It was in December 2020, just before Christmas, when Disney, during its Investor Day, announced an immense calendar of new Marvel and Star Wars titles.
There it appeared for the first time Rogue squadron, directed by Patty Jenkins, which was to be the first film in the franchise directed by a woman. Also a film by Taika Waititi o A Droid Story, an adventure with the most beloved droids in the galaxy.
In the series section, in that same appointment almost a year ago we also saw the first image of the series of Obi Wan, it was announced The Bad Batch, Rangers of the New Republic, the series of Ahsoka, that of Andor, Visions and Landau. It seemed the perfect balance between refloating the franchise in the cinema after the bittersweet result of the last trilogy. and enliven with more premieres and content Disney Plus.
Of all these premieres, all the series have remained on their calendar, The Bad Batch and Visions can already be seen on Disney Plus, which will be added in a few weeks The Book of Boba Fett, announced by surprise at the end of the second season of The Mandalorian, the winning horse that has spearheaded subscriptions to Disney’s streaming services. Only Rangers of the New Republic seems to have fallen into the series section after the controversy surrounding the actress who played Cara Dune, Gina Carano, who said on Twitter that being a Republican today with being Jewish during the Holocaust
However, when it comes to movies, Rogue squadron announced a few days ago that it was postponing its release date beyond 2023; hardly anything is known about Waititi’s, nor about Kevin Feige’s project from Marvel which was rumored to be run by Chloe Zhao. Let no one ask about the supposed Rian Johnson trilogy, absorbed by his commitments to Netflix, nor by the one that was also announced by JD Dillard.
According to the latest update of Disney’s theatrical releases -which delayed some Marvel projects-, where a horizon of premieres was planned until 2028 Among all the company’s brands, two Star Wars films were planned to be defined that should arrive at the end of 2025 and 2027 and that were previously scheduled for 2024 and 2026. What will they be? That is a great unknown.
The very fact that Obi Wan’s project has gone from being a movie to a series is distinctive. And even more than in the past Disney Plus Day held last week, among dozens of announcements, only a few images of this series and a new documentary were sneaked in as a novelty.
Why didn’t we see any news?
Where is Disney’s strategy for cinema going?
Star Wars fans eagerly awaited Disney Plus, assuming that it would present new previews of upcoming series such as Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte or the third season of The Mandalorian. But that, as we say, did not happen.
While Marvel recapitulated its upcoming series with various teasers, in Star Wars there was complete silence.
For all the production problems previously reported in regards to films, it is easy to interpret Lucasfilm’s silence during the Disney Plus Day as an effort not to tempt luck by announcing additional projects.
According to the latest rumors not yet confirmed, Lucasfilm has renewed President Kathleen Kennedy’s contract until 2024, so at least in the dome it seems that there will be continuity, for the good and for the bad. Kennedy, with an apparently diminishing power of decision, is so much the one that has taken the reins of the last trilogy from the point of view of the dispatches as well as to give Dave Filoni more weight in the scripts.
From Star Wars movies to Star Wars series
There are points in favor in criticism, investment and return at the box office that they protect this road to streaming television.
The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker they did not like the critics and they confused the fans with their continuous turns and returns to the starting box. No matter where you look, they weren’t round movies and brought legacy production issues for Disney. And as for anthology movies, Solo: One historia from star wars, it also left too many open wounds.
Maybe yes Only, in 2018, it would have been a only (sorry for the redundancy) a television series, expectations would have been lowered.
This hypothesis works the other way around. Let’s imagine The Mandalorian in theaters: Would Baby Yoda have been a new phenomenon Jar Jar Binks? Here the medium can be a big difference, and that is that streaming opens up to a much wider audience and dilutes the criticisms of the fandom more dedicated, the one who goes to the first film sessions and expands the first reviews.
Date of high in Disney Plus now and save thanks to the annual subscription, with which you can enjoy its entire catalog of series and movies, access to the latest releases, to the catalog of Star and the best National Geographic documentaries.
Movies tend to be great cultural events, which means at least meeting the record and outdoing the old one. In the series, that introduction can be more relaxed, and have more marked budgets that can be concentrated in a season without risk of mortgaging the entire future of the franchise. Even great moments like the one at the end of the season in The Mandalorian, with Luke Skywalker’s cameo they may resonate better because they were completely unexpected. Something that the last trilogy, so presumable, did not have at all.
This idea is not new. Star Wars animated series, such as The Clone WarsThey were successful because the stakes were lower, both in terms of the plot and the culture surrounding the series. Visions It has also managed to create a valid product without disrupting anything.
In the end, the original version of George Lucas already divided his films into Episodes. Now maybe it’s time to get used to it all, without the beginning of A long long time ago… means a direct continuation beyond with the previous chapter.