Back in 2012 when Disney added Star Wars to its already enviable intellectual property catalogue, it was clear purchasing Lucasfilm for a mere $4.05 billion would prove to be a bargain in just a few years. By 2018, Disney had already made back the money it invested on film revenue alone, on top of all the income generated from licensing deals and Star Wars merchandise.
Ever since the sale took place, George Lucas has had a hard time walking away completely from Star Wars, always making himself available for discussing subsequent Disney projects to varying degrees of involvement on each, all the way up to The Mandalorian. As Lucas himself says, he views Star Wars as his child, one he’s happy to see go make it on its own out in the world, yet never quite taking his eyes off from it.
With Star Wars being as profitable as it is, it’s no wonder Disney has big plans for it heading into 2021 and beyond with The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rangers of the New Republic, Ahsoka, The Bad Batch, Andor, The Acolyte, A Droid Story, Lando and Visions all coming to Disney+ somewhere in the future; all of these will likely precede Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron and the still-untitled mainline Star Wars film directed by Taika Waititi.
Disney+ will close 2020 nearly 40% on its way to matching Netflix’s active 195 million subscribers in only a little over a year. This impressive feat was achieved in no small part thanks to The Mandalorian being a Disney exclusive, alongside the company’s vast library of content. Clearly, the road towards establishing Disney+ as a streaming necessity for most users is paved with plenty of Star Wars and Marvel.
Disney’s former CEO Bob Iger was once quoted saying that releasing 3 Star Wars movies within a span of only four years may have been overly ambitious. After all, fans had to wait 16 years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace; and then another 10 years for The Force Awakens to release after Lucas finalized the Prequel Trilogy. All things considered, Star Wars remains a much rarer cultural event than Marvel films.
For years, animated series like The Clone Wars or Rebels have largely stayed out of the spotlight due to them simply not being marketed as much as Star Wars Movies. When looking at it from a wider perspective, it would appear that Star Wars has a higher ceiling and much more room to grow than the MCU by adding extra content with all the series that will be heading to Disney+, as well as having all their existing shows put on a bigger platform.
With 10 new entries coming to the Star Wars universe, there is a cause for concern in terms of quality due to the inconsistent output from the franchise’s Disney era. While The Last Jedi and Rogue One are generally well-liked movies by both hardcore and more casual Star Wars fans, the same cannot be said of Solo and The Rise of Skywalker, both of which have received their fair share of criticism, even from people with close ties to Star Wars like Lucas himself at times.
The Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett will probably be leading the charge in this new era with plenty of Star Wars at the tip of mainstream audiences’ fingers, if these two can somehow replicate or create their own identity, just like The Mandalorian did for the past two seasons, then the force that is Disney+ may have a chance a staying perfectly balanced for the time being.