Disney and Lucasfilm’s plan of releasing one Star Wars movie a year indefinitely always seemed like a bad idea. After all, a new movie in the franchise kind of feels like it should be a cinematic event and a conveyor belt of releases dilutes that quite a bit.
This plan consisted of alternating a ‘saga’ release with standalone spinoff movies. So, The Force Awakens was followed by Rogue One, and The Last Jedi was followed by Solo. Presumably, Episode IX would have been followed by either Obi-Wan or Boba Fett movies.
But since Solo: A Star Wars Story landed like a damp squib at the box office – a rare failure for both the franchise and Disney – they’ve had a rethink of this long-term strategy. What this might consist of was hinted at in Variety’s recent story announcing Kathleen Kennedy’s contract extension, where it was claimed that the Lucasfilm development slate has been “flushed,” with particular mention of the cancelled Boba Fett project.
Interestingly, the article also claims that:
“Her attention will now be directed to a new core trilogy beginning with “Star Wars: Episode IX” directed by J.J. Abrams.”
Given that Episode IX is the end of a trilogy, it seems unlikely that it’s going to be the first installment of a new one. I’d imagine if Disney had decided that their Sequel Trilogy was now going to be a pentalogy rather than a trilogy, we’d have heard about it. It seems more likely to me then that this news has been garbled a little and they’re actually talking about Rian Johnson’s new trilogy, which is currently in development despite fan scuttlebutt that it’s been cancelled.
If Obi-Wan and Boba Fett really have been axed though, then I won’t shed too many tears. After all, Boba Fett’s always been overrated as a character. I mean, the one thing he’s got going for him is being mysterious and a movie would necessarily spoil that. Kenobi is a bit more of a loss, however, particularly if they had Ewan McGregor reprising the role. He was great even with the terrible prequel scripts, so I’m sure he’d knock it out of the park in an actually good film.
That’s just what I think, though. What are your thoughts on all this? Are you upset to hear that the Boba Fett and Obi-Wan spinoffs aren’t moving forward anymore?
