After a quintet of films that cost well over a billion dollars to produce, rumours are rising that future Star Wars productions will be made with thriftier budgets. Given advances in technology it’s not as dramatic a possibility as it might initially appear, with developing Stagecraft tech potentially saving on location shooting and, as it refines, giving directors extra options in the Volume to recreate sets and grand vistas.
Overall, my Pinewood sources expect movies to be a lot cheaper moving forward after the global pandemic. In a very general conversation, a few of my sources essentially expect the next Star Wars films to be smaller in scale, more intimate blockbusters because of the economic downturns the world has suffered. That really isn’t the worst news either when you consider how cheap A New Hope and even Batman (1989) would cost compared to the movies released in 2019.
With content being king, a smaller, more intimate Star Wars story could easily deliver the drama fans desire, while the aforementioned advances in technology make achieving those goals more cost effective. Time, as always, will tell but consider this; after the vast amounts spent on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Paramount decided that the sequel needed to be made with a vastly reduced budget. That next film was Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, one, of the great sequels. It can work.
