Disney CEO Explains Why They Are Being “Very Careful” With ‘Star Wars’ Movie Development
It’s been over three years since the last Star Wars film was released in cinemas, with “Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker” pulling in over a billion dollars at the box office in 2019. Since then, Disney has drastically shifted gears on its Star Wars content, with shows like “The Mandalorian”, “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, and “Andor” all arriving on Disney+.
There have been many films in development, including “Rogue Squadron” by “Wonder Women” director Patty Jenkins, and another by Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige, both of which have been cancelled. Disney has got some Star Wars films on its release schedule for Christmas 2025 and 2027.
During a recent Q&A session at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Disney CEO Bob Iger explained what’s going on with Star Wars films right now:
Star Wars, we made three, what we call, saga films, which is obviously the successors to George Lucas’s first six. They did very well at the box office, tremendously well. As a matter of fact, we made two so-called standalones in Rogue One and Solo. Rogue One did quite well. Solo was a little disappointing to us. It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so, we decided to pull back a bit.
We still are developing Star Wars films. We’re going to make sure that when we make one that it’s the right one. And so, we’re being really careful there. In the meantime, we’ve made a number of Star Wars series, led by The Mandalorian, that are extremely successful, and that says a lot. Just last night, I got a clip of a Star Wars series that’s going to air in — on Disney+ in 2024, called Acolyte that looks brilliant, and they’ve done Andor and they’ve done Obi-Wan, and they have one coming up for young kids, which is called Young Jedi Adventures, something like that. I have a lot in my head on these things.
It’s interesting how Bob Iger mentions how “Solo: A Star Wars Story” didn’t do as well as they would have hoped at the box office, and it seems that film, is a major reason why Lucasfilm stepped back from its theatrical releases to focus on Disney+ shows.
With Star Wars Celebration taking place next month in London, England, hopefully, we might get an update on what’s happening next with a theatrical release, though Disney has confirmed that the next Star Wars Celebration event is taking place in 2025, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Lucasfilm stays quiet on future film plans, until they’ve actually got something locked in place, since so many of the films in development haven’t moved into actual filming.
Do you think Disney is right in taking a break from making Star Wars films? Let us know on social media!
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