Star Wars Weekly: Lucasfilm gains Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige but pisses off George Lucas

Time again for STAR WARS WEEKLY, the SYFY WIRE series that rounds up the most important news of the week from a galaxy far, far away. Think of us as your own personal Star Wars Holocron.

KEVIN FEIGE JOINS STAR WARS

Kevin Feige, the mastermind behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has never been shy about his love for Star Wars. He’s even appeared on an episode of The Star Wars Show just to talk about how much he loves the franchise. And now, the student is about to become the teacher (or Jedi Master). While Lucasfilm works to plot out its post-Skywalker future, Feige, whose leadership has made Marvel an unprecedented cinematic behemoth, is joining the Galaxy.

This week, Alan Horn told outlets that Feige has been tapped to collaborate on developing and producing a Star Wars movie with Kathleen Kennedy.

This could be really exciting for Star Wars fans, who will get to see how (and if) Feige can work his magic on Star Wars. There have been rumors flying that he’s bringing Brie Larsen into the fold, and while I think that would be a great decision, it’s still just that: rumors (though she did nothing to dissuade people from believing them...

There are no details on how quickly this will happen and there is no actual information about the story. Anyone who tells you they have a scoop about the story at this stage is probably making it up out of whole cloth to generate angry Youtube reactions.

LUCAS “BETRAYED”

Disney CEO Bob Iger has a new book out called The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO of The Walt Disney Company. In it, he talks about the reaction George Lucas had to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

In the book, Iger recounts that Lucas turned over his outlines for Star Wars movies when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, but the company went in a different creative direction. The result was a hit movie, but Iger says George Lucas felt betrayed. Apparently, when they showed Lucas The Force Awakens for the first time, he “didn’t hide his disappointment."

Via Iger's book:

"'There's nothing new,' [Lucas] said. In each of the films in the original trilogy, it was important to him to present new worlds, new stories, new characters, and new technologies. In this one, he said, 'There weren't enough visual or technical leaps forward.' He wasn't wrong, but he also wasn't appreciating the pressure we were under to give ardent fans a film that felt quintessentially Star Wars.”

If you’ve followed the internet discourse, you’d think that Disney had shredded any document George Lucas had offered in the sale of his company and then ruined everything he’d ever done. But when you actually read the passages, that’s not really what happened. That becomes doubly apparent when you compare the final films to the dates and concept art from the Art of The Force Awakens and Art of The Last Jedi books.

If anything, it seems Disney took the Lucas stories and developed them into something else. Sometimes, in development processes, things morph into something you might not recognize from the documents at the outset, but so much of the art and characters were still applicable, so I can't image the treatments could have changed that much.

That said, Lucas’s assessment of The Force Awakens is undeniably true, which Iger admits — they really were trying to recapture the feel of the original trilogy. That's why I was much more pleased by The Last Jedi.

It’s understandable that George Lucas would have problems losing some bit of control, but this news isn’t the bombshell that some critics are making it out to be.

TRIPLE FORCE FRIDAY REVEALS

The product reveals for next week’s Triple Force Friday were released via livestream yesterday. You can watch all the action right below.

And if you're looking to watch the reactions of cast and crew seeing their toys for the first time, StarWars.com has you covered.

BATTLEFRONT II GOES CO-OP

EA is releasing new modes and locations for Battlefront II that should be of interest to all. Among the highlights: we’re getting a new, four-player co-op mode and the planet Felucia added for play.

For those that might have abandoned the game early or never got involved in the first place because of the loot-crate controversies, there has never been a better time to jump in on this game. Between the recent Clone Wars modes and new gameplay, it’s like a brand new game with every free update.

VADER IMMORTAL - EPISODE II

ILMxLab quietly released the second episode of Vader Immortal this week, offering fans a new window into the life of Darth Vader during the dark times.

These VR experiences are amazing. The storytelling, with writing led by screenwriter David Goyer, is all completely in the Star Wars canon, offering easter eggs aplenty. You can purchase this now for your Oculus.

WEIRD AL KARAOKE

Rian Johnson is at Fantastic Fest right now showing off his new film Knives Out, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have some fun while he was there working.

Robert Cargill, the screenwriter behind Doctor Strange, captured this candid photo of Rian Johnson at karaoke, singing Weird Al’s "The Saga Begins." It’s amazing and I wish I could find video.

One day we will. One day.

Until next week: May the Force be with you!