'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Lands on Netflix in January

While Disney's new streaming service won't launch until next year, fans will be able to catch Solo: A Star Wars Story on Netflix beginning January 9, 2019.

The latest entry in the Star Wars saga may have landed on home video back in September, but many casual movie fans prefer to enjoy their content without cluttering up their home with a physical media release. By subscribing to Netflix, audiences can enjoy hundreds of different features on any device with internet access.

Why any Star Wars fan would have waited to check out the film when it arrived on Netflix instead of seeing it in theaters or when it debuted on home video is a mystery, yet those viewers who possibly didn't enjoy the film and didn't want to rush out to see it again can now enjoy the film at their convenience and with minimal effort. Unfortunately, fans of the young scoundrel will likely have to settle only for Solo in the foreseeable future, as it seems doubtful that the film will be getting a sequel.

Solo marked an ambitious experiment for Lucasfilm for a number of reasons, one of which being its focus on one specific character and their early life, as opposed to how the prequel films explored the trajectory of a number of familiar characters. Instead, Solo's stakes felt lower than other entries in the franchise, which made the film far less of an "event" than previous installments.

The spinoff film also marked the shortest turnaround time between two Star Wars films hitting theaters, with Star Wars: The Last Jedi debuting only six months prior. Rather than a year-long marketing campaign, fans were still decompressing from that film when we were supposed to be getting excited for a new film with much lower stakes.

The film was far from a flat-out bomb, but it failed to crack $400 million worldwide, which is far short of every other entry in the franchise. Solo star Alden Ehrenreich previously claimed he was signed on to star in three films, yet the lackluster reception of the film has seemingly dashed those plans.

Disney CEO Bob Iger previously confessed that the studio will be slowing down their Star Wars releases.

"I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast," Iger admitted to The Hollywood Reporter. "You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn't mean we're not gonna make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Star Wars: 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 gonna start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.'s. But I think we're gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that."

Check out Solo: A Star Wars Story when it lands on Netflix on January 9, 2019.

Are you looking forward to the film hitting the streaming service? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!