That’s it. It’s over. End of story. After months of blame which predated the actual release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the source of what gave moviegoers a bad feeling about it is now out in the open. Whilst reporting on Disney’s market performance, Wall Street media analyst for Cowen, Doug Creutz, had some striking observations that were, ahem, right on the money.
Tackling the opinion that the divisive Last Jedi caused irreparable harm to Star Wars‘ pulling power, Creutz theorized that “if the franchise was able to survive Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, we have a hard time believing Last Jedi could have done that much damage.” Burn.
When accounting for the film’s poor box office returns, meanwhile, Creutz dismissed the idea of Star Wars fatigue (an oxymoron in itself, surely) and pointed the finger at a poor marketing campaign instead. Comparing the appearance of Alden Ehrenreich’s Han in the first Solo trailer to the presentation of Jyn Erso in Rogue One‘s teaser, Creutz noted the emphasis placed on Erso, whilst Ehrenreich was kept in the shadows.
The lead-in time was also a factor that did not go unnoticed, with the Solo: A Stars Wars Story teaser only dropping 108 days before release, compared to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s 278. That’s a whopping five months difference, give or take, and means, with any luck, we should be getting an Episode IX teaser in, oh, just another 14 months or so.
Whichever way you cut it, and whether these shortcomings were due to production difficulties or a sense of Star Wars entitlement, all eyes are now on Disney and Lucasfilm to see how they handle the next chapter in the saga.
Published: Jun 5, 2018 08:40 am