The next feature outing in the Star Wars franchise will be a new installment directed by Game of Thrones executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed.
The company boss ended his appearance at an investor comment in New York with updates about the Star Wars universe. The entry by Benioff and Weiss was announced in February 2018, and last week Disney revealed 2022 as the target date for the next installment as part of a larger setting of overall release dates.
Iger also said another Star Wars streaming series would hit the Disney+ streaming service, joining The Mandalorian and an untitled prequel to Rogue One, before the 2022 release of the Benioff/Weiss feature. Despite no lack of creative material, the company determined that taking a break after the upcoming release of the concluding ninth installment would make sense, Iger said.
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Reflecting on the run since the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm, Iger noted that there have now been five Star Wars features released by Disney. “It’s our feeling that we’ve done a good job with those,” he said.
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Nevertheless, as the company took stock of the franchise, especially with Disney+ ramping up toward a November launch, the management team felt “it would be smart for us to take a bit of a hiatus while we figure out what’s next,” Iger said. “The conclusion that we reached was that three years was the proper amount of time to not only take a breather and reset, but to really gear up for the next film’s release.”
It’s a time-tested interval. The first three Star Wars movies arrived in theaters in 1977, 1980 and 1983 and the second two trilogies also spaced accordingly. As Disney began to put more of its stamp on the franchise over this decade, it introduced the first spinoff films, Solo and Rogue One, to increase the frequency of Star Wars-related titles in theaters and keep fans engaged. In 2018, though, Solo proved a rare wake-up call. Creative differences resulted in the firing of its co-directors and ultimately the film drew mediocre reviews and did not make a profit.
Iger pre-emptively said he would not reveal any additional details about the new Benioff-Weiss iteration, which extends the story beyond the nine parts originally conceived of by George Lucas.
Why dont you write an article on the real issues with star wars, and that being that THE LAST JEDI completely killed star wars. No one went to see SOLO because they were so turned away from THE LAST JEDI, at least that was definitly the case for me and everyone I’ve talked to. When will Disney see that Rian Johnson and TLJ killed star wars. Hell i literally liked every star wars movie up to this point, i didnt think it was possible for me to not like it, let alone turn me away from the entire franchise. Aside from killing the LORE that movie was just straight up boring and bad. WAKE UP DISNEY.
So amusing to see creatively challenged nobodies offering up their comments on how creators SHOULD have done their jobs.
“It’s our feeling that we’ve done a good job with those [first five films]” – Bob Iger
Might want to look at a revenue chart once in a while Bob!
Here’s a little tip I learned in business, I’ll share it with you:
When you take over a property and the revenue starts out very HIGH, like $2bn, and then goes very LOW, like losing hundreds of millions, it means you DIDN’T do a good job.
These guys have never even directed a feature film before, and their track record with Thrones is mixed at best. And Disney wants to hand them the keys to the kingdom? Star Wars is already fighting an uphill battle as a franchise.
The same thinking that led Marvel to make Guardians of the Galaxy, the story and characters of which were all completely unknown to most movie-goers. They expect the Star Wars universe to help deliver a solid background for telling stories about new characters, and they aren’t wrong if they can do it well.