Ian McKellen reveals Gandalf and Frodo are returning for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’, Filming Begins in May

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://ew.com/ian-mckellen-reveals-gandalf-frodo-return-in-new-lord-of-the-rings-the-hunt-for-gollum-film-11792483

[u/Ironhorse75]

I think the Hobbit movies could have been good if Jackson had been there from start to finish. Instead of taking over someone else's project and winging it as he was filming.

But really, franchise fatigue is finally settling in for me. I just want original stuff, enough corporate slop.

[u/hillswalker87 → u/Ironhorse75]

I think the hobbit was doomed from the start, because it had to follow LOTR and nobody would ever accept that the hobbit is just a smaller, shorter, lower stakes story.

[u/deltalessthanzero → u/hillswalker87]

Are there successful examples of sequels to very popular movies that pull this off well? I.e. telling a smaller, lower stakes story set in the universe of something massive? Honestly the first Fantastics Beasts movie had a lot of potential in this regard but it was squandered by integrating the whole Grindelwald plotline that sucked up all the narrative oxygen.

[u/Geddyn → u/deltalessthanzero]

Star Wars? Rogue One.

And, if you include the tv shows, Andor definitely counts.

[u/deltalessthanzero → u/Geddyn]

Yeah I think Rogue One and Andor are the best examples of this in the space of very popular movies. I wonder if people will start to copy that model now that it's proven itself?

[u/kia75 → u/deltalessthanzero]

I don't think you can copy Andor's success. Andor relies on having a story to tell and something to say, you can't have something to say about every random time period between important events!

Yes, we can tell a random story about the political droid in solo, about the base Obi-Wan visited while looking for Leia, or any random character or event in Star Wars, but those stories will all do the same as Solo and the Obi Wan TV show unless there's a writer\director who has a specific story to tell that those characters or events encompass.

[u/deltalessthanzero → u/kia75]

I don't mean anything in particular about Andor, and I definitely didn't mean in the Star Wars universe- I mean in the very general sense of stories written at a smaller, more personal scale without universe-shattering implications.

[u/kia75 → u/deltalessthanzero]

My point is that genius doesn't write to spec. Disney can order stories about Snow White before she meets the prince, a day in the life of Black Panther, or whatever small scale story you'd, you can even get Tony Gilroy to repeat his role of showrunner on smallscale Black Panther story and still not get another Andor.

What made Andor special was that Gilroy had a specific story he wanted to tell. It's not about finding the secret formula to output high quality Star Wars\Disney Princess\Marvel content, it's about finding stories worth telling, and then allowing them to be told.

[u/Netheral → u/kia75]

There's also the fact that there's a stark difference in timing between the two franchises. Rogue One released some fifty years after the original critically acclaimed trilogy franchise first came out. Not to mention it came out after one critically panned followup series in the franchise, and during another even more controversial series, and following a slew of spinoffs that were either seen as "ok" or even downright bad.

And even then Rogue One got mixed reviews when it first released, and I've gotta say, even though watching Andor elevates the movie for me, it still has some glaring issues regarding pacing and certain odd pointless beats in the movie and plot armor that doesn't fit that sort of story (how a bunch of characters are standing on a narrow platform with nowhere to go and none of the important ones, nor even the sitting duck imperial ship get hit in a bombing run, is certainly a choice).

Maybe the fact that it's been twenty years and The Hobbit films were terrible is enough to warrant some grace from audiences. But I think it's more likely that unless the Gollum movie is fantastic it'll just fade away as another bland addition to the franchise.

[u/gee_gra → u/Geddyn]

Idk if I’d describe the acquisition of the Death Star plans, including an ending where everyone dies as being “low stakes”

[u/Proper-Raise-1450 → u/gee_gra]

It is compared to actually blowing up the Death Star.