Lucasfilm Vice President Responds To Claims of Star Wars Fatigue
Lucasfilm's vice president isn't worried about Star Wars fatigue. James Waugh, Star Wars: Visions executive producer, spoke to The Direct about the company's packed slate headed into the final frame of 2021 and beyond. For those playing at home, you have The Book of Boba Fett, Visions, and a whole lot more to be excited about when it comes to Star Wars. However, some critics would say that all these releases would decrease interest in the franchise. After all, the big main movie releases feel like events every time they turn around. (Some would argue that the last sequel trilogy film didn't, but ticket sales would indicate that is not true.) In the past few years, even releases like The Mandalorian on Disney+ have felt like big tentpole projects as well. If you love Star Wars, then it must feel like you're swimming in content. However, these trends can change in short order. How do you guard against audiences becoming a bit less enamored with a legacy franchise in an ever-more-crowded entertainment landscape? For the VP of Franchise Content and Strategy, the answer is simply delivering quality projects.
"Are we worried about oversaturation? I think we're always very thoughtful and cautious about how do we keep Star Wars' specialness in this landscape," Waugh explained. "We're mindful, but this wasn't one of those instances where we had our spidey-senses on a lot because we felt this was such a new offering."
He continued, "When it comes to things like Visions, I would say that we weren't ever concerned about the oversaturation potentiality with Visions in particular, and I think the reason was we were offering something that's kind of a diversification of what the offering is... We weren't concerned that this was going to impact Star Wars in aggregate, we thought this would be a breath of fresh air for people to explore Star Wars in an exciting new way."
"From a broader kind of creative strategy perspective, Disney+ has changed the way we're viewing a lot of what's possible with Star Wars. So you can get shows like The Mandalorian and Boba Fett because the platform allows for it," the VP concluded.
Do you think there's too much Star Wars? How would you like to see Lucasfilm handle the franchise's future? Let us know down in the comments!