Hopes were high for Star Wars’ newest movie in seven years, The Mandalorian and Grogu. The most recently released movie prior to that, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, had proved to be incredibly unpopular. In fact, even now, The Rise of Skywalker is seen as one of Star Wars’ worst movies, only rivaled by the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie and, arguably, Solo: A Star Wars Story. As much as Star Wars faced backlash for the prequel trilogy, and various Star Wars shows have faced criticism, it’s movies under Disney’s direction that have been particularly controversial and criticized.
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Perhaps the only true exception has been Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which many consider to be the best of the Disney Star Wars era. There was hope that The Mandalorian and Grogu would repeat that success, especially because, like Rogue One, The Mandalorian and Grogu was going to break from the Skywalker Saga and a focus on the Jedi, Sith, Force, or the Empire. Unfortunately, that isn’t exactly what happened, and now, the future of Star Wars feel more uncertain than ever.
Star Wars Has Very Few Projects Officially In The Works
The future of Star Wars is in part concerning because there’s so little that is officially in the works. Although many thrilling movie concepts have been announced in recent years, particularly during Star Wars Celebration 2023, several of them, like Rey’s movie, rumored to be Star Wars: New Jedi Order, and the Jedi origin story Dawn of the Jedi, have been put on the back burner, with very few concrete updates. In terms of projects that are definitely happening, Ahsoka season 2 has already wrapped filming and is expected in early 2027 (a delay from its expected summer 2026 date).
Likewise, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord season 2 is confirmed to be on the way. As far as upcoming movies go, Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling, has a confirmed release date of May 28, 2027. Outside of those three projects—one animated TV show, one live-action TV show, and one movie—nothing feels completely certain. This is a massive change from the last several years. As mentioned, Star Wars Celebration 2023 announced many exciting projects, particularly movies, and really since 2019, TV shows have been a major focus.
This trend away from live-action TV shows after an early boom in 2020 has been true for many franchises. Disney’s other major property, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has seen the very same change. Yet, for Star Wars, the gap in TV shows represents a gap overall, whereas for the MCU, there are many exciting movies in the pipeline. This quiet period for Star Wars was therefore already a bit concerning, and the outcome of The Mandalorian and Grogu has only made this so much worse.
The Mandalorian And Grogu Underperformed
Despite the anticipation that had built up for nearly seven full years, Star Wars’ newest movie was far from a box office success. The movie was quickly outpaced by other new theatrical releases, and even now, The Mandalorian and Grogu’s critics Rotten Tomatoes score is a pretty grim 60%. The audience score is quite a bit better at 87%, but that didn’t stop the intense online backlash to the story, which has unfortunately come to be standard from the Star Wars fanbase.
This was particularly a disappointment when it came to The Mandalorian and Grogu, though, as this really should have felt like a brand-new era for the franchise overall. Disney had also clearly aimed for that, given that they chose an already very successful story, The Mandalorian, to mark the galaxy far, far away’s return to the big screen. Instead, the movie marked yet another controversial installment, and now, it’s not clear how the franchise will move forward.
Star Wars Celebration Is Coming, But Not For Almost A Year
In light of how quiet the Star Wars franchise has been of late, there will almost certainly be some major announcements coming soon(ish). This is most likely to happen at Star Wars Celebration 2027, which marks the franchise’s 50th anniversary, along with some smaller announcements peppered in until that momentous occasion. However, that event is nearly a year away, kicking off on April 1.
This combination of news and updates means that the franchise currently has very few projects officially in the pipeline, major announcements are likely going to be minimal for the next several months, and the most recent blockbuster was far from a smash hit. In light of this, there’s plenty to be worried about when it comes to Star Wars, and it isn’t clear when (or if) things will get better.
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