Last week, anonymous sources told Collider that Lucasfilm had decided to put future Star Wars stand-alone spinoffs on hold following the disappointing performance of Solo. Quickly, Lucasfilm stepped in to say that these reports were inaccurate and that multiple Star Wars films are currently in development.
Other anonymous sources told The Hollywood Reporter that "they haven’t slowed down development, but they are licking their wounds." And according to another person with knowledge of Lucasfilm: "It doesn’t mean those spinoffs don't happen, it just means they’re trying to figure out how to make, and market, them differently."
Meanwhile, a small vocal minority of Star Wars fans have spent the last few months complaining about The Last Jedi, and have even begun a campaign to remake the film on their own. It doesn't help that merchandising sales have begun losing steam, and might get surpassed by Marvel sales by this year, according to Bloomberg.
So much drama!
But, are things really as bad as they seem in the Galaxy Far, Far Away?
It's important to note that before Solo, all of the Star Wars films of this new era have been commercial and critical successes. The Last Jedi brought in $1.33 billion globally, including $620 million from the domestic market alone; the previous three films grossed between $1 billion and $2 billion each, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Solo, on the other hand, has grossed $344 million globally in the month since its release. That's still a shit load of money—a drop in the bucket for Disney!
What these reports outline is that Disney is learning from the underwhelming success of Solo. That's by no mean a death sentence—in fact it's a pretty standard move for any big business. Why could it have done poorly? Well there are numerous factors at play. The Last Jedi had only come out six months ahead of Solo. It doesn't help that many audiences simply were not interested in the expanded background of this character; perhaps Han Solo's origins are more niche than Disney expected. This might be of interest to core fans, but casual fans might not care—especially without a big star anchoring the character.
There's been so much talk about replaced directors and reshoots on these other Star Wars productions, but this is simply what happens in a big budget film. The only difference is that Star Wars has been under the microscope of obsessive fans.
The other Star Wars projects are still in progress, including the new series of movies from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and a new trilogy from Rian Johnson. There's also a live-action Star Wars show from Jon Favreau that will air on Disney's streaming service. And, of course, Star Wars IX will be out on December 20, 2019, and will be a guaranteed hit for anyone eager to see how the Skywalker saga ends.
Should Disney be worried that these loudmouth, racist fans will hurt the performance of the final movie in this trilogy? Absolutely not! Look, Star Wars fans have always been annoying as hell. The only difference is they now have a platform to make their obnoxious opinions heard on social media. Star Wars is one of the biggest movie franchises of all time. Nearly everyone has seen Star Wars, and nearly everyone will see the next film that comes out. These annoying troll fans, despite how vocal they may be, represent a tiny fraction of the overall Star Wars audience.
Star Wars will be perfectly fine. As long as there are people left on this planet, there will be Star Wars content for them to enjoy.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
