Star Wars fans can't complain that they don't have enough content in this universe nowadays. Before the Prequels, Star Wars went through a bit of a drought. For while stories were being churned out in novels and comic books, there were no movies or TV shows to scratch that Star Wars itch. Now, however, there might be too much Star Wars, and Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger takes complete blame for that misstep in a candid new interview. When stepping back and looking at the big picture of Star Wars, Iger admits:
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 gonna make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [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 gonna start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.'s. But I think we're gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.
Bob Iger was speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, touching on all issues that are important to the media giant, including the new streaming service, the Fox acquisition, and the major brands in play at Disney. And when it came to Star Wars, THR asked if there is going to be a slow down of production on the upcoming movies, seeing as how Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed, by every metric.
The unspoken thought regarding Star Wars is that Disney eventually wanted to get to a point where they were catching up with Marvel Studios and potentially releasing two Star Wars movies a year -- one in May and one in December, ideally. This feeds into the narrative that Solo: A Star Wars Story kept its May release, even though Ron Howard probably could have used more time in post-production, because Disney wanted to see how a Star Wars movie could perform in May. You'd assume that a Star Wars movie could open on ANY weekend, but one criticism leveled at Solo is that it came out too soon after Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi... a sequel that some fans have rejected.
So, Star Wars isn't bulletproof, and Bob Iger is admitting that Disney has learned that they can't just churn out any old Star Wars story and expect the fan base to show up and toss money at it. Quality still matters, so the Disney CEO says they are going to go back and think about what's coming AFTER J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode IX concludes the new trilogy that was launched with The Force Awakens.
A number of projects are on the radar. In addition to the Benioff and Weiss saga, Rian Johnson has a series of stories he's developing for the film side, and Jon Favreau has a Star Wars story he's bringing to the streaming service. Dave Filoni is bringing The Clone Wars back to the animated side for Star Wars Resistance. There's a Boba Fett movie in the ether. And Ewan McGregor is ready to play Obi-wan, if anyone will call him. We'll be covering Star Wars for the foreseeable future, but it's refreshing to hear Bob Iger admit that Disney might have put its cart before its horse, and it's pumping its brakes ever so slightly on all of these stories set in a galaxy far, far away.
