Ever since the House of Mouse historically acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion back in 2012, “fatigue” has been a centerpiece in the Star Wars conversation. It took three years for Disney to spit out and initiate a third trilogy with The Force Awakens, and in the 4 years since that movie took over the galaxy, they’ve kept a steady output of one production per year. Just to put that into perspective for you, there was a six-year gap between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. That’s a lot of Star Wars…
And it wasn’t until the dismal performance of Solo that Disney CEO Bob Iger recognized that fact, announcing that the franchise would pump on the brakes after The Rise of Skywalker in December.
Now, speaking with BBC Radio, Iger has doubled-down on his declaration, saying:
“I have said publicly that I think we made and released too many Star Wars films over a short period of time,” Iger said as he was promoting his recently published memoir The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. “I have not said that they were disappointing in any way. I’ve not said that I’m disappointed in their performance. I just think that there’s something so special about a Star Wars film, and less is more.”
Personally, I like the sentiment. There has definitely been, as Iger also stated, “too much, too fast” when it comes to Star Wars.
With that said, just because the franchise may be taking a break from the big screen doesn’t mean that the House of Mouse is slowing down its galactic content entirely. Later this month, Disney Plus will be launching with the long-awaited arrival of The Mandalorian, and I’m sure there will be plenty of updates to their Galaxy’s Edge theme park.
So, we may never again get a time where Star Wars actually slows down; at least as long as Disney, the most ferocious business train on the market today, keeps chugging along.
