benefit of the doubt until any of these movies have actually begun shooting. It’s important to note that for all of the hype, none of them have been given release dates, and the Daisy Ridley sequel actually just went through a change in its writing team in February. Not exactly a sign that Lucasfilm has solved all its problems and everything is smooth sailing. That said, I do think that given the absolute disaster of a reputation that Lucasfilm has earned over the last few years, it would be hesitant to publicly announce any more films until it is extremely confident that they are going to get made. If at least one or two of these three does not end up getting released, studio president Kathleen Kennedy’s head might finally be on the chopping block.
HBO Max becomes Max
The moment we’ve been waiting for arrived last week when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced the combination of HBO Max and Discovery+ along with the rebranding of the service to just Max. Dropping the HBO name allows the company to pitch this as more of an all-encompassing streaming service designed to compete with Netflix. I surprisingly loved the Discovery+ service when I got it for free with my cell phone plan. It’s a great library of casual content to throw on in the background or when you just want something to watch that doesn’t require any effort on your part. Having all that included in what was already by far the best streaming service for only a marginal price increase if you want to keep 4K quality, or none at all if you only want HD, is a great deal.
It also sounds like the company is taking the opportunity to launch a whole new app for the service, which is much needed. HBO Max has had the best library of shows and movies by a long shot, but also the worst actual app itself since it launched. It’s full of bugs and errors and has generally had worse streaming quality than its competitors. They’ve put a lot of effort into fixing the issues in the two years since it launched, but the app just needs a reset. This gives them the chance to do that, finally.
On the content side, the Max event came with a whole load of announcements. There were previews of new shows from HBO like The Chancellor, True Detective: Night Country, and another Game of Thrones spinoff. We also got details on content from other WBD divisions on content that will just be branded “Max Originals” including the previously announced The Penguin spinoff of last year’s The Batman, a Rick and Morty anime show, another Big Bang Theory spinoff, and maybe most shockingly a decade-long Harry Potter adaptation.
That last announcement is worthy of a post in and of itself, but essentially there is going to be a Harry Potter TV show adapting all seven books over the course of seven seasons of television. The show will release over the course of a decade and feature an entirely new cast from the original movies. We’re barely ten years out from the last Harry Potter movie, yet somehow they are already remaking that story.
Perhaps the most confusing aspect to me is that those movies are very much treated as the definitive versions of those stories, with cast members appearing in recordings at Universal’s Wizarding World theme park attractions, the rides and the world itself styled after the films rather than the books, and basically all other Harry Potter attractions styled after the films as well — such as the Wizarding World store in New York City, Platform 9 3/4 in London, and all of the merch sold therein. Rebranding all of that beloved iconography — especially while it still feels so current — seems like a risky move for a franchise with such a loyal fanbase.
It’s not exactly like Harry Potter is a long-dormant franchise due for a remake. Sure, the Fantastic Beasts movie series totally flopped when it came to finding new stories to continue that world, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do. Fans would have lost their minds if they had just announced a series of sequel movies or a show that serves as a sequel to the movies. Simply recreating what’s already been done feels simultaneously like the most boringly safe decision and also the most stupidly risky one. As The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg recently put it, if the first trailer for this show drops and it seems like the new Harry Potter can’t act, that will kill this franchise on the spot. On the other hand, if the casting department somehow catches lightning in a bottle for the second time and nails all of the major roles, and the show is otherwise a decent adaptation, do we really want to spend the next decade just rewatching a new version of the same thing we’ve already loved for the last two? I find it hard to believe that audiences won’t eventually get bored of that.
What I’m Watching: Barry
This show has one of the weirdest tones I have ever seen. It’s an odd mix of super quirky comedy/satire along with very intense drama that took a few episodes to adjust to because it is so unique. After the adjustment, though, I can safely say this is one of the best shows on today. It’s dark, complex, and also incredibly hilarious. Similar to Succession, my favorite show out right now, its strongest point is the way that it so thoroughly understands and consistently portrays the deep psychological and emotional pain that its characters are undergoing. The people in this show are not normal and do not do normal things, but it all makes sense within these characters’ psychologies and world. Through them, it asks a lot of deep questions about what makes people who they are and whether or not people can change.
This is a violent show, but not just because it’s exciting and looks cool. Violence is a destructive force that reverberates throughout the world of the show with consequences. Barry hates what he does and just wants to stop being a criminal in order live a normal life as an actor. As a result, much of the time when he kills people it’s in service of closing a loop so that he can finally move on once and for all. But violence begets violence and so with every kill he is in some way or another only brought further into a life of further destruction, lies, and secrecy.
There are only four episodes to go in this final season, but there have only been three seasons of eight 30 minute episodes each released before this, so it’s pretty easy to get caught up in time to finish it out. I’d highly recommend it.