Between the fan backlash to Star Wars: The Last Jedi and the underwhelming box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, this last year or so has aptly demonstrated that the Star Wars franchise isn’t bulletproof, but if you spend too much time browsing certain corners of the internet, then you might get the impression that the brand is in more trouble than it actually is. Nonetheless, while all the recent murmurs of a major “course correction” for the saga may well turn out to be overblown, it’s clear that Disney has been rethinking some of their plans behind the scenes, and allegedly that includes the annual LEGO Star Wars Day at LEGOLAND California.
Star Wars fans site Rebel Scum reports that the popular spring event has been canceled, making this year’s promotional festivity the last we see of LEGO Star Wars Day at least for a few years. What’s more, the site relays information from an unnamed source that “the motivation was to refocus expenditure and limit Star Wars exposure to reset the franchise and allow fans to heal.”
While there’s plenty of discussion to be had over what exactly it means to “reset the franchise,” it’s not unthinkable that Disney would want to give the fans some time to cool off, whether their concern is rooted in the continuing backlash or worries of so-called “Star Wars Fatigue.”
That being said, though it’s all too easy to get caught up in the narrative that Lucasfilm is ruing the day they let Rian Johnson touch the Star Wars brand, it’s worth remembering that one box office bomb and some negative reception to the highest-grossing film of 2017 (not to mention the top-selling Blu-Ray of 2018) can only go so far in changing the course of a franchise.
In any case, while the saga’s future on the big screen still feels mysterious, we’ll likely have a much clearer picture by the time Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
