Once Disney bought Lucasfilm all those years ago it became common knowledge there would be an onslaught of new projects, and indeed, there have been four new movies since FORCE AWAKENS debuted in December 2015. Needless to say, that’s a ton of Star Wars and online bickering for such a short period of time, and Disney CEO Bob Iger seems to agree, and he said in a recent interview the film slate will be on a bit of a pause after EPISODE IX arrives this December.
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Disney has been throwing out announcements like the Joker throwing money from a parade float since last night, where they unveiled the first look at Disney+ and the bevy of content that will come with it. While speaking with Bloomberg the CEO said that although they have new movies on the docket, they will still take a bit of a break starting at the end of the year.
“We have not announced any specific plans for movies thereafter,” Iger said. “There are movies in development, but we have not announced them.”
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STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS relaunched the series in 2015 to massive success, followed by ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY and STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, coming out in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Each of those movies made over $1 billion worldwide, so all in all things seemed pretty bright for the series future.
New spinoff movies were rumored – including ones around Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi – but the release of last year’s SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY ground everything to a halt. Poised to be a hit (though not as big as the others) the movie was the first to lose money in the SW saga, making hardly over $300 million worldwide off a production budget nearly the same size. Soon, plans seemed to change, and perhaps SW fatigue was starting to set in.
But as the movie series does take a break, Disney will be focusing on the TV side of things, with their first live-action show coming to Disney+, THE MANDALORIAN, and a new show from GAME OF THRONES creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on the docket. As well, THE LAST JEDI helmer Rian Johnson is still set to work on his original Star Wars trilogy of movies, so that could be where they pick things back up.
So, what do you all think? Is this the best plan of attack post-Skywalker saga? It would be pretty nuts for them to jump right into a brand new saga of movies right after EPISODE IX ends things for these new characters, and clearly, the spinoff movies can be hit or miss. This seems like the right move in order for them to see where they can take the series in the future, all while focusing on the TV branch. Hey, Jedi need vacations too.
STAR WARS: EPISODE IX is in theaters December 20, and stay tuned here for all updates from the panel at Star Wars Celebration!