Although 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story received decent reviews from critics and is generally considered to be underrated in the fan community, it didn't perform nearly as well as Lucasfilm had hoped it would (though it wasn't a flop by any means).
Now, Disney CEO Bob Iger has all-but confirmed that Solo's lack of success at the box office ultimately led to the Mouse House deciding to scale back on its big screen Galaxy Far, Far Away adventures
“Star Wars, we made three what we called saga films, which is obviously the successors to George Lucas’ first six. They did very well at the box office — tremendously well as a matter of fact," he tells THR. "We’ve made two so-called stand-alones in Rogue One and Solo. Rogue One did quite well, Solo was a little disappointing to us. It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so we decided to pull back a bit. We still are developing Star Wars films. We’re going to make sure that when we make one, that it’s the right one, so we are being very careful there.”
While it's true that the sequel trilogy did perform very well as a whole, the final instalment, The Rise of Skywalker, was widely panned and had to be seen as something of a disappointment from a financial standpoint.
Some have taken issue with Iger laying the blame for Disney's more cautious strategy on an overall better film, but at the end of the day, any studio CEO's biggest concern is going to be the almighty green, so his attitude isn't exactly surprising.
Solo never got a sequel, and while there were said to be tentative plans in place for a Lando Calrissian Disney+ series starring Donald Glover, the project is believed to have been scrapped.
We should get some Star Wars movie updates at Celebration next month, but a recent report indicated that fans should probably temper their expectations.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.