It seems the relatively lackluster performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story might be making Disney gun shy about continuing to release a Star Wars film every year. Collider is reporting that unnamed sources within Disney owned Lucasfilm are " put plans for more A Star Wars Story spinoff movies on hold, instead opting to focus their attention on Star Wars: Episode IX and what the next trilogy of Star Wars films will be after that film." Disney has not confirmed this report.
If true, its a bit of a sudden turnaround considering they just hired James Mangold (Logan) to write and direct a Boba Fett film. Or alternatively that film is the last hurrah to maintain a "trilogy" feel for the spin off films. The possible decision is in light of Solo's weak $343.4M world wide box office result which means the film might break even at best. However, Disney is really comparing it to over $1 billion the previous 3 films have made.
If true, its seems like an over reaction. Solo didn't do well because it was an average film that came out during a highly competitive box office window against Disney's own Avengers: Infinity War, Rampage, A Quiet Place, Deadpool 2 and a host of others. Its a level of competition that the three previous films avoided with their holiday release dates that have the fraction of of tent pool releases and the rest are mostly Oscar bait releases that are not remotely competitive for box office dollars compared to Star Wars. In short, Disney can afford to verify if Solo was an outlier which is what the Boba Fett film, if moves forward, could do.
In the meantime, the Star Wars fun will definitely continue. Star Wars Episode IX is still on track for a December 2019 release. Rian Johnson remains in charge of the potential next trilogy of films that will follow for the 2020's and Jon Favreau is working on a live-action TV show. Later this year the next cartoon series Star Wars Resistence is expected to premiere.
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