Star Wars movies: Disney boss Bob Iger admits ‘TOO MANY’ at once, teases franchise future

Since Disney purchased the rights to Star Wars earlier this decade, there’s the studio have produced a new trilogy and two spin-off movies. While billions have been made at the box office, the franchise reboot hasn’t been without its problems. In 2017, The Last Jedi split fans, while just five months later Solo flopped at the cinema after production difficulties. Since then Disney have reassessed their Lucasfilm strategy, realising perhaps that they cannot churn out Star Wars movies at the rate of their other subsidiary, Marvel Studios.

Now in a new interview with the BBC, Disney boss Bob Iger has admitted what went wrong.

The studio executive, who was promoting his new book, said: “I have said publicly that I think we made and released too many Star Wars films over a short period of time.

“I have not said that they were disappointing in any way.

“I’ve not said that I’m disappointed in their performance.”

Iger then hinted at the new strategy for the franchise, adding: “I just think that there’s something so special about a Star Wars film, and less is more.”

That sounds about right, considering that after The Rise of Skywalker next month there are only three Star Wars movie dates to have been confirmed for Christmas 2022, 2024 and 2026.

It’s not certain what this new trilogy is yet or who will be helming it. Originally the Game of Thrones showrunners were a possibility, but they’ve now pulled out of making a Star Wars trilogy.

Nevertheless, The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson is working on new movies, so perhaps these dates will go to him.

Earlier this year, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy admitted “we made a mistake” with Solo and The Last Jedi.

James Dyer revealed on the Empire podcast: “Funnily enough I asked Kathleen Kennedy this very question and she was quite candid.

“She said they learned their lessons from Solo; that doing two films in less than a year wasn’t something the fans were prepared to accept.”

He added: “And she’s hands up… ‘we made a mistake with that.’

“She’s eased her foot off the gas massively on this because she doesn’t want to see a repeat of Solo’s box office.”

Nevertheless, Star Wars is still expanding at a TV level with Disney Plus starting next week.

The streaming service will debut The Mandalorian, while a Rogue One prequel and Obi-Wan Kenobi solo outing have also been confirmed.

Perhaps Solo will get a sequel on Disney Plus instead of at the cinema?