When will we get oversaturated with Star Wars?

I don't think it'll ever become a real problem.

If you're a normal/casual fan nothing other than the movies is getting pushed onto you. Maybe when the new TV series on the streaming service debuts that'll be pushed their way too but I still don't think that's too much, I REALLY don't think they're ever gonna go to more than one movie a year. And if someone considers that too much Star Wars, especially when the films aren't necessarily going to be about the same things, I really don't know what to tell you.

And as for the hardcore fans, it's only gonna be a problem if you let it be a problem. No one's forcing you to read the new novel or comic that comes out. If you take it upon yourself to absorb EVERY SINGLE BIT of Star Wars content that comes out then you really aren't in a place to complain about there being too much. I watch the movies, the TV show and pick and choose which novels I wanna read, and that's my limit. I've never picked up a comic, there's a bunch of novels I've never checked out... and I'm perfectly fine with that. Know your limit, don't exceed it.

Also keep in mind, after Solo we're gonna enter a pretty big 18-19 month drought until IX comes out. Rebels is gonna be over and there's no imminent plan for a new animated series. The streaming service will probably be up by the time IX comes out, but I don't know if we're gonna see any new Star Wars content on there by then unless they're far further into the process than they're letting on. Heck, there's not even a Star Wars Celebration this year. We're only gonna have comics and novels to hold us over but even then, to my knowledge no future novels have been officially announced (other than Thrawn... and I think that's it), we may not get many until the "Journey to Episode IX" series starts to roll out a few months before the film is released.

 

A reminder - you don't have to consume all of the SW content. The same applies to films. No one forces you to watch every film and no, being a fan is no obligation to do so.

 

If they start to release two Star Wars movies a year, then I think I'll be oversaturated very quickly. On the other hand as long as the movies are good it's not much of a big deal.

 

@Star Dude There are people that go to a SW movie who really know nothing about the genre, etc.....and then there are Cantina members. The first group could feel some "SW burnout"......the second group I would wager will never "burn out". I mean come on, look at us in here in the Cantina....willingly spending time talking about SW A LOT......

 

Personally, I think mass "over saturation" is a bit of a myth. People, in general, go to things they like- Comic book films being strong still is a good example.

We can't expect Star Wars to always perform as well as TFA, but I think it will remain very strong for years to come.

That being said, there are things Star Wars can do to alleviate the pressures of "samey-ness". The spinoffs, I think, do a fantastic job of this. They allow for a rest between the heavier and more thematically linked trilogies and series films, even granting the opportunity for experimental genres for the series (like war with R1 and western with Solo).

I think if the spinoffs continue and are used creatively in conjunction with quality saga films, Star Wars can only continue to improve.

 

Having a break between movies isn't always a bad thing. It depends how varied the film / TV series are. Marvel have done well at late at freshening up their movies and making them feel different from one another. I do feel we are becoming oversaturated with books and comics but that might be because I don't have as much time (and money) to read them all. The only problem is when I get into something I get in deep and feel like I need to read and know everything little thing. It might just take me a few years to catch up that's all.

 

If they do 2 or more SW movies a year, then I'll say it will get overly saturated quick. I think one movie a year is fine (since it'll be different stories). I'm sure over the next decade or two maybe have some bad films but it's expected with a long running franchise. I personally only care about the movies and tv shows, so I won't feel the over saturated feeling. I really don't care about the books and if I see a book that I want to know about, i'll just read the plot summary and spoiler discussions threads about a particular book. It only takes one movie to bring back the franchise to life if it starts to goes down hill. I don't care what people think about JJ Abrams, but he brought the Mission Impossible franchise back to life with the 3rd movie because the 2nd one was terrible and they been going strong since the 3rd one. I can wait for the 6th movie that is about to come out.

 

Nop. I don't think I will be oversaturated. And we always can decide if we see a project in its premiere or weeks or months later (even in cinemas or at home in good TV). If we are saturated a year and a half, for exemple (which I really doubt), the day we will decide to enter again, because we will enter again, could be so exciting knowing we could have lots of material to watch.

Plus, the excitement and emotions of waiting and watching a teaser, or a trailer, or concept art, or first photos, or news,,,, it's so cool.

The only problem i see is sometimes movies or shows will be great and sometimes not.
Unless they do really silly projects, with overused humor, overused cgi, overused cheesy dialogs and stories, I'm really ok with lots of projects.

 

That depends on the quality of the output they release.
On the other hand, If it becomes too bad or stale I guess they can wipe it out of canon...

 

Original Trilogy: 3 films in 6 years (ANH 1977, TESB 1980, ROTJ 1983)
Prequel Trilogy: 3 films in 6 years (TPM 1999, AOTC 2002, ROTS 2005)
Disney Era: 6 films in 5 years (TFA 2015, RO 2016, TLJ 2017, SOLO 2018, IX 2019, ANTH#3 2020)

I would say that "we" are already saturated, compared to the George Lucas era of releases. I presently feel that the "super-sizing" of Star Wars may make a lot of people happy with a regular supply of Star Wars films, because more is good, right? No.

There are people who feel the increased quantity and regularity of new films is both damaging the mystique and quality of the entire Star Wars brand. For example, there are presently Star Wars toys unsold on shop shelves or in discount bins. In the George Lucas era, that simply didn't happen. But it does now.

I would say the non-hardcore everyday people are already bored with the oversaturation and over commercialism of Star Wars.

 

I don't know what Disney will release next. I don't know what they want to make. If you're looking for doubts, I can tell you I don't have any... but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over many years. Skills that make me a nightmare for people who hate Star Wars. If they keep making Star Wars films, that will be the end of it - I will not look for them, I will not pursue them... but if they don't, I will look for them, I will find them... and I will troll them

 

Are you a troll?

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 9, 2018, Original Post Date: Feb 9, 2018 ---

It is hard not to agree with you. To a certain extent.
We do live in an oversaturated era...and if you are not present on the market then the masses forget about you. But that's just the thing I find problematic with a multitude of movies that put quantity over quality. That they do focus on masses. (coughMarvel seriescough)
I may be wrong but I always understood that Star Wars movies are not meant for the masses...

 

I think Disney will test the limit, then dial back slightly once they find it. Right now, the market seems to be saying, "more, more, more" and Disney's increased earnings from the last quarter report was well received by the market too. So there is no end in sight to the saturation, because its working and its making shareholders money.

For me personally, I'm okay with more, because for me, a lot of installments are poor quality, decent action flicks, but unworthy of the Star Wars moniker. Other installments are superb, a step above your average popcorn fare at the theater.

To me, the more you make, the more likely some of the installments are great. Experimentation is a good idea right now, because the market is open to expansion for Star Wars, they want more, so you give them more and see what works.

The only sad thing about it though is at age 51, I suddenly realize I may not live to see all the Star Wars coming down the pike. Will I be here in 2030, when yet another 3 Star Wars films are announced? Maybe, maybe not, but for the first time I have come to the conclusion, that Star Wars is going to outlive all of us.

Which means I may never learn who the heck Rey's parents really were.

Saturation will come and the market will react accordingly, but for now, the trend is more, more, more. Enjoy it!

 

I have to somewhat disagree with the toy comment and I don't think is a good indicator. I'm not saying SW toys are in the discount bin but which type of SW are not being sold? Is it the very cheap Hasbro action figures or the more detailed action figures that cost a lot more? Cause I still have SW toys from the 90s and they are better quality than the ones we have now. SW Legos are doing really well sales wise. Also, how much is Amazon and other e-commerce websites affecting retail toy stores? Toys-R-Us is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and i'm sure that is hurting the toy market. If they go, what other options do you have? Walmart? Target? or Online?Online commerce wasn't as big like it is today back in GL era even in the early to mid 2000s. I know for a fact Amazon and Ebay wasn't nearly as big much-less have the huge market share during the time frame. If you can say that Lego and the higher quality SW toys are collecting dust in stores, than you have a point. Plus toys now have more stuff to compete against than they did back then. Kids wasn't on tablets or iPhones during GL era. I think the issue is with the over-saturated of cheap toys that no one wants and I believe manufactures are more the blame than Disney/LFM. Star Wars Battlefront did really well and it's sequel did okay but the numbers was low but that was more due to EA rather than Disney. I'm sure if another SW game comes out tomorrow, people would jump all over it.

 

2019/202 and by then it will have become just another tentpole franchise.

 

My thoughts exactly. I should still be around when the next trilogy concludes, so should be able to see that, plus the stand-alone/spin-off movies that most likely will be released too and the tv series too.

Star Was has already outlived some already. 1977 was a long time ago...in a galaxy far far away .... (sorry couldn't help myself).

 

From this article...

"In milking the Star Wars franchise as fervently as Luke Skywalker did the green milk-lactating thala-siren in The Last Jedi, Disney risks losing Star Wars its "event movie" reputation. It might be hard to imagine audiences being indifferent to a new installment, but we probably would have thought the same with Batman during his The Dark Knight apotheosis. Here we are, just a few years later, cringing as he is shoehorned into every DC movie possible, the future of the studio's once iconic superheroes now looking troubled, to say the least."

I think risking the loss of SW "event movie" reputation is a real danger but I imagine the pros probably outweigh the cons for Disney.
I'm not big on the authors comparison to Batman though - SW doesn't revolve around a single character.

It will be interesting to see how much these new trilogies and multiple SW TV shows they are currently working on effect fan demand.
Iger says one of the shows is close to being announced...

 

Up through Episode VIII, I think the "event movie" feeling was still very much there for me.

I'm even starting to feel that way about Solo and am glad Disney/LFL exercised some well-timed restraint in not pushing that fiml while we were still reacting to/recovering from Episode VIII.

With the upcoming schedule, though, it's will be interesting to see how well they can sustain anticipation and adjust their marketing strategies in real time.

I think there is a way they can do this to ensure more success than failure, but it all comes down to the quality of the stories they intend to tell in the coming years.

I believe they can have several successful storylines running simultaneously distributed between films and TV. Rebels, to me, helped fill the gap between saga films, while it avoided being strictly "filler" material.

Disney/LFL know by now (given the convincing successes of VII, Rogue One, and VIII) they have a rather Star Wars content-hungry audience. I think they will try to see how far they can go.

And it's funny because there is growing anticipation among many fans (myself included) for an Obi-Wan movie and even a KOTOR era trilogy -- eagerness for things not currently known to be in production or approved conceptually.

Me, I plan on taking it all in piece by piece, evaluating things individually as I go along, and deciding accordingly where to invest my fan time.

The most wonderful thing of all, I think, when I consider all this new and pending/future content is that we have something with Star Wars we've never quite had before, in terms of films:

choice.

There will be, in the next 10 to 15 years, plenty of cinematic content to explore and rediscover in addition to the Prequel, Trilogy, and Sequel Trilogy.

If Disney/LFL do take the time, invest the proper resources, and commit, every time, to developing the most masterfully told story while ensuring grand continuity between all this material, it will be amazing.

But, if they somehow "get cocky," start cutting corners, and begin to convince themselves they could do literally anything under the Star Wars brand name and fans would "eat it up," then they stand a greater chance of fan fatigue and box office failures.

It would probably be wise if they guard against the inevitable overconfidence blockbusters can generate among producers and writers, and they should never allow themselves to begin to believe they can do no wrong. Past successes never guarantee against future failures.

For now, though, I choose to believe fans have many more reasons to be hopeful Disney/LFL will be mindful enough of their responsibilities as storytellers and custodians of this content to expand Star Wars into new and exciting dimensions.

Not every choice of theirs will gain the fandom's collective approval, but we will have more choices and opportunities to voice or support or concerns over their decisions. I believe fans, as a positive and constructive force, can help to influence Star Wars's future in positive ways. They know we continue to care, and perhaps that should make them more careful as they proceed.

So, for me, it's probably the best time ever to be a Star Wars fan. And I'm so grateful to be alive to share in the excitement of this all with everyone here and other fans around the world.