Lucasfilm Has Put All Future 'Star Wars' Spinoffs On Hold
Collider- It may be a while before we see any more movies like Solo: A Star Wars Story out of Lucasfilm. Sources with knowledge of the situation tell Collider that Lucasfilm has decided to put plans for more A Star Wars Story spinoff movies on hold, instead opting to focus their attention on Star Wars: Episode IX and what the next trilogy of Star Wars films will be after that film. Sources tell us that the previously rumored Obi-Wan movie was in active development, but those who were working on the film are no longer involved. It was recently reported that Logan filmmaker James Mangold was in early talks to write and direct the Boba Fett film, but that was before Solo’s release.
Yesterday, Collider broke the news that Lucasfilm had decided to halt the development of any more Star Wars spinoff titles for the time being to instead focus their attention on Episode IX and Rian Johnson’s upcoming trilogy. Honestly, I wasn’t shocked by this news at all. Taking into account how early all spinoffs (I think it was just two, as well, the Obi-Wan Kenobi one and the Boba Fett one) were into pre-production, and how poorly ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ did at the box office, this move just instantly made sense to me. Apparently, it was a much more massive deal to the rest of the internet than it was to I, however.
People are either celebrating like they just took down the evil empire that is Disney/Lucasfilm/Kathleen Kennedy, citing their outrage at The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, and ‘Rose Tico’ actress Kelly Marie Tran (who they harassed and abused off the internet) for the “downfall” of Star Wars, or they’re DEVASTATED that Lucasfilm has given into the trolls and forever cancelled Star Wars.
I’m happy to tell you both parties are outrageously blowing this news out of proportion.
‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ was a movie I wound up really enjoying, but I think even still, it was a very obvious misstep for the franchise. The box office numbers back that point up tremendously, as it was the first Star Wars film ever to fail to make back its budget. There were a ton of factors that contributed to that, the most prevalent being its release date and botched marketing plan surrounding that release date, and most importantly in my opinion, it was just flat out a movie that nobody wanted to see. I didn’t know a single person in my life excited for it, with no exaggeration. I wasn’t and I have a lightsaber tattooed across my forearm! We just didn’t need a movie about a young Han Solo, no matter how good it was.
While the Kenobi and Fett spinoffs were ABSOLUTELY more yearned for by fans and general audiences alike, and still are, I don’t think putting them on hold to ensure that they’re the best they could possibly be for everybody is a bad thing at all. Marvel has laid out the blueprint for running a successful cinematic universe without tiring out its fan base for the past decade, and DC has epically failed at accomplishing the same task, so for Star Wars, taking a step back and studying how to wind up more on the Marvel side of the spectrum rather than the DC one, producing the most quality content they could for its fanbase no matter how toxic they could be, well that sounds like GOOD NEWS to me.
I never wanted to get to the point where the release of a Star Wars film was not special, and we were there for ‘Solo’, so Lucasfilm (and Kathleen Kennedy)…on behalf of Star Wars’ sane fans, I’d like to thank you for making the decision to take your time in producing the best product possible for us. We’ve waited for Star Wars in the past, and we’ll wait again.
Not that we have to wait THAT long…Episode IX hits theaters in December of 2019 and Rian Johnson’s trilogy will follow shortly after. You know, the same trilogy the fans who are celebrating over this spinoff news claimed would be cancelled altogether because they sent a few means tweets about Princess Leia having the Force.