Could the Star Wars movie delays be a good thing for the galaxy far, far away?

Could the delay of Star Wars movies be a good thing for the galaxy far, far away? Don’t get me wrong, it’s generally true that the Writers Guild of America strike is having an adverse effect on the production pipeline for Hollywood projects, justified though the guild members may be in authorizing the strike. However, have you seen the state of Star Wars films and shows lately? While there are certainly some diamonds in the rough, some of its biggest swings lately have undoubtedly been misses.

In case you weren’t already aware, a huge slew of movies is seeing release date delays, including multiple Marvel projects and other intellectual properties from the House of Mouse, including Star Wars movies, the Avatar films, and Disney proper movies, according to a bombshell report from Deadline. 

I would describe myself as a casual fan of Star Wars. I’ve seen the six mainline entries of the franchise, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Rogue One. And I must say, The Rise of Skywalker was one of the biggest disappointments in a movie theater in recent memory. The 2019 film seemed to only highlight that the sequel trilogy didn’t have a plan from the outset whatsoever.

However, there have been some wins in the Star Wars franchise, such as in the excellent TV show The Mandalorian. But like many fans of that show, I was pretty baffled in the season three episode when Jack Black, Christopher Lloyd, and Lizzo showed up in what seemed like a Saturday Night Live sketch rather than a gritty space Western. What’s going on? 

Meanwhile, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has formed a habit of announcing some big-name director attached to a hypothetical future Star Wars project, only for that to eventually not pan out at all. Remember when David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were supposed to get their own Star Wars trilogy? That didn’t happen. Remember when Rian Johnson, director of The Last Jedi (which I actually liked), was supposed to get his own trilogy? That didn’t pan out. Or how about that Taika Waititi film? Or how about that Patty Jenkins film? 

Many of these projects haven’t been officially canceled, but they seemingly haven’t gone anywhere, either. So it definitely has me wondering, is Star Wars a rudderless ship right now?

The Disney Plus Effect

In terms of the Disney Plus shows, I regrettably haven’t gotten around to watching Andor yet, as I rather disliked Rogue One when it came out, and it follows some of the same characters from that film. But the critical consensus is that Andor is an absolute banger of a show, so it’s been on my list to check out. And personally, I liked Obi-Wan Kenobi, although I know there are a lot of people who did not like it. The Book of Boba Fett had a few highlights, but overall, it was pretty middling at best. But Star Wars is supposed to take place in an entire universe of its own, right? So I just don’t understand why the franchise, including the three aforementioned TV shows, has resorted to returning to the same legacy characters and locations over and over again. The mileage may vary for each attempt, but it’s worth wondering, can’t we get something more original?

Perhaps the delay in these Star Wars movies coming out will give the higher-ups at Lucasfilm more time to marinate about where the franchise is going. Plus, if the rumor is true that Kennedy will be parting ways with Lucasfilm soon, this could be a valuable transition period for a new visionary to take the helm and put the franchise in some kind of compelling direction.

Obviously, there is a writer strike going on, so that means scripts cannot be written in an official capacity during this period. So how could a delay of this nature even be beneficial? There are no rules against simply brainstorming ideas, especially if that brainstorming is coming from an executive of the franchise, even if said brainstorming is confined to the person’s own mind. Maybe this little break will be a necessary bit of respite for a Lucasfilm executive to do some self-reflection and really start making smarter decisions about where the franchise is going.

Plus, people can still write spec scripts about Star Wars and pitch them to a studio after the strike is over, although there’s no guarantee of that. You never know if some writer might strike gold with an idea and they just keep it to themselves for a while until it can be officially pitched, and hopefully, produced. Maybe this extra time marinating on everything will create new stories and take Star Wars back to its roots.

Before the writer strike and delays, we knew of three different Star Wars movies in the works: one involving Daisy Ridley’s Rey rebuilding the Jedi Order, another being a crossover event film involving The Mandalorian TV universe and directed by Dave Filoni, and a third helmed by Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold and focused on the origin of the Jedi.  

Of these three films, the Mangold project sounds the most promising. Rather than returning to the same characters over and over again, Mangold told The Wrap back in April that the film, which he was writing, would have “all-new characters in an all-new era,” 25,000 years before the original trilogy.

So far, we know that one Star Wars movie proper is getting delayed, being bumped from December 19, 2025 to May 22, 2026. It wasn’t confirmed what the movie was, but since the Ridley-led film was purportedly furthest along among the three, it’s safe to assume that is the one that was delayed. Another Star Wars film has been added to the roster, as well, for December 18, 2026, which could either be the Filoni project or the Mangold project, it’s not entirely clear. That represents only a fraction of the number of delays that Marvel saw happen, but if Lucasfilm plays its cards right, it could be just the lull they need to get back in touch with the Force.