When Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars back in 2012, it came with the announcement that they would be delivering both a new sequel trilogy following on 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi and that they would also be producing standalone spin-off films on the alternate years that expand the universe.
This decision would make Star Wars an annual release franchise, and while some fans were just happy that they would keep getting films set a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, it also concerned many that this release model would take away some of the "event cinema" magic of the franchise.
It turns out that Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, agrees, as in a recent interview with CinemaBlend he revealed his concerns about constant Star Wars output:
I will say they should pace themselves because you don’t want to over-saturate it. I said to Disney, ‘Really? Five months after we come out comes Solo: A Star Wars Story? Can’t you at least wait until Christmas?’ But they’ve got things booked – they’re doing Marvel and their own movies, so that’s beyond my purview.
Now, this isn't to say that Hamill is against the idea of films going behind the boundaries of the main narrative and exploring different areas of George Lucas' universe, as The Last Jedi star went on to talk about the potential and diversity in storytelling that the A Star Wars Story banner lends itself to:
Well, there shouldn’t be a limit to the storytelling, as it’s a canvas that’s so infinite. With the standalone films, they can all have their own identity. Rogue One can be gritty and like a war film… I’m assuming, I don’t know, but I would assume that Solo will be more comedic-ly oriented because he’s a rogue, a scoundrel, and a gambler, and a womanizer and all those things. So I think the advantage of the standalone films is that they don’t have to follow the formula of a trilogy, so they can establish their premise, get it on, get it done and get out leaving the audience wanting more. So there are infinite possibilities.
The issue some would take with the above statement, however, is that the choices Disney has made for the spin-off films thus far don't take advantage of that canvas. 2016's Rogue One told a story that we already knew the outcome of and this year's Solo: A Star Wars Story will give us an origin to a character whose arc from “hokey religions and ancient weapons” to “it’s true, all of it” we’ve already seen.
There's also the Obi-Wan Kenobi film which will more than likely follow Episode IX and will use up another spin-off slot for a character that has appeared in some form or another in 7 out of 9 films, as well as three tv shows and an animated movie, leaving practically no ground left to justify the overlooking of new characters.
Of course, we do have Rian Johnson's standalone trilogy as well as the one that will be overseen by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, both of which are in very early development and that just might be fresh and interesting enough to make an annual release model palatable. Only time will tell.
Do you agree with Hamill? What do you think of the "A Star Wars Story" choices so far? What spin-off would you like to see? Leave your thoughts below.