A long time ago, back in the 1970s, a little film debuted around the world called Star Wars, and this was before the days with the “episode” subtitle. Star Wars had nothing to prove, it was merely a passion project by filmmaker George Lucas and the film was released with very few expectations. What happened next no one could have predicted. Star Wars became a global sensation! Wherever you go around the world today there will be people who’ll recognise the characters from that first film. The Star Wars films are now culturally ingrained in today’s zeitgeist.
Due to the massive success of the first film back in 1977 two sequels were swiftly made and the story of Star Wars was complete…until 1999. George Lucas is a master of world-building and the worlds he created in Star Wars begin to spin off into video games, comic books, novels and television shows. The prequel trilogy soon began which started with The Phantom Menace. This film became one of the first major movies to have CGI and visual effects as a major tool in bringing the characters and planets to life. As daft as Jar Jar Binks was, the effects used to bring him to life were revolutionary at the time. After two more sequels, the saga was finally complete.
In 2012 something unprecedented happened. Disney announced they were buying Lucasfilm and subsequently a new trilogy of films were soon pushed into development. From The Force Awakens to The Rise of Skywalker, the sequel trilogy introduced new characters for a new generation and unfortunately, the films were seen less favourably than the other films. Two spin-off’s followed with Rogue One and Solo, the latter of which didn’t reach high enough box office numbers. As of now there are no new Star Wars films dated, but there are some rumoured films in the early stages of development.
Lucasfilm and Disney weren’t confident in how to proceed with the Star Wars series after the release of The Rise of Skywalker but then something else happened. Disney+ was announced as a new streaming service to release new content around the world. Among the content was a new big-budget live-action television series set in the Star Wars universe called The Mandalorian. It was a global success! The Mandalorian felt like a love-letter to Star Wars fans old and young, introducing new characters and honouring all the previous films The Mandalorian felt fresh, exciting and new.
Which brings us up-to-date with the series. Star Wars has a lot of projects in development on Disney+ due to The Mandalorian’s success, with The Book of Boba Fett recently wrapped up its weekly run on the service. The highly anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi series promises the re-match of the century with Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen reprising their roles as Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. Later in the year we have Andor, a Rogue One prequel series, with other series The Acolyte, Ahsoka and the third series of The Mandalorian also in development.
We don’t know what the future of Star Wars holds on the big screen but the epic Skywalker Saga is undoubtedly finished. The focus at the moment is to tell the stories of their other characters from the series on the small screen. With a large audience at home re-discovering the series this is probably the best way forward for the series. This is the way! To quote another particular character from the series, “Difficult to see, always in motion is the future”.
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Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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