There are lots of conflicting reports out there about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but the vast majority seem to point to the movie being a bit of a mess thanks to extensive reshoots, tonal issues, and possibly even a new director at the helm during post-production. Time will tell whether or not the movie ends up working, but it seems Disney is already trying to temper expectations for the spinoff.
"We never felt it would do the level that ‘Force Awakens’ did," Disney CEO Bob Iger said during an investors call earlier today. He did however quickly point out that, "The level of interest [in ‘Rogue One’] is as high as it was for ‘Force Awakens.’" The first Anthology movie not doing quite as well as The Force Awakens was to be expected, but could these comments be taken as a sign that the studio is already looking to make it clear that Rogue One won't perform as well financially or critically?
Iger would go on to describe it as, "an experiment, of sorts," adding: "It’s really interesting in terms of ‘Star Wars’ storytelling. ‘Star Wars’ has only been told as a saga, and this is a moment in time … we love what we’ve seen." Well, that's something at least, but what else did you expect him to say?
Regardless, Disney and Lucasfilm still have big plans for the franchise moving forward as a writer has already met with them for another Anthology release in 2020 and they're already thinking beyond that. "I had a meeting yesterday with Kathy Kennedy and we mapped out — well, we reviewed — the ‘Star Wars’ plans that we have ’til 2020. We have movies in development for ‘Star Wars’ ’til then, and we started talking about what we’re going to do in 2021 and beyond." What do you think?