Despite Disney+ success, Star Wars needs to return to box office triumph
The Daily Orange File Illustration
Lechner believes fan-favorite characters like Din Djarin/The Mandalorian should be made available to a wider audience on the big screen.
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Ever since the turn of the 21st century, “Star Wars” fans have had an up-and-down relationship with the series that they love so much. The prequel series was largely hated, and the recently released sequel films, produced by Lucasfilm after its purchase by Disney, have been extremely divisive among fans.
One of the most popular “Star Wars” releases since being bought by Disney in 2012 has been “The Mandalorian” series on Disney+. The series, created by Jon Favreau, gave fans a new, unique perspective on the “Star Wars” universe while continuing to feature the elements of “Star Wars” that older generations of fans can appreciate.
After the success of “The Mandalorian,” Disney announced a show titled “The Book of Boba Fett,” which promised to focus on legendary “Star Wars” character Boba Fett as well as the iconic planet of Tatooine.
The first few episodes came and went with mixed reactions from fans as Favreau and directors Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Tancharoen struggled to build a compelling narrative centered around Fett. Then, everything changed. The ending of the fourth episode featured the (now classic) “Mandalorian” theme composed by Ludwig Göransson, teasing that Din Djarin, the Mandalorian himself, was returning to the small screen and would at least make a small cameo in “The Book of Boba Fett.”
Well, we got a little more than that. The fifth episode of “The Book of Boba Fett,” directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, focused entirely on the Mandalorian, providing audiences with a deeper understanding of the character and also setting up potential storylines for a third season. The episode was a great break from the less-interesting “The Book of Boba Fett” and helped to further prove why Din Djarin should be the center of the “Star Wars” franchise going further.
Bringing the Mandalorian back into the story, however, revealed a potential issue that the “Star Wars” franchise, and their production studio, Lucasfilm, may have going forward: its most popular character only exists on a TV show.
A great comparison point for the “Star Wars” franchise should be the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What makes the MCU so special is that Marvel produces films that are able to reach a wide audience, while also producing TV shows for comic book fans who have a deep knowledge of source material. “Star Wars” has the opportunity to go in a similar direction.
There are plenty of “deep cut” “Star Wars” comics and novels that, if adapted, would make terrific television series. This would also allow Lucasfilm to focus more on making the stories that it tells in its films accessible to larger audiences. Similar to the MCU, “Star Wars” is creating its own connected universe, telling one story over many different shows, something that would also translate very well from the small screen to the big screen.
A photo posted by themandalorian
No matter how popular the TV shows may be, true success for the “Star Wars” franchise will be determined at the box office. Currently, the franchise features the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time with “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens,” and has four other films in the top 50.
The “Star Wars” franchise has been one of the most popular pieces of intellectual property for almost 45 years, and there is still plenty of story left to tell. With “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Starwalker” effectively ending the main “Skywalker Saga” that the most recent trilogy has been focusing on, there is a lot of room for new story development. With that, there’s an opportunity to expand the creative freedoms of the filmmakers tasked with keeping the franchise going.
The last few years of “Star Wars” content on Disney+ has been enjoyable, but it has felt very constrained to the format of TV. In order to reclaim its place as one of the most successful of intellectual property franchises, Lucasfilm and “Star Wars” need to get back to dominating the film industry.
Published on February 16, 2022 at 11:51 pm
