UPDATE: Disney Holding Off On Star Wars Standalone Movies, Rethinking Development, and Why Thats Actually Great for the Franchise

I appreciate that they're clearly being careful and listening to fans.

I just wish fans weren't the way that so many of them are.

If this is true, we could have had an Obi Wan film, possibly with Ewan. Toxicity, in a large part, may have ruined that now. Well done, people.

 

There is major news in regards to the future of Star Wars films at Disney. Although technically no projects beyond 2019's upcoming Episode IX have been announced, according to Collider Disney is reportedly scrapping any current standalone movies that were in development, including the often rumored Boba Fett and Kenobi projects. We agree with Collider's report as things we have heard match up with their reports about the current situation.





Collider just released the exclusive report, indicating that sources have told them Lucasfilm has put any future 'Star Wars Story' standalones on hold indefinitely. From their report:

Here is the video of Collider's Steve Weintraub and Jeff Sneider offering their take on this news.

Addition Information We at SWNN Have Heard About the Situation: 

• In light of the director change and having to nearly reshoot the entire movie, Lucasfilm wanted to move Solo: A Star Wars Story to December 2018, but Disney had enough of their previous films' delays and put their foot down. Our source tells us that Disney granted Lucasfilm the budget and time to make all the production changes they needed to fix anything broken with Solo, but that they had to make the May 25th release date.

• In addition to this, Disney told Lucasfilm that they would not let Solo interfere with their plans for Avengers: Infinity War, meaning Solo would not get any preferential treatment in marketing to make up for lost time due to its reshoots that lasted into the Fall of 2017. Disney is in new territory, having bought up so many different companies and franchises they are now quite literally competing with themselves to an extent.

• Lucasfilm is returning focus to one project at a time per-medium. So right now the only projects in development are Episode IX (live action film), Star Wars: Resistance (animated series), and Jon Favreau's live-action TV series. It sounds like they will continue to develop a solid structuring among those three departments under the Lucasfilm banner, with Dave Filoni still heading the animation department.

• Disney is done experimenting with new or unusual filmmakers and will go back to proven veteran talent who they know can handle a big budget Star Wars production in an effort to prevent future production chaos, drama, and firings.

A second source of ours worked for a company contracted by Disney for the standalone films, and recently revealed that his company was informed their contract would not be extended beyond Solo, further confirming the reports of future standalone film project cancellations.





This Is Actually Positive for the Future of Star Wars



While many may find this news sad or disappointing, ultimately this can be a very good thing for the future of the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars always stood above other franchises in terms of its spectacle. It transcended cinema and became more of an event to build up to, as opposed to say -  the Marvel model of churning out popcorn flicks a few times per year (which works perfectly fine for that type of storytelling and that franchise).



Star Wars will always be massively popular, and something that brings us fans together, and perhaps it being spread out again to one film project at a time will re-ignite that spirit. I respect the decisions being made. Granted it is a business decision, as all of these always are, but they are doing it to protect and preserve the brand instead of squeezing every last drop out of it. Disney could easily have kept ordering projects, decreased budgets, and try to squeeze out as much revenue from as many stories or branches of stories as possible, but they are not. This is why we as fans should see this as a great thing for Star Wars. Disney could have told Lucasfilm 'tough luck' on Solo and denied the budget that allowed them to reshoot 80 percent of the movie, but they didn't. Why? Because they'd rather take a financial hit on a film than put out a sub-par product. Again, this is why we should be happy about this news.







Some fans will be disappointed that these rumored Boba Fett, Kenobi, and other standalone projects have been cancelled (at least for the foreseeable future), but these actions clearly tell us two very important things:


<ol>
[*]Disney is being careful to not sully the legacy of the Star Wars brand.
[*]They are not looking to simply drain the franchise name for as much profit as possible.
</ol>


This is why you want Disney owning a franchise because they understand if you respect the brand and handle it with quality and care, everything else takes care of itself. A lot of things have been said about Star Wars under the Disney umbrella, but one thing is undeniable: They care about the legacy of this brand and will put quality first, knowing nothing is more important than maintaining the standard set for this franchise that we fans have placed above all other movie franchises as something more than just a movie.





UPDATE: As we state above in the article, this report does not mean these movies will never happen. It is quite possible a great writer or director pitches a knock-out idea for a Kenobi movie and it comes back into the fold after Episode IX. The report is solely stating that any current plans to make these movies have stopped.

We also want to make it clear that this report is referring to the standalone movies, and not the Benioff and Weiss series of films, nor the Rian Johnson trilogy. These two sets of films which were both officially announced by Lucasfilm are currently still happening, unless they announce otherwise in the future.



SOURCE: Collider



John Hoey

'For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.'





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Move forward.
Let the past go. Kill it, if you have to.

 

Me, pretending to be sad because of this decision:


Eh. Still getting a ton of SW content. Lack of one-offs doesn't affect me. Rogue One and Solo were in my mind a league below TFA and TLJ, so I won't be losing on too much. Rian's trilogy is still being pushed forward. This probably means more weird SW stuff and I like weird SW stuff, so

 

It seems that the fallout from the poor box office performance of Solo is going to impact future Star Wars films in a bigger way. In an exclusive from Collider, it is reported that the previously rumored Obi-Wan movie was in active development, but all those who were working on the film are no longer involved. The same goes for the rumored Boba Fett film. I think it really is a shame this is happening because I think think Solo was a very enjoyable film that suffered at the box office due to outside forces (poor timing, bad marketing, ect...). I love getting new Star Wars content and while I think they may have needed to slow down on the pace of the releases, I have always been in favor of allowing characters to be further developed and had their stories told. Apparently the reasoning behind all of this is to focus on episode 9 and the next trilogy, but I do wonder if Solo had performed better financially and hadn't cost so much due to the reshoots if this would be the case. I'm sure those who were very vocal against the Solo film will consider this a win for their campaign and I'm curious to see if this emboldens them going forward.

 

If its true, good choice. Hope next trilogy the episodes coming a year apart.

 

I wonder if they will save the big screen for the trilogy esque movies and use the eventual Disney streaming service to do movies like an Obi-Wan or Boba Fett standalone.

 

it's a shame, especially after all the sequel baiting in Solo. i liked Solo well enough and i would have liked to see what comes next. ho hum...

on the other hand, i'm totally ok with not getting a ton of origin story movies.

hopefully this will help keep Star Wars focused! what that focus will be though remains to be seen... fingers crossed 9 is amazing and whatever comes next is even better!

 

I didn't want to see Solo fail. But when it did, I hoped at least that Disney would decide to steer away from character-based spinoffs. Like I've said elsewhere, you don't get great stories when you start with a corporation saying "People like this character, lets make a movie about that!" instead of starting with a story. So I'm honestly a bit relieved that they're going to focus more on future trilogies.

But my inner fan still wants a Kenobi movie sometime.

 

I think we will still see these stories told in one medium or another. Either through books or through Disney's eventual streaming service via exclusive movies or tv shows. Clearly they are rethinking their strategy and I'm curious to see if there is a shakeup at the upper levels after episode 9 is done.

 

After episode IX, another trilogy? Okay that probaly it´s the RJ movies, but i don´t know, very bad news.

 

Unfortunately the decision wasnt a quality decision. Solo was a quality movie. Not the best, but not a bad movie in any way. If quality was the issue they wouldnt blanket cancel all the stand-alones. They would end them 1 by 1 as they deemed they wouldnt meet a quality level they would be happy with.

I for one only wanted Kenobi movie because of Ewan and ultimately I think cancellation is a good thing. I just cant think of a good story that doesnt totally ignore the canon that was setup. As for Boba Fett I never could come up with how a movie that focused on Boba Fett would work. A movie about a battle between Crimson Dawn and Hutts that had Boba Fett and Maul in it I could find interesting, but not a Boba Fett movie.

 

I believe it is the RJ movies since Benioff and Weiss films are just listed as a series. I'm sure we will know more as we get closer to the release of 9.

 

This is very good news. It shows, that these people know what they are doing and are capable of learning from their mistakes. Also:
- Now they can build more holistic narratives from the ground, instead of trying to build around pre-existing characters. Way more room for creativity
- Moving away from OT into new territory would help to get rid of (or at least silence) the crazy-obsessed OT "fans" and their expectations
- They can also now build more coherent narrative with books, games and comics and fill in the gaps in canon without having to wait for movies

So yeah, good news all around.

 

Hopefully we'll still get a book or a comic about the Crimson Dawn and the final fate of Qi'ra.

 

To me this is particularly reassuring.

Hm... Sounds like it could mean year gaps between movies. One step closer to my "no movie in 2020" theory... That's probably for the good, but it still kinda sucks.

 

If you think about it look at the reasons to make or people want Kenobi and/or Boba Fett.

Kenobi - For an actor and movie box office isnt driven much by actors any more and as good an actor Ewan McGregor is he isnt a box office draw.
Boba Fett - Honestly the draw is a cool suit of armor.

 

Damn it!!!

If there was one Star Wars film I desperately wanted it Obi Wan with Ewan McGregor.