STAR WARS FATIGUE SETS IN

It’s been a turbulent week for Star Wars fans. As you know, in addition to making new Star Wars movies in the main saga, Disney/ Lucasfilm has also been producing standalone films, or “stories”.

The first was 2016’s Rogue One, and then Solo followed last month.

While Rogue One was a critical and commercial success, Solo - despite pretty good reviews - was a box office disappointment.

It came just six months after The Last Jedi, which despite making a huge amount of money by most measures, was a let down for a Star Wars film. It made around $650m less than its predecessor, The Force Awakens.

The reasons The Last Jedi was less successful are varied. Star Wars films usually get repeat visits and that didn’t happen as much for The Last Jedi. Why? Bad plot choices played a part, as did poor casting decisions. Another was an inherent disrespect of Star Wars lore and, by extension, Star Wars fans, by director Rian Johnson. Those who criticised the apparent politicisation of The Last Jedi were labelled bigots. In turn, they rebelled and stayed away from cinemas, more insults flew their way, and the wheel continued turning. Solo came hot on the heels of that squabble.

Not only were fans fed up with Disney for their perceived lack of respect for the franchise, but there was definitely an element of Star Wars fatigue. Years used to pass between films, but we’re now in a world where a new Star Wars film comes along every year.

That’s no time at all - certainly not enough for audiences to grow hungry.

And so, news came last week that Disney and Lucasfilm were pausing all work on Star Wars spin-offs ostensibly because of Solo’s underwhelming performance. One day later someone from Lucasfilm released a statement that the reports were “inaccurate”. But plummeting stock prices will do that. Whatever’s really going on with the Star Wars spin-offs, I wouldn’t blame Lucasfilm for hitting pause and rethinking its gameplan.

Whether Solo did badly because people thought it was a bad film, or because there were a lot of factors working against it, the facts stand - it didn’t make enough money. So what were those negative factors? Other than the aforementioned fatigue, there were...

Ongoing script problems Directorial changes in the middle of shooting

More 21st century politics inserted into the film

Further insults directed towards the fanbase

The film was released shortly after the wildly successful Avengers: Infinity War.

We’ll find out soon enough what’s actually in store for the Star Wars spin-offs, I just hope Disney and Lucasfilm have learnt their lesson.