After the billion dollar gross of Rogue One, and the undoubted disappointment of Solo bringing in under $400 million at the box office on a reputed $275m+ budget, you could forgive the Disney bean counters being somewhat reticent to throw more money at the Star Wars Story model. The Josh Trank Boba Fett project barely got off the ground while the Kenobi standalone, set to be helmed by Stephen Daldry has now morphed into a Disney Plus series. With all these changes and false starts, where does that leave the standalone concept?
Business Insider take a look at a recent Bob Iger interview where he believes the appetite for the standalone films has disappeared.
“There didn’t seem like there was that much demand for another standalone Star Wars movie.”
Iger seems clear that the focus of Star Wars is shifting – for the immediate future at least – to the small screen, where we have The Mandalorian launching in just 2 days, the untitled Kenobi series filming in July 2020 and the Cassian Andor series to kick off sometime after that.
Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian and Boxoffice Pro chief analyst Shawn Robbins take a look at the situation, both with very pertinent points to make about the state of the franchise right now. As Dergarabedian says,
“‘Star Wars’ needs breathing room”
And Robbins makes the most portentous statement of them all.
“The temperature in the room for an Obi-Wan movie was red hot. That was the next big story people wanted to see. Now it’s a TV series. We’re in unknown territory with Disney Plus. The reaction to ‘The Mandalorian’ will be indicative of how people feel about ‘Star Wars.’ This is an important time in the franchise.”
