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Lucasfilm "Licking Their Wounds" But Not Halting 'Star Wars' Development
Mild spoilers in TFA about certain characters that appear in the film.
Disney and Lucasfilm are reassessing their plans for future Star Wars movies in the wake of the disappointing performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is having to fight to make much more than $350 million worldwide, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. "They haven't slowed down development," says a source with knowledge of Lucasfilm's thinking, "but they are licking their wounds."
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and her team are regrouping and figuring out the direction of the movies beyond the final installment of the main series of films, Star Wars: Episode IX, which is scheduled for release Dec. 20, 2019. "It doesn't mean those spinoffs don't happen," says another insider of Solo's underperformance globally. "It just means they're trying to figure out how to make, and market, them differently."
[...] "They were developing anything and everything," says another exec. "It was a case of them stuffing so much sausage and not try to break the casing."
Meanwhile, Han Solo's blaster was sold for over 0.1% of the film's gross.
Also at Collider, Space.com, and Forbes (archive).
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(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday June 25 2018, @02:01AM
I liked the movie as a story on its own -- lots of adventure, scoundrelry, pathos. Considering box office marketing and returns, though, it didn't seem like it was suited towards younger kids, considering the themes of separation anxiety, cheating, theft, adult slavery, murder, etc. So while I found it a worthy prequel, I can see that adults, when given a choice in the current (crowded) landscape of movie choices, could have spent their precious time and money on something with more modern, family-friendly themes and better accessibility (?) to the young mind? I'm thinking more conventional romance, fights and explosions between larger-sized enemy forces, etc.
In retrospect, Solo brings more of a western flavor to mind, which seems in line considering Star Wars' drawing from WWI+ dogfights. In this regard, I can easily see mid-1900's kids having a better connection to the story style, but it may not have matched what older fans were expecting to bring their kids to see in a 'Star Wars Story'.
I suspect a sequel could pull people back in if it better matched a buddy-movie mold. For my own part, I was legit excited when I saw Chewbacca appear (spoiler :-).