When Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20, it will mark the end of the Skywalker Saga, a story that began way back in 1977 with Star Wars: A New Hope. In 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm from George Lucas for $4.05 billion, and by 2015, it started producing a new set of Star Wars movies.
With the release of Rise, the Mouse will have five Star Wars movies under its belt: The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One (2016), The Last Jedi (2017), and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). That last one was a box-office disappointment, bringing in $392 million on a $275 million budget. That’s still a lot of money, but the scale of Star Wars is rather huge.
With one film coming every year, it’s easy to see how fans might have been getting Star Wars fatigue. Perhaps that’s why Disney CEO Bob Iger recently told BBC Radio that, after the release of The Rise of Skywalker, the company would take a break from that galaxy far, far away.
"I have said publicly that I think we made and released too many Star Wars films over a short period of time. I have not said that they were disappointing in any way. I’ve not said that I’m disappointed in their performance. I just think that there’s something so special about a Star Wars film, and less is more."
Iger continued talking about it on an earnings call, saying that, for the moment, Star Wars content will mostly be concentrated on Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian, which premieres November 12.
Disney CEO Bob Iger says #StarWars feature films will go on "into a hiatus" following #RiseofSkywalker. Says there will be lots of activity on TV front, mentions 3 series in the works for #DisneyPlus.
— Brent Lang (@BrentALang) November 7, 2019
Speaking of The Mandalorian, there was apparently a screening for fansites and I’m jealous:
Iger also said that there was a recent "media screening" for #TheMandalorian which is creating good buzz. It was not for TV critics, but for fan outlets. Those critics will have to wait to see it until it launches because of "spoilers"
— Brent Lang (@BrentALang) November 7, 2019
It’s looked for a while like this is the way the Star Wars movies were heading. Clearly, Solo put the fear of god into the execs a bit. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Iger’s comments come just a week after we learned that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss wouldn’t be making a trilogy of Star Wars films as originally planned, and we have to wonder if the planned trilogy from Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is in danger, as well.
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Meanwhile, The Mandalorian looks awesome, and there’s a series about Cassian Andor from Rogue One in the pipeline. Are we happy with Disney+ being the place for Star Wars content for the foreseeable future?
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h/t Gizmodo