The Mandalorian and Boba Fett Fervor Blast “Star Wars Fatigue” as the Franchise Jumps to Hyperspace

Two years after then-Disney CEO Bob Iger declared a Star Wars slowdown, the franchise is going [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Two years after then-Disney CEO Bob Iger declared a Star Wars slowdown, the franchise is going full force with a slate of 11 announced shows and three new films dated for 2023, 2025, and 2027. After young Han Solo spinoff Solo: A Star Wars Story bombed at the box office in 2018, Iger admitted there was a "little too much [Star Wars] too fast." Disney-Lucasfilm announced plans to release a new Star Wars movie every year starting with The Force Awakens in 2015, and fulfilled those plans with original trilogy prequel Rogue One (2016), episodic installment The Last Jedi (2017), the Solo spinoff (2018), and episodic saga finale The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

"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. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn't mean we're not gonna make films," Iger told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, referencing the J.J. Abrams-directed The Rise of Skywalker and a project that later lost Game of Thrones duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

"We are just at the point where we're gonna start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.'s," Iger said at the time, "but I think we're gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that."

A year later, in 2019, Iger told BBC Radio that Disney "made and released too many Star Wars films over a short period of time," and that when it comes to Star Wars, "less is more."

After the immediate success of The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars series that premiered as a launch title on the Disney+ streaming service, Iger said the franchise's immediate future was on television. Iger had grown more optimistic towards Star Wars because of its streaming potential, telling The Star Wars Show: "It feels like we're just starting to mine the full potential of what Star Wars is and what Star Wars can be."

One year later, the future of the Star Wars galaxy came into focus at Disney Investor Day 2020. It was there that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed multiple new shows, including the Dave Filoni-scripted Ahsoka starring Rosario Dawson as the fan-favorite Ahsoka Tano, as well as the Rogue Squadron feature film from Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins.

Not only would Ahsoka receive her own series spinning out of The Mandalorian, but the new show would also be part of a crossover with Rangers of the New Republic and The Book of Boba Fett — all culminating in a "climactic story event." These spinoffs join a lineup that includes the previously announced Obi-Wan Kenobi, where Star Wars Prequel Trilogy star Ewan McGregor reprises his role as the eponymous Jedi opposite Darth Vader star Hayden Christensen, and a Rogue One spinoff about the spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).

It all comes after the blockbuster success of The Mandalorian.

The second season of the Jon Favreau-created Star Wars series not only re-introduced Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) to great fanfare, it added a beloved galactic hero when — spoilers — Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, Max Lloyd-Jones) came to collect Grogu, a.k.a. the fan-favorite Baby Yoda, in the season 2 finale. That episode, "Chapter 16: The Rescue," is not only the highest-rated episode of The Mandalorian, but it currently ranks #17 on the list of top-rated television episodes of all time on IMDb.

Two years after Disney-Lucasfilm's Star Wars slowdown, the franchise is jumping into hyperspace.

All episodes of The Mandalorian are now streaming only on Disney+.

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