When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, audiences were exciting by the possibilities Star Wars movies. But four movies in (The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story ) and things are already changing.
Disney CEO Bob Iger oversees everything that goes on in the Walt Disney empire and that includes Marvel and Lucasfilm. As such, he is tasked with stepping in when either studios makes a misstep and Lucasfilm took a big misstep with Solo: A Star Wars Story.
There are a lot of reasons why the movie failed, but one reason Bob Iger and Disney have honed in on is the fact that it came out so soon after Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Five months to be exact, hardly any time to build up demand. Before this, the three Star Wars movies made by Disney were released with a year gap allowing anticipation to build up.
Iger does not want a repeat of the situation. In a recent interview with Hollywood Reporter, he opened up about the situation, took up the blame for the poor performance of Solo and revealed in the future, the gap between Star Wars movies is going to be much longer.
I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about. And we are just at the point where we’re going to start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.’s. But I think we’re going to be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.
After the release of Star Wars: Episode IX in December 2019, we may not see another Star Wars movie until possibly 2021. It wouldn’t be surprising because there is no Star Wars movie schedule for 2020. That’s an awfully long time to wait, but it will go a long way in getting fans excited again. Even at that, Iger said the wait won’t be too long because Star Wars movies are still going to be made.
In any case, Iger’s comments were made more to detail how Disney and Lucasfilm will take extra steps to ensure that future Star Wars movies are given every opportunity to succeed, be that by giving a buffer in between movies or avoiding the embattled production Solo faced.
This may mean longer wait time between Star Wars movies but hopefully also better Star Wars movies. I think that’s something we can all get on board with.
