'Star Wars' is Finally Heading Back into Theaters
by EG
Since the disappointing performance of the last two theatrical Star Wars films, Disney has put its plans for the franchise, at least on the big screen, on hold. That changes with the announcement of three new upcoming theatrical films, one of which leverages the success of the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian. The other two projects are a bit riskier, and all of them are still years away from hitting theaters. Read on for details.
Ashlyn Ni Fhearghail, an Irish transplant living in the Middle East, was standing on the convention floor at London’s Star Wars Celebration, dressed like one of her favorite characters, Rey, when she heard the news. In another part of the ExCeL center, Lucasfilm had just revealed that it was finally pulling the trigger on new Star Wars movies and one of them was going to center on Rey, the character made famous by Daisy Ridley in Disney’s sequel trilogy. To Ni Fhearghail, who had been standing with another fan dressed as Rey comparing costume notes, it was a sign. “We’re excited to see more movies with her and more movies in general,” she said.
To mangle a Star Wars analogy, these are the fans Lucasfilm is looking for, at least as it seeks to build a winning film slate. There hasn’t been a movie since The Rise of Skywalker, which bowed in December 2019 to middling critical reception and a $1.077 billion global gross. That film, along with Solo: A Star Wars Story, which underperformed at the box office in 2018 with $392 million, led Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy and Disney CEO Bob Iger to take a pause in the feature space.
Luckily, a pivot to TV with Disney+’s The Mandalorian reinvigorated the storied brand, first created by George Lucas in 1977, in unanticipated ways. Now there is a whole Mandalorian-connected universe -- The Book of Boba Fett, the upcoming Ahsoka -- that has made Iron Man and Lion King helmer Jon Favreau and Rebels and Clone Wars animation creative Dave Filoni the most important creative forces in Star Wars since Lucas himself. Filoni’s personal story itself is noteworthy, that of a fan turned Lucas protégé who became the top driver in Star Wars animation and is now bringing his animated characters and storylines into live action. To cap it all off, one of the three new movies will be directed by Filoni, his live-action feature debut, and will weave the threads of the Mandalorian-oriented shows into one climactic event feature centering on the “escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic.”
And there’s the rub for the new trio of films. Lucasfilm has not committed to a timetable for its newly unveiled releases, having learned its lesson the hard way after having dated movies before features were put in production. (In 2019, the plan was for the next Star Wars film to bow Dec. 16, 2022, with other entries in 2024 and 2026.) Among other titles, Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron -- initially plotted as “the greatest fighter pilot movie ever made” -- was a casualty, with that project being removed from the 2023 release calendar after being unveiled at Disney Investor Day in 2020.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.