Disney CEO confirms "slowdown" in release of Star Wars films
Bob Iger suggested bringing out a Star Wars film a year was "a mistake"
Disney boss Bob Iger has announced the company is putting the hyperdrive breaks on their Star Wars output, suggesting they'll be reducing the volume of films released in coming years.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Iger said there would be a “slowdown” and appeared to express regret committing to one Star Wars movie a year.
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“As I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast,” he said. “You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn't mean we're not going to make films.”
Iger added: “JJ [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven't been specific about. And we are just at the point where we're going to start making decisions about what comes next after JJ’s.”
Since 2015 and the release of Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Disney has gifted Star Wars fans a film a year. However, the company’s most recent offering, Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed at the box office, with some analysts blaming a saturation of tales of a Galaxy Far Far away.
Fans of the franchise can already see a slowdown in Star Wars, with Episode IX still a year away from flying into cinemas. And although Rian Johnson’s mysterious trilogy and a new series of films from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss have been greenlit, sounds as if it could be a long long time away before we get a glimpse of them.
As Master Yoda wisely once put it: hard to see, the future is.
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Star Wars Episode IX will be released in December 2019
