Ryan-SWI excellent post.
Disney did kill Star Wars with the ST, anthology and The Resistance. Been too long since I’ve been in this forum. Good discussion. Thank you to all.
Star Wars was always a limited story and Disney has so-far focused on milking the fans of the OT. That has dried up and leaves us asking what’s next?
The SW franchise has one huge challenge in front of it and no guarantee anyone can provide an answer. What do you do when all your recognizable characters are gone?
In new product design we find it useful to look at similar products and past performance to predict future results. Let’s look at the Batman franchise by way of compare & contrast. 4 films, plus 1 great animated film, and the franchise was dead with Batman & Robin c. ‘96? How to continue? Give some time and reboot. Same character reimagined. Success! Massive box office with Nolan’s work.
Star Wars can’t do that. Is Disney going to recast Luke Skywalker and “reimagine” the character with new stories? No. The task for SW is monumentally more difficult than the Batman reboot. They have to create a whole new intellectual property rooted, loosely tied to, the current SW.
They are smart to tinker on a smaller scale such as the TV properties and the theme parks (those parks make more money for Disney than all their films). This is a long haul type of problem. I’m betting they can’t create something great again for maybe decades with the SW IP and we will see more cash grab safe outings ala Christopher Robin using the Winnie the Pooh property. Or more Nutcracker type grabs. Is a “Mary Poppins Returns” level of anticipation possible for a new SW film? Eventually, yes, but there is no guarantee they will ever get there. Regardless how well IX does the real challenge is in what comes next?
That’s my analysis.
J.W. Gant aka JokerRulez