Star Wars Is Shifting Resources Away From Making Movies
Star Wars movies are going to become rarer.
This article is more than 2 years old
Star Wars movies might start to be a lot rarer in the future. Insider Daniel Richtman is reporting that Lucasfilm is seeing that streaming is the way of the future and will be concentrating more of their productions on that delivery system. Considering the enormous slate of series we had revealed during the Disney Investor Day last year, this certainly tracks. Not to mention that the same seems to be the case for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It looks like Disney is starting to value the streaming experience over the traditional movie release strategy. And considering that Disney put out a press release last October that said they would be redirecting their efforts to streaming, this should not come as the biggest surprise.
However, the case with Star Wars movies might be even more personal for the Mouse House. When they obtained the rights to the franchise, they had acquired the most impacting piece of pop culture from the 20th century. But, after they were unable to replicate the same gargantuan success that they had with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney started to reel back on their commitment to making a bunch of Star Wars movies. Eventually, they found the sweet spot with The Mandalorian and seem pretty committed to keeping Star Wars in the streaming fold with very few film exceptions.
But, will the market even be ready to take on new Star Wars movies once the pandemic allows for movie theaters to reopen en masse? New York City is finally going to be opening theaters but in a limited capacity. And even with that, the question of whether or not audiences are going to show up is still an ever-present quandary. Many believe that it will just take the right movie to get folks back to theaters and a Star Wars or Marvel movie certainly would have the best shot at driving consumers back to theaters. But, has pandemic life changed our feelings so much that theater-going might be significantly impacted in the near future?
We have certainly heard about a lot of different Star Wars movies in development. There is Rogue Squadron, a Taika Waititi film, a movie headed by Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, and even Rian Johnson’s proposed trilogy is supposed to remain in the mix. Could this new directive mean that some of these projects are about to get the ax? Or maybe they already have and we have yet to hear about their cancellation in an official capacity?
It sounds like we may not be seeing a whole lot of Star Wars movies in the future. At least, in the movie theater. Streaming has become an integral and expected part of so many peoples’ lives over the last few years, and the pandemic certainly amplified that to a point where it might be a preferable option for some consumers. With Warner Bros. taking the first big step by releasing their whole 2021 slate of movies on HBO Max, this could really be the beginning of a new age of movie and media distribution.
