While fans are speculating what Star Wars Episode IX will have in store for fans to end the trilogiy, the second biggest question of the galaxy, far, far away, is what happens next. We were always told that we should be expecting one Star Wars movie a year going forward, but nothing had been officially announced by Lucasfilm for 2020 or beyond. Now, Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed what many had been speculating, the Star Wars franchise will be taking a bit of a break from the big screen.
Following Disney's big announcement regarding Disney+, Bob Iger sat down with Bloomberg and revealed that the plan is for Star Wars to take a break after Episode IX. While there certainly will be new Star Wars movies, they won't be coming immediately. According to Iger...
We will take a pause, some time, and reset. Because the Skywalker saga comes to an end with this ninth movie. There will be other Star Wars movies, but there will be a bit of a hiatus.
We know that there are several Star Wars projects in development. There's a trilogy by Rian Johnson as well as films being worked on by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. However, we have no idea when we'll see any of these films. It sounds like Disney is in no hurry to make any of them happen.
Instead, it seems like the plan is for Star Wars to shift off the big screen, and take up the small screen instead. Disney confirmed that The Mandalorian will be a day one release when Disney+ launches in November, and so it sounds like the plan is for that series to be the next chapter of Star Wars.
Bob Iger had previously fallen on his sword and taken the blame for moving too quickly with Star Wars and had said the franchise would slow down in some way. Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story released within six months of each other and the latter film did not do traditional Star Wars numbers at the box office. Some wondered if Star Wars was moving too quickly and Iger seemed to agree that was the case. It seems this is that slow down that Iger was talking about. The brand as a whole isn't going to disappear, but the big screen efforts will take a break.
Bob Iger didn't give any indication of how long this hiatus would be, so we don't know know if the franchise is just going to take 2020 off and be back in 2021, or if it will be even longer before we see another big screen Star Wars movie. With two Star Wars series coming to Disney+, and other potential series being rumored that could come after, it's possible we could see the franchise out of theaters for a while as Disney tries to make sure Star Wars fans are on board the new streaming service.
If one were being cynical, one might think that the reason Star Wars will take a big screen break isn't because it needs to rest and reset, but because Disney wants people looking for more Star Wars to subscribe to Disney+. If one were being cynical.
