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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   3429 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I want to talk about what a pulverized skullfucked corpse Star Wars is anymore without the Culture War Thread's pretense of being edifying in any way, so here we are.

Yeah so listen, there's a Star Wars movie coming out like four months from now and as far as I can tell no one gives a shit at all. There's just zero hype or awareness. I know there's a big marketing push yet to come, but come on, think of what the prelude to a Star Wars movie was like back in the pre-TLJ world where people still gave a shit.

But even when the marketing does hit?

"Hey guys remember the Mandalorian? It was on Disney Plus a few years ago. Okay yeah I know the last season was kind of bad, but remember when it was popular? Oh and attention everyone in the entire fucking world who isn't a Disney Plus subscriber, remember Baby Yoda from like keychains and plushies and stuff? Well he's part of a show called the Mandalorian that you didn't watch but will hopefully want to turn up to a theatrical movie for."

Like good fucking luck with that pitch. Star Wars is screwed and they know it. They're so screwed with this movie that Kathleen Kennedy couldn't wait another four months to retire. Seriously the timing of her stepping down is a huge red flag to me. If she really thought the movie was going to get anywhere she'd stay unretired for another twelve or thirteen weeks and go out on a high note.

I bet this is the last Star Wars movie ever made. They've been prevaricating on everything else waiting for this to flop so they can call it.

But even when the marketing does hit?

What was the last big marketing push for a movie that you can remember in general? In the last five years, I can remember:

  • Dune (2021)
  • Oppenheimer (2023)
  • Barbie (2023)
  • Wicked (2024)

I can't even think of anything for 2025. The wicked sequel might have had something resembling hype, if you squinted.

Maybe I'm just living under a rock or something, but it really feels like movies as a cultural touchstone have just sort of fizzled out.

The promotion for Wicked and Wicked: For Good kind of blur together because there was so little time between them. It just feels like Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have been out promoting the same movie for three years.

I think they tried to hype Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, but no one cares about the plot of Mission Impossible movies enough to get excited about seeing the second half. Going in all I could remember was that there was a submarine and and AI in the last one.

Marvel couldn't get any hype going. Captain America: Brave New World had too many well known reshoots and production problems for people to get excited.

I think Hollywood's big problem is that they locked in things like the "Representation and Inclusion Standards" for the Oscars during peak woke. The pipeline to make a movie is around 5 years.

So when some major projects underperformed in 2023-2024 followed by Trump getting re-elected, they lost faith in the movies coming out and didn't want waste a lot of money on marketing.

A Minecraft Movie managed to generate a lot of hype in the kids movie category.

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