Mark Hamill is expected to end his run as Luke Skywalker later this year with the release of Star Wars: Episode IX, but it’s evident that Lucasfilm has plans for the franchise that extend well beyond 2019. Not only do we have new trilogies in the works from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and The Last Jedi helmsman Rian Johnson, but the property is also making the jump to live action television with a series of Disney Plus shows.
A bit much? Well, that’s a matter of opinion, but at the very least, Hamill argues that there is such thing as too much Star Wars. The actor recently guested on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter Podcast, where he was asked if “Star Wars fatigue” seemed like a possibility to him. The star responded, “yes,” before expanding on his thoughts when asked if Disney could stand to space out their releases more.
“Well, I don’t know. I’m not gonna tell them how to run their business, but is there a possibility of ‘Star Wars fatigue’? Yeah, I think there is. I’ve experienced it, to a certain degree. But they never listen to my ideas anyway, so who needs ’em?”
In an interview last month with Den of Geek, Hamill recalled warning Disney that Solo: A Star Wars Story was released too soon after The Last Jedi. As we now know, Han’s standalone film provided the franchise with its first box office bomb, and while there are many reasons you could argue for this lackluster performance, the short space between releases surely didn’t help.
On the other hand, the time elapsed between Solo and Star Wars: Episode IX will be more than a year and a half, but we’ll find out if the latter was worth the wait when it arrives in theaters on December 20th, 2019. In the meantime, this week’s Celebration should have much to tell us about the many, many Star Wars projects lined up for the future.
