Throughout final Thursday’s presentation to traders, Disney laid out its plans for numerous franchises, properties, and universes. Of specific curiosity was the way forward for the Star Wars collection: After the latest disappointment of Solo, the beginning of a four-year function movie hiatus, and the success of The Mandalorian, growth on many earlier plans went quiet as new rumors started to flow into a couple of main shift in route for the franchise.
Any speak about Disney pumping the brakes on Star Wars content material was quelled when the corporate introduced 10 new additions to the universe, seven live-action and three animated, all sure for Disney+. Along with The Mandalorian‘s third season, just a few collection had already been introduced: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and The Bad Batch, whereas 4 reveals have been introduced for the primary time: Lando, The Acolyte, and two Mandalorian spin-offs, Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic. Then there’s Visions, a collection of 10 anime shorts, and final, and positively least, the straight-to-streaming animated function, A Droid Story. The one little bit of non-TV information got here within the type of a 2023 movie: Rogue Squadron, directed by Patty Jenkins. For those who’re retaining rating, that is 9 TV collection, one TV film, and one theatrical function.
They are saying you’ll be able to by no means have an excessive amount of of a great factor, and loads of die-hard Star Wars followers have voiced unequivocal enthusiasm for an enlargement within the route set by The Mandalorian. However for a lot of informal followers, it is beginning to really feel like Lucasfilm expects you to eat, drink, and breathe Star Wars 24 hours a day simply to maintain up.
Purely when it comes to episode depend, the upcoming Star Wars TV presence is gigantic, however removed from record-breaking. If The Mandalorian‘s eight-episode seasons are something to go by, we are able to count on particular person reveals’ episode counts to be comparatively small. (Andor may have 12 in its first season, whereas Obi-Wan Kenobi will reportedly solely have 4 complete.) From our greatest guesses, as soon as the brand new live-action reveals start dropping in 2022, we’ll nonetheless see at most 40 to 50 episodes per yr, throughout all collection. That is about one episode for every time you wash your bedsheets. (You do wash your bedsheets weekly, proper?) For comparability, throughout Star Trek‘s prolific late-’90s interval, followers loved round 54 hour-long episodes per yr, break up between Deep Space Nine and Voyager. And in 2019 alone, The CW’s DC Comics-based Arrowverse aired a whopping 97 hour-long episodes throughout six linked titles. Marvel appears to be chasing that formulation with its slate of Disney+ reveals. So what’s unsuitable with making use of that ultra-saturation formulation to Star Wars?
The Mandalorian
Effectively, for one, the above Arrowverse, Star Trek, and Marvel examples all inform tales taking place inside the identical time interval, roughly concurrently. For those who watch the episodes within the order they arrive out, it is easy to grasp how they interconnect — with out even taking a look at Wikia! The assorted Star Wars collection, nonetheless, will span a number of completely different time intervals. The Acolyte takes place centuries earlier than Episode I, whereas Unhealthy Batch is ready shortly after Episode III. We do not know when the occasions of Lando will happen, but when it ties into the Solo film, it will be round 10 years earlier than Episode IV. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor are set 9 years and 5 years earlier than Episode IV, respectively. The Mandalorian and its spin-offs, Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic, all happen concurrently, just a few years after Episode VI. Rogue Squadron will happen in yet one more time interval after Episode IX. Obtained all that? (Let’s not even begin on Visions, which can freely bounce across the timeline.)
For comparability, Trekkies may attempt to think about if the Original Series, The Next Generation, Enterprise, Discovery, the J.J. Abrams movies, First Contact, and Picard all premiered across the identical time. It might be simpler to maintain observe of tribbles than that timeline! The 9 Star Wars reveals we heard about final week are simply the tip of the iceberg with regards to Lucasfilm’s future plans. Not solely are there nonetheless extra closely rumored reveals in growth (an extended awaited Rebels sequel), however three of those reveals are described as restricted collection (i.e. a one-season mini-series) and occasion collection (a shorter however event-ier mini-series). Then there’s the TV film A Droid’s Story, which they will in all probability find yourself calling an “virtually collection.”
If Disney+ needs to take care of a gentle circulate of Star Wars content material, Lucasfilm might want to maintain launching a stream of one-off reveals indefinitely. It is easy to think about the cuts getting deeper and deeper: First, Yoda. Fairly quickly, Thrawn. Then, earlier than you recognize it, a Therm Scissorpunch occasion collection. (Observe: We legitimately need this. We all know we’re a part of the issue.) Not solely does this create much more timeline confusion, it doubtlessly exacerbates the dreaded backdoor pilot syndrome.
The primary story of The Mandalorian Season 2 steadily grinds to a halt for episode-long aspect missions that look an terrible lot like backdoor pilots, from Ahsoka to Bo Katan to Cobb Vanth to Boba Fett. Whole episodes sideline Child Yoda antics in favor of introducing a brand new viewers to aspect characters already established within the deeper canon, who’re ripe for a spin-off collection. Whereas the primary season largely felt prefer it was doing its personal factor, Season 2 has usually been hamstrung in service of the franchise’s IP overlords. If the Star Wars TV universe continues increasing, we may count on a unending eating regimen of backdoor pilot episodes continually threatening to derail the story.
However the Star Wars TV universe may do its personal factor! (To present credit score the place credit score is due, The Acolyte is poised to do precisely that.) But, it is clear that Disney and Lucasfilm’s main objective is to take advantage of the IP it paid $four billion for, even when it means ignoring essentially the most elementary info of the universe. Nowhere is that this extra worrisome than within the information that Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) will return for Obi-Wan Kenobi, which Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy guarantees “would be the rematch of the century.”
Daisy Ridley, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Rematch of the century? Wasn’t the duel between Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) and Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) in A New Hope the official rematch? We’re about as emotionally invested on this battle as we’re for the result of a rematch between Tom and Jerry. The dramatic energy of the duel between Obi-Wan and Vader in A New Hope wasn’t captured of their fancy clashing of blades however within the weight of a shared historical past, the revelation that two outdated mates have been reuniting after a tragic betrayal many years prior. Obi-Wan was, for the primary time, witnessing the horror of what his pupil had turn into — a “grasp of evil.” Vader tells Kenobi, “We meet once more eventually. The circle is now full. Once I left you, I used to be however the learner. Now I’m the grasp.” That second is foreshadowed within the prequel Revenge of the Sith when Anakin says, “Do not make me destroy you, Grasp” — shortly earlier than Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) turns him right into a toasted raisin. George Lucas made it crystal clear: The Demise Star was the primary reunion of those two characters for the reason that Excessive Floor of Mustafar.
Now with (a minimum of) yet another reunion within the intervening years, what’s going to Lucasfilm do to protect continuity? Perhaps a defeated Vader ends the duel by saying one thing like, “Effectively, Obi-Wan, I suppose this confirms you are still the grasp and I am nonetheless the learner. I am going to get you subsequent time!” Perhaps they store on the identical grocery retailer, and every time they stumble upon one another Vader says, “I sense one thing, a presence I’ve not felt since… final week.”
The extra Star Wars retreads the identical floor — repeating the identical characters, planets, and conflicts — the smaller the universe feels. And “including to” these authentic tales really means taking away from them, contradicting narratives that have been informed with a cohesive starting, center, and finish. Within the canonical Marvel Comics, that is modus operandi. Do you know that shortly after the occasions of A New Hope, however earlier than Empire Strikes Back, Luke dueled lightsabers with Darth Vader? That occurred! So when Luke fights Vader in The Empire Strikes Again, it is already spherical two. The low readership of comics means moments like this are ignored by the vast majority of the Star Wars viewers, even when they’re official canon. Nevertheless, now that the fast way forward for Star Wars is TV collection for the huge Disney+ viewers, it’s going to be rather a lot tougher to disregard these types of low-cost deja vu moments. Bear in mind the way you cringed in Solo whenever you heard Han (Alden Ehrenreich) casually reuse (or pre-use?) his iconic “I do know” line? Put together your self for extra of that.
Star Wars is finest when it is bizarre and new. From the primary time we set foot within the cantina, with the palpable sense that each background traveler had their very own backstory, to Luke’s thala-siren milk in The Last Jedi, the franchise thrives on moments that focus not on answering outdated questions, however on presenting new ones. There’s nothing unsuitable with the numerous books, comics, manuals, and guides to the Star Wars universe that reveal how each individual within the bar had gone on some journey simply as fantastical as Luke’s, however the Lucas’s cinematic method was constructed on the thought of making and preserving unfavourable area for our imaginations to fill in, whereas Disney-era Lucasfilm is obsessively packing that unfavourable area like a hoarder.
Child Yoda (cease attempting to make Grogu occur) is nice. He is mysterious and cute and lovable and that is the whole lot he must be. All we actually need is to look at Mando (Pedro Pascal) take him on adventures and study to be a great dad, but an increasing number of, Child Yoda’s story has been derailed in favor of explaining the backstory for a personality that was on display for lower than 10 minutes. Apparently, the Imperial remnant wanted Child Yoda’s Midichlorians to assist make Snoke clones for the resurrected Emperor Palpatine — lest we overlook, Midichlorians are the microscopic creatures that reside in a single’s blood and make one Drive delicate — and now this backstory-clutter has kidnapped Child Yoda out of his personal present: He did not seem as soon as in the newest episode, “Chapter 15: The Believer.”
Star Wars could be a launchpad to spark numerous fantasies. However this high-volume rehash mandate may make the Star Wars universe as acquainted as your yard. Do we want a proof for the whole lot? Lucas was a lot derided for introducing Midichlorians, his notorious over-explanation of the Drive, and their reintroduction in The Mandalorian feels just like the canary within the coal mine. The notorious days of deciphering each thriller have returned with a vengeance, and followers are consuming it up… for now. However not even the Sarlaac may maintain Boba Fett down for lengthy.
Pedro Pascal, The Mandalorian