By our calculations, there were precisely 162 days separating The Last Jedi‘s release and that of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is, arguably, far too quick a turnaround for a franchise like Star Wars. Because sometimes you can really have too much of a good thing.
The box office numbers told the story, too, as Solo‘s global haul of $392 million was a far cry from Lucasfilm’s other Anthology flick, Rogue One. And so began the rumors that future standalone movies – namely those belonging to Obi-Wan and Boba Fett – had been placed on hold.
Fast forward to now, and Disney CEO Bob Iger basically confirmed as much in a frank new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where he announced an imminent “slowdown” of new Star Wars movies beyond Episode IX.
I made the timing decision, and 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 [Game of Thrones creators 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.
This announcement has been a long time coming, particularly after Solo: A Star Wars Story flopped and left Lucasfilm’s franchise plans hanging by a thread.
The studio has initially agreed to a three-movie contract for Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo), though with each day that passes, it looks increasingly likely that the company will write Solo off as a loss and move onto pastures anew – like, say, Lando: A Star Wars Story.
Next up for the Lucasfilm juggernaut is the launch of Star Wars: Episode IX next Christmas, which faces the somewhat tricky conundrum of bringing the curtain down on the entire Skywalker Saga. No pressure, then.
