Home Entertainment Disney reportedly putting all standalone Star Wars spinoff movies on hold

Disney reportedly putting all standalone Star Wars spinoff movies on hold

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It would appear that Disney is hogging all the entertainment headlines for this news cycle. Following hot on the heels of Disney’s new proposed deal to acquire Fox, comes word of a massive shakeup in the Star Wars franchise. According to a report from Collider, sources close to the franchise indicate that Disney has decided to put a hold on all standalone spinoff films and instead focus their attention on the upcoming Episode IX as well the already announced two future trilogies.

While there’s been no official word from Disney or Lucasfilm to confirm this report one way or the other, it has to be pointed out that Collider is about as reputable as they come. If they’re willing to report smoke, you can be damned sure there’s some kind of fire here. Also, this actually doesn’t come as much of a surprise given the past troubles surrounding these spinoff films, originally conceived as Star Wars anthologies which would fill in the gaps in the franchise’s timeline.

A planned Boba Fett movie from Chronicle director Josh Trank never even got off the ground after the director was fired for his behaviour, and Rogue One may have been almost universally praised upon its release, but it faced late-production reshoots so extensive that many claim that writer/director Tony Gilroy – who was brought in to fix up the film – should share a co-directing credit with original helmer Gareth Edwards. And then we have Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The latest standalone flick telling the origin story of a young Han Solo was already a movie nobody asked for, but then it had the added misfortune of original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller being fired well into production for repeatedly deviating from Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy’s vision. Veteran filmmaker Ron Howard was brought in right the ship and actually produced a surprisingly enjoyable movie, but he did so on the back of massively expensive reshoots that reportedly pushed this to be the most costly Star Wars film ever made with a rumoured production budget in the region of $300 million. And with Solo having only made back $343 million at this point, the lowest total of any live-action theatrical release in the franchise’s history, it is an unprecedented box office flop.

Many reasons have been given for Solo’s colossal failure; some claim it backlash from certain parts of the fandom unhappy with the overall new direction of the franchise, while Disney themselves thing say it could have been the film’s May release date being too soon after the release of The Last Jedi combined with the fact it had to compete with juggernauts like Avengers: Infinity War right in the middle of a very crowded box office. Whatever the reason, it was clear something drastic needed to happen in response to its failure and this would seemingly be it.

According to Colliders’s report, it’s not 100% clear what’s going to happen in the long term to the standalone films that were already reported to be in development, being Steve Daldry’s planned Obi-Wan Kenobi movie and the recently revealed new Boba Fett movie from Logan writer/director James Mangold. These could just be frozen for now and resumed again later, scrapped entirely, or maybe even eventually reworked from the ground up. Neither of these were actually ever officially announced by Disney despite their development being common knowledge, so really they could go either way. Whatever happens though, it won’t happen now if this report is accurate.

Personally, as much as I love me some Star Wars, I’m actually quite happy about this as it’s exactly what I called for recently. With the standalone movies out of the way, the subsequent year break in-between Episode releases will give fans a much-needed chance to breathe. After Episode IX wraps up the story of Rey and Kylo Ren, we have the new unrelated trilogy from The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson as well as another trilogy spearheaded by the Game of Thrones duo of David Benioff and DB Weiss. Then there’s also Jon Favreau’s planned live-action TV series as well. That’s already more than enough Star Wars to still have half-baked fan-service standalone films, seemingly stuck in the franchise’s past instead of moving it forward, cluttering up the schedule.

Last Updated: June 21, 2018

22 Comments

  1. As much as I enjoyed Rogue One, I’m glad they’re doing this. We’ve got a new generation of characters and a new story that needs to be told and I’d much rather they focus on that and get it right. Solo, Obiwan and co are obviously fan favourites from the originals (and even the prequels I guess) but their time is up now. We loved them in the main story and we know how their stories ended. We don’t need to know how they became who they were. What’s next? An Indiana Jones origin story where we see how he became interested in archaeology? How James Bond went from traffic police to the secret service?

    I really like the new SW world and characters. I’m invested in them. I know who Kylo is and why he is the way he is. Same with Rey, and Poe and Finn. I know enough of where they come from. Rather spend bajillions of dollars and 10 years making their story amazing for us and the new young generation of Star Wars fans.

    Reply

  2. Kromas

    June 21, 2018 at 08:29

    I think after episode 9 Star Wars needs a 2-3 year break. Disney however does not think so.

    Reply

  3. Original Heretic

    June 21, 2018 at 08:31

    I see this morning that Disney is also going to stop using “up and coming” directors for the SW movies. Which I also think is a damn good move.

    Reply

    • Edward Yves

      June 21, 2018 at 08:48

      I don’t get why you would hire an up and coming director because you like their vision, then turn and around and tell them that you don’t like their vision.

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        June 21, 2018 at 08:52

        Yeah, fully agree.
        Especially when you know the kind of style they make their movies in and how they operate. With Lord and Miller, it was known that they had a very loose, improv style when it came to directing. Then suddenly they don’t like that the guys are deviating from the script and they end up spending crap loads to replace them.
        Poor decision making on the parts of the execs. With something as huge and as well loved as SW, can they really risk taking a chance?

        Reply

      • Kervyn Cloete

        June 21, 2018 at 10:11

        With Lord and Miller it wasn’t that Disney didn’t like their vision, it was that they had agreed on a vision with Disney and then kept changing it after the fact. By all account they had repeatedly been told the direction they were taking things in wasn’t what had been agreed upon and kept doing it anyway. Even some of the actors have said that the work under them was a mess as they kept changing gears. That’s where the break down happened. Maybe Kathleen Kennedy should have known better at the start, but the duo had an insane amount of hype coming into this and everybody wanted to work with them.

        Reply

        • Original Heretic

          June 21, 2018 at 10:25

          But isn’t that how Lord and Miller worked on all their projects? They changed things up all the time. The Jump Street movies come across that way to me, at least.
          Most actors prefer some sort of structure over improv, otherwise, what’s the point of a script?
          hence, I can understand why Kennedy didn’t like what they were doing. Devaite from the script TOO much and you may as well make a different movie.

          Reply

        • Edward Yves

          June 21, 2018 at 12:03

          Thanks for clearing that up.

          Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      June 21, 2018 at 10:09

      Well, they actually haven’t used “up and coming” directors for Star Wars. Gareth Edwards had already won huge acclaim for Monsters and cut his blockbuster teeth on Godzilla, Rian Johnson had long been a massive fan favourite for Brick, Looper and his work on Breaking Bad. Lord and Miller were huge Hollywood A-listers thanks to LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street. This isn’t like Colin Trevorrow making one tiny indie comedy that almost nobody saw and then being given the reins on Jurassic World.

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        June 21, 2018 at 10:11

        Hence me putting it in the inverted commas. Though all those directors have pumped out great projects, they aren’t nearly as established in Hollywood as, for example, Ron Howard.

        Reply

        • Kervyn Cloete

          June 21, 2018 at 10:15

          The one big thing about these “young” directors and why they were chose is that they were huge fans of the original Star Wars first. With Lucasfilm wanting to distance themselves from the aesthetics of the Prequel Trilogy and getting back to that type of filmmaking, this was a very important point.

          Reply

          • Original Heretic

            June 21, 2018 at 10:29

            Yeah, getting away from the prequel visuals was a must. Too much green screen, just way, waaaay too much. The practical effects were a total winner in the new movies.

  4. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 21, 2018 at 08:31

    If people are fatigued by one movie per year Star Wars, I can’t even begin to imagine how comic book movie fans must feel. Those poor buggers must be ready to die after a new movie every few months for years now. Gosh.

    Solo “flopped” at the box office because they spent a fortune on it while assuming that everyone who’d happily watch a main Star Wars movie would put on some pants and go to the cinema to watch a Han Solo prequel. And being an average movie at best didn’t help garner any word of mouth to improve its chances. It’ll be the same for all these other character-based spin-offs, so it’s good they’ve stopped them for now. Their chances of breaking $500 million like Rogue One did, which told an original story with new characters, are just as slim.

    If they want to continue with these character spin-offs, which I’d be happy with because there is potential, make them smaller movies that focus on character & story instead of spectacle. Leave that to the main movies.

    Reply

  5. Pieter Kruger

    June 21, 2018 at 09:02

    Dankie tog!

    Reply

  6. GooseZA

    June 21, 2018 at 09:45

    As much as I enjoyed Rogue One, I’m glad they’re doing this. We’ve got a new generation of characters and a new story that needs to be told and I’d much rather they focus on that and get it right. Solo, Obiwan and co are obviously fan favourites from the originals (and even the prequels I guess) but their time is up now. We loved them in the main story and we know how their stories ended. We don’t need to know how they became who they were. What’s next? An Indiana Jones origin story where we see how he became interested in archaeology? How James Bond went from traffic police to the secret service?

    I really like the new SW world and characters. I’m invested in them. I know who Kylo is and why he is the way he is. Same with Rey, and Poe and Finn. I know enough of where they come from. Rather spend bajillions of dollars and 10 years making their story amazing for us and the new young generation of Star Wars fans.

    Reply

  7. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    June 21, 2018 at 10:28

    Well when the udder is empty, you have to wait for the milk to refill before you can pop the suckers onto it again.

    Reply

  8. For the Emperor!

    June 21, 2018 at 10:33

    For me, I would like to see something about Obi-Wan, but I will not be upset if I do not get to see it. While Solo is not something I would have asked for, I still want to watch it because it is Star Wars (local cinema dropped it already).

    While I have enjoyed the new movies overall (especially Rogue One, less so Last Jedi), I do have some legitimate issues with it which I put down to a “difference of opinion” and I will not boycott the movies, just give it a point less out of 10.

    I DO however have an issue with “them*” making out like those who disagree are all “overweight white guys who are sexist and racist”…those who are like that are a vocal minority and I have seen “non white” and “non male” people sharing the same concerns.

    I still want more SW, and I do believe Hollywood in general needs to balance the scales a bit, but SW execs should remember to make GOOD, ENTERTAINING movies first, and not sacrifice those because they are pushing a SJW agenda. It is like their political agenda comes first, and making a good movie is a distant thought.

    *Them being executives involved as well as the Libtard** SJW crowd on the internet with the “with us or against us” mentality.
    ** Libtard – the liberal version of the “Alt Right”.

    Reply

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