Film,  Uncategorized

Disney Reportedly Puts All STAR WARS Spinoffs on Hold [Updated]

UPDATE: ABC has reached out to Lucasfilm, who has dismissed this report as “inaccurate.” The studio says there are still “multiple” Star Wars movies that are in development, but haven’t been announced yet. The original story follows.

A big part of Disney’s plan when acquiring Lucasfilm, in addition to the main Skywalker saga, was to develop standalone Star Wars stories for the big screen. Rogue One came out in 2016 and was a big hit, while this summer’s Solo was…not. In fact, Solo will lose at least $50 million for Disney and Lucasfilm. Fans have wondered how the studio will respond to this, and now, we may have an idea.

According to Collider, Disney and Lucasfilm have put all future Star Wars spinoffs on hold. This includes the previously reported Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett movies. Instead, the plan is to focus on Episode IX and the next trilogy. Rian Johnson’s separate trilogy and the film series from David Benioffand D.B. Weiss are both still in development.

The story films have had plenty of production issues, to put it lightly. Rogue One was heavily changed in reshoots, Josh Trank’s take on Boba Fett was scrapped, and then there’s everything that happened with Solo. Following this and Solo‘s poor performance, it makes sense to pause development on more movies in this slate. It’s unfortunate, since fans have wanted Obi-Wan Kenobi at least to get his own film, but oh well.

Star Wars News Net backs up this report, with intel from its own sources. Apparently, Lucasfilm wanted to push Solo back to December 2018, but Disney said no. Instead, the studio gave Lucasfilm enough money to finish the film by the May 25th date. Solo was also refused “preferential” treatment in marketing, as Disney was focused on promoting Avengers: Infinity War. Meanwhile, Lucasfilm will focus on one project at a time, while the studio will stick with proven directors instead of experimenting with lesser known filmmakers again.

Some pretty big changes in the Star Wars saga here. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Stay tuned.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WOBAM! Entertainment.