If you felt that Disney releasingSolo: A Star Wars Storyjust five months afterThe Last Jediwas a mistake, you’re not alone. Even actorMark Hamilltook the studio to task for not givingThe Last Jedienough time to breathe, and the relatively disappointing box office ofSolo—it made $392 million worldwide, while all the other DisneyStar Warsmovies cracked $1 billion—seems to suggest Hamill and those many fans were correct. And now with the benefit of hindsight, Disney CEOBob Igerfeels the same.
In a new interview withTHR, Iger admits the timing decision on theStar Warsfilms was his, and that it was a mistake. Moreover, Iger says they’re going to be pumping the breaks a bit with futureStar Warsmovies:
“I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna make films.J.J.[Abrams] is busy making [Episode]IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of ThronescreatorsDavid]Benioffand [D.B.]Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about. And we are just at the point where we’re gonna start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.’s. But I think we’re gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.”
Solowasn’t the only film that took criticism for its timing. When screenwriterMichael ArndtdepartedStar Wars: The Force Awakensafter working on the script for eight months, Abrams and producerKathleen Kennedyreportedly lobbied Iger to push the release date of the film back from 2015 to 2016. Iger stood firm, having promised investors revenue that would be generated from theStar Warsfilm’s 2015 release. They compromised by releasing the film in December and Abrams and Co. made it (barely), but now a few years and a few films into this thing, Iger is starting to understand that making aStar Warsmovie is sometimes far more complex than making any other kind of film.
We knowEpisode IXhits theaters in December 2019, but beyond that Disney hasn’t set any release dates for future projects. As Iger mentioned, Benioff and Weiss are crafting a new franchise, andRian Johnsonis also toiling away on his new trilogy. But Benioff and Weiss are currently in post-production on the final season ofGame of Thronesand Johnson is about to directa murder mystery moviewithDaniel Craig, so it’s not like anything’s in the hopper and ready to start filming early next year. Could 2020 go by without a newStar Warsmovie? It’s unclear what, exactly, Iger means by a “slowdown,” but it’ll certainly be interesting to see what happens over the next few months.
