When it comes to our favorite television shows and movie franchises, it can be hard to admit when we might be getting too much of a good thing. Fans like Star Wars a lot, for example, but they didn’t especially take to Solo: A Star Wars Story, a Han Solo origin story that came out last year and underperformed at the box office. Was it a fluke, or were audiences suffering from Star Wars fatigue?
As part of its massive coverage of the upcoming The Rise of Skywalker, Empire Magazine spoke with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy about that very subject, and about the House of Mouse’s plans for the franchise moving forward. “We don’t have a crystal ball,” Kennedy said. “We tried to look at Solo and see if we could do two movies a year and we found, ‘Hmm that’s not going to work’, so we backed off a little. doesn’t mean we don’t think about lots of different stories. That’s the exciting thing about this universe.”
Some of those stories may be originating in the mind of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who will be working with Kennedy on Star Wars going forward. We don’t know exactly how involved in the franchise he’ll be, but it makes sense that Disney would look at the unmitigated success Feige has had with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and wonder if he can’t spread it around a bit.
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – APRIL 15: Kevin Feige attends the filmmakers press conference for Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Endgame’ South Korea premiere on April 15, 2019 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images for Disney)
In the more immediate future, The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20, and Disney has lined up some choice advertising partners to help get the word out. How else would anyone hear about this little indie flick?
Per Entertainment Weekly, the ad partners include:
- Porsche
- United Airlines
- Samsung Mobile
- Dannon
- Bose
- GE Appliances
- McDonald’s
- General Mills
Expect Star Wars-themed ad campaigns for these products to start rolling out November 1. United is going to feature a new aircraft design (Millennium Falcon plane? Probably not), Bose is debuting some kind of augmented reality experience, and McDonald’s will load up Happy Meals with 17 collectible Star Wars characters.
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