Ron Howard on the rumors of Lucasfilm putting Star Wars spin-offs on hold

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Over a month after its release, SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY has only managed to bring in $355 million worldwide. Not a shabby number, but when you account for SOLO's sizeable budget of over $250 million (not counting marketing costs), it's not exactly performing how Lucasfilm/Disney had hoped. Rumours emerged last week that Lucasfilm had elected to put all of their remaining STAR WARS spin-offs on hold in favour of focusing their attentions on STAR WARS: EPISODE IX and the next trilogy. Days later, Lucasfilm called those reports inaccurate and claimed that they still had "multiple" new STAR WARS movies still in development.

Although I'm sure that SOLO's less than spectacular box-office has led Lucasfilm to reevaluate their approach to these spin-offs, there's no way they'd stop developing them altogether. Ron Howard was approached by TMZ earlier today, who asked him to comment on the reports that the spin-offs were being put on hold.

I don't think that's entirely accurate. I think that was reported, but I don't think that's exactly what I understand. Yeah, and I think the fans – look, everybody at Lucasfilm and Disney really cares about the fans. I think it's an ongoing process of like discovering what it can be and what it can all add up to. So, it's really a process, and I like the fact that personally that they take some chances, take some risks, and see how people respond to it.

There are several STAR WARS spin-offs under consideration, including the rumoured Obi-Wan Kenobi movie and one revolving around Boba Fett which is set to be directed by James Mangold (LOGAN). There's also Rian Johnson's new trilogy as well as another series of films which will be written and produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones). Anyway you shake it, there's a lot of STAR WARS projects in the works, but I wouldn't fault Lucasfilm/Disney for pumping the brakes a little. We don't need a STAR WARS film every single year, and giving them a little more space would certainly help the franchise regain a little prestige in my eyes. That said, Marvel doesn't seem to have a problem releasing two or three films a year, so what do I know?

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is still playing in theaters with STAR WARS: EPISODE IX set for a December 20, 2019 release.