Disney Wants to Release a New Star Wars Every Year Indefinitely

[Ukomba]

Seeing as Disney have apparently stumbled upon some sort of esoteric secret that lets them get away with yearly released for MCU, im willing to bet they can get away with it for Star Wars too.

Want to know the secret? They have several decades of time tested stories to pull material from, a passionate loyal fan base, and the movies vary wildly from spy thriller, to heist film, to space opera.

Star Wars did have decades of material supported by a loyal fan base for it, with a rich history and universe but... Look, here's a shiny multiplayer shooter.

 

[Havtorn]

I... HOW!? Unless they really skimp on the budgets for these movies it's going to be downright impossible to do it.

This might be me talking out of my arse here, but to be entirely honest I really don't think Star Wars benefits that much from having a huge budget. Even adjusted for inflation The Phantom Menace had a budget four times higher than the original Star Wars movie. If you look at the earlier films they mostly take place in a half-dozen cool sets with smaller action snippets where all of the effect budget went. And that's part of the charm; Whereas Episode 1-3 tried to stun with visuals pretty much non-stop (was there any new location that wasn't totally over-designed and just filled with... stuff?) 4-6 have alien environments that nonetheless feel subdued, and saved the 'Oomph' for a few key scenes. Just look at how much mileage they get out of X-wings and the Millennium falcon just landed and/or broken. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the majority of their screen time.

 

[Quellist]

I said they'd do this when they bought the franchise. I won't be watching them.

Fuck you Disney

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Dear Disney,

Fuck you and everything you represent.

Cordially,
Me.

PS Fuck you.

 

[Ickorus]

...I, um...

I read the source article, and there doesn't seem to be any proof that this is going to be a thing. It talks about a lot of things, but in the end there's no given proof that it's been greenlit or anything. The only thing that says it's gonna happen is "Well, look at Marvel/DC/Transformers! They're doing it, so popular wins, right?" That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I believe is a Bandwagon Fallacy - everyone else is doing it, so it must be right. Either that, or slippery slope in saying that it's only a matter of time.

I mean, c'mon - the article linked provides more evidence of a new Indiana Jones film than it does of a serialized Star Wars. Let's keep our heads, shall we?

I see I'm not the only one whose bullshit alarm went into full alert.

I'm only sad that I was wrong in my initial assumption that the source would be some random analyst.

 

[Product Placement]

Where were all you people when they announced over a year ago that they were gonna make 6 films in a span of 6 years? Hiding under a rock?

I... HOW!? Unless they really skimp on the budgets for these movies it's going to be downright impossible to do it. Marvel kind of cheats by releasing multiple MCU movies that they develop simultaneously but if these Star Wars movies are going to release yearly than that really makes me worry about their quality AKA Assasin's Creed's problem.

How exactly is Marvel... oh wait, it's not Marvel that's making the MCU, it's Disney. How exactly is Disney cheating? As far as I'm able to see, they've been successfully releasing 1-2 films, every year, since 2008. Each one has been a commercial success and people are generally happy with them.

That is insane.
There's no way they can do that. They'd have to be filming like 3 films at once every single year.

Disney owns several movie studios. That includes Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios and now LucasFilms. And like I already mentioned, they're the ones churning out the multiple Marvel movies, every year. They've been making big budget films since the 1930s. It's very safe to assume they've figured out how to juggle multiple projects by now.

Seeing as Disney have apparently stumbled upon some sort of esoteric secret that lets them get away with yearly released for MCU, im willing to bet they can get away with it for Star Wars too.

Want to know the secret? They have several decades of time tested stories to pull material from, a passionate loyal fan base, and the movies vary wildly from spy thriller, to heist film, to space opera.

Star Wars did have decades of material supported by a loyal fan base for it, with a rich history and universe but... Look, here's a shiny multiplayer shooter.

Want to know a different secret? The Extended Universe was a hot mess.

This guy said it best:

Let's face it. A lot of the lore of the EU was utter crap. I say this as a major Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy. I have read almost every single book of it and re-read the good ones numerous times (i.e. Anything written by Zahn) but there is absolutely no way that I would want to see a movie that tried to incorporate all of that. I mean, just look at this [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Legends_media]!

The original actors are about 30 years older than in ROTJ, so that would be somewhere around just after the Yuuzhan Vong war or getting into the Dark Nest trilogy if they kept that same time frame. Do you really want to hear Han tell someone that Chewbacca died when a moon fell on him to explain the lack of his presence to those who didn't read the books? It would feel cheap and pointless.

While I regret the loss of some of the EU (Thrawn trilogy and X-Wing series), the EU as a whole was just a jumbled mess that is better put out to pasture. If there's a few cameos of characters thrown into the new movies as a nod to the EU fans, great, but trying to fit all the crap in just for the sake of continuity really isn't worth it.

Furthermore, the EU material was de-canonized but not thrown away. It was rebranded as "legends" and we've already seen proof that some of it is being incorporated into the official canon.

For anyone paying attention to the new cartoon "Star Wars: Rebels" we've already seen signs of it happening. Inquisitors, a special cast of dark side trained Jedi hunters, sanctioned by the emperor, was pure EU material. With their introduction to the cartoon, they're now official canon. That's telling us that writers are definitely looking at the source material.

Also, since you're worried about variation, out of the next 6 films, 3 of them will be deviations from the main plot. 1 of which will be a prequel story about the group of spies that stole the Death Star plans that set the story of the first film in motion. How's that for a heist film?

 

[Wolf Hagen]

Either this is the best Idea in the world (if they would tune it down to a movie every two years), or the worst Idea in the world.

On the Either side: The Marvel Franchise and even Star Trek have waaaaaaayyyy more movies by now on themselves. And easily the majority of them are good movies.
The three Lord of the Rings movies (overlenght films mind you!) where rolled off and splitted into three movies released yearly and it worked for them.
Maybe Disney is taking inspiration of that, and give the Star Wars Project to 3 - 4 Regisseurs who won't have anything further to do in their lifeuntil they flop or switch projects.


On the other Hand: People may grow tired of seeing a new Star Wars every year, or at least 1/4 of the old fanbase will be put off (if they were not already by Episode 1, 2 and 3). Diffrent Regisseurs may wanna try to pull the movies off with their own stile which resultes we cannot yet forsee.
But seriously, no regisseur alone can work on a big movie in just one year, maybe shit one out Fantastic 4 Stile. And if that would be the case, they do it for the long run to keep the copyright forever and ever, until it made them more money, or until the name Star Wars becomes more worn out and floppy then a Pornstar specializing in barnyard porn until noone will be touching it, or they make a kids show out of it for Daily TV / Saturday Morning without any fuel for the fanbase.... OH WAIT!


But hose are the possibilities I forsee on that statement: Either best running SciFi Series ever (in cinema then) backed by a Fanbase, that even if it looses 20%, still makes a formidable market, or the same fate that fell upon the movie "a land before time", a good name (formerly) beeing dragged down to "straight to VHS / DVD" movies (almost all sequels for Disney animation movies [NO! NOT PIXAR!!!] where straight to DVD stuff) in case of quality and maybe actual release, so that the Disney coorperation can hold onto the copyright forever and ever (or until the collapse of society), while George Lucas dies of broken hearth.

 

[Nurb]

This kills the franchise.

Lucas was bad, but at least he cared about it. Disney is different kind of bad, and downright evil corporate entity. They'll ruin it just like they ruined Pixar.

 

[Zydrate]

I think Assassin's Creed has shown us that this isn't a great idea. A gem once in a while (Black Flag) but otherwise...

Also relevant is the SAW series. They tried the one-a-year thing. "If it's Halloween - It must be SAW" one of their taglines was. People liked the first two, then the rest just became a chore to get through.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I don't think Disney ever really learned the definition of "franchise fatigue".

 

[Darks63]

I... HOW!? Unless they really skimp on the budgets for these movies it's going to be downright impossible to do it. Marvel kind of cheats by releasing multiple MCU movies that they develop simultaneously but if these Star Wars movies are going to release yearly than that really makes me worry about their quality AKA Assasin's Creed's problem.

According to the article, they are pretty much doing the same thing as Marvel, but with one movie a year rather than a bunch.

The main issue with this plan is that they will have a bunch of movies collecting dust waiting till next year. This will open up issues with both bootlegging/blackmarkets and the profit loss of letting these films sit on the shelf.

 

[Phil the Nervous]

You know what's funny though? All that "Hot Mess" and complicated time line stuff doesn't seem to come up when talking about the Marvel movies. Where's the complete De-canonization of the immensely MORE complicated, messy, and down right stupid/silly marvel stories? Strange, they seem to be able to pull from the comics without having to trash it.

The old comics yeah. Disney's totally rebranded and revamped the marvel universe. Marvel's complicated "Hot Mess" is a canon rewrite and general fuckup of the characters and personalities.

 

[Dragonlayer]

This decision seems like it's based in very optimistic assumptions about brand loyalty.

Have you seen how much utter crap Star Wars has put out over the years? It's not just the prequels that you mention, the Expanded Universe everyone was upset to lose was a horrible, snarled mess with about 2% content worth a crap and 95% stuff that was awful. The other 3% is stuff that was mostly okay.

Which evidently would go to support my point then - everyone is bitching that this is the callous ministrations of a soulless company that suck the soul out of the franchise, yet that's been going on for decades and everyone keeps pumping money into Star Wars. Thus I remain open to the possibility that some interesting stuff will come of us. After all, isn't there a Rogue Squadron film in the works alongside the more bog-standard Jedi hero stuff?

 

[Freedom153]

One a year, for what was formerly a much longer affair? HAH! Just look at what happened with Blizzard's push for World of Warcraft to have "shorter, faster expansions" starting with Cataclysm - nothing. They come at the same speed, have less content as of Warlords of Draenor, and cost the same.

I can't imagine Disney will treat Star Wars or this other franchise's fanbase with much more "respect". Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, it does.

"For the gnashing of teeth over George 'Franchisicide' Lucas, the Universe gave you rooms in the House of Mouse. 'Enjoy' your stay."

 

[Product Placement]

What EU books have you read exactly? Because 99% of the time someone says that, it's them parroting the same s*** that some other idiot who hasn't read any of the books has said.

I read the Thrawn Trilogy ages ago, spend couple of years researching the lore when I was roleplaying, was a big fan of the LucasArt SW games and I also followed alot of the Dark Horse comics but I suppose that's not enough to make me qualified in your eyes.

But seriously, you honestly don't think the Yuuzhan Vong is a good addition to the lore, do you?

Oh, right, you're full of s*** and they canceled all ongoing series, THROWING AWAY all those story lines to never be finished.

Right... I was aware that Disney canceled Dark Hourse's rights to make Star Wars comics, in favor of giving Marvel the rights (insert awkward speech about synergy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PURYT7fFL3E]) but not that they canceled book deals. That sucks for the people invested in the story (plus the author, obviously), but after being called a parroting idiot who's full of shit, I have little interest in debating with you further. -Reported-

 

[Dragonlayer]

...I, um...

I read the source article, and there doesn't seem to be any proof that this is going to be a thing. It talks about a lot of things, but in the end there's no given proof that it's been greenlit or anything. The only thing that says it's gonna happen is "Well, look at Marvel/DC/Transformers! They're doing it, so popular wins, right?" That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I believe is a Bandwagon Fallacy - everyone else is doing it, so it must be right. Either that, or slippery slope in saying that it's only a matter of time.

I mean, c'mon - the article linked provides more evidence of a new Indiana Jones film than it does of a serialized Star Wars. Let's keep our heads, shall we?

I was wondering that myself to be honest. I suppose the source gets a pass because it mentions two key individuals from Lucasfilm, and kind of just assumes that they, in their non-specific way, would be onboard with this non-specific Disney plan.

 

[ArcaneGamer]

Seeing as Disney have apparently stumbled upon some sort of esoteric secret that lets them get away with yearly released for MCU, im willing to bet they can get away with it for Star Wars too.

Want to know the secret? They have several decades of time tested stories to pull material from, a passionate loyal fan base, and the movies vary wildly from spy thriller, to heist film, to space opera.

Star Wars did have decades of material supported by a loyal fan base for it, with a rich history and universe but... Look, here's a shiny multiplayer shooter.

Want to know a different secret? The Extended Universe was a hot mess.

This guy said it best:

Let's face it. A fair amount of the lore of the EU was confusing, yet interesting. I say this as a major Star Wars fan who grew up with the original trilogy. I have read almost every single book of it and re-read the good ones numerous times (i.e. Anything written by Zahn) but there is absolutely no way that I would want to see a movie that tried to incorporate all of that. I mean, just look at this [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Legends_media]! (What about KOTOR, then?)

The original actors are about 30 years older than in ROTJ, so that would be somewhere around just after the Yuuzhan Vong war or getting into the Dark Nest trilogy if they kept that same time frame. Do you really want to hear Han tell someone that Chewbacca died when a moon fell on him to explain the lack of his presence to those who didn't read the books? It would feel cheap and pointless. But it could be done.

While I regret the loss of some of the EU (Thrawn trilogy and X-Wing series), the EU as a whole was just a jumbled mess that isn't better put out to pasture. If there's a few cameos of characters thrown into the new movies as a nod to the EU fans, great, but trying to fit all the crap in just for the sake of continuity really isn't worth it.

Furthermore, the EU material was de-canonized but not thrown away. It was rebranded as "legends" and we've already seen proof that some of it is being incorporated into the official canon.


For anyone paying attention to the new cartoon "Star Wars: Rebels" we've already seen signs of it happening. Inquisitors, a special cast of dark side trained Jedi hunters, sanctioned by the emperor, was pure EU material. With their introduction to the cartoon, they're now official canon. That's telling us that writers are definitely looking at the source material.

Also, since you're worried about variation, out of the next 6 films, 3 of them will be deviations from the main plot. 1 of which will be a prequel story about the group of spies that stole the Death Star plans that set the story of the first film in motion. How's that for a heist film?

What EU books have you read exactly? Because 99% of the time someone says that, it's them parroting the same s*** that some other idiot who hasn't read any of the books has said.

Oh, it wasn't thrown away?!? That's great to hear, When is Sword of the Jedi coming out then? The next Legacy comic? Star Wars 1313? Oh, right, you're full of s*** and they canceled all ongoing series, THROWING AWAY all those story lines to never be finished.

You know what's funny though? All that "Hot Mess" and complicated time line stuff doesn't seem to come up when talking about the Marvel movies. Where's the complete De-canonization of the immensely MORE complicated, messy, and down right stupid/silly marvel stories? Strange, they seem to be able to pull from the comics without having to trash it.

Also, the word you're looking for isn't incorporate, it's rip off. Here's how you can tell the difference:

1. They don't acknowledge it's origins. Asajj Ventress apparently first appearing in the Clone Wars for example.
2. They just have to mess with the lore for no reason, changing names, how things look, motivations, ext. Kessel's change for example or Korriban.
3. They take story elements but stick their own new characters into rolls and claim it's original. Inquisitors is an example of this. Inquisitors themselves being an example of #1, but they get placed into the roll Mara or Galen should fill.

That and The Adventures of Space Aladdin it's self is just crap and undermines the Original movie trilogy.

Thank you! A voice of reason in the crazyness! Here's a response to Grouchy Imp (Which by the way, is a rather appropriate username if you ask me.): You DO realize that the supposed "new" canon is being built by books, comics, and likely games coming out, right? They even said they're trying together the events of various media. Chances are, it might get MORE confusing! But hey, I'm curious to see where it goes. I'm willing to give it a fair chance. Are you?

 

[Kajin]

This kills the franchise.

Lucas was bad, but at least he cared about it. Disney is different kind of bad, and downright evil corporate entity. They'll ruin it just like they ruined Pixar.

I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. Pixar has never stopped making good movies. Besides, Disney is completely one hundred percent hands off with them. If you think Pixar was ruined in any way by Disney's "machinations" then you are wrong on all counts.

On Topic:
Adopting a wait and see approach as I always do, but I have no reason to believe that Disney can't deliver. They've more than proven themselves when it comes to making halfway decent movies that are worth at least one watch. Don't see what all the fuss is about, it's possible to juggle multiple projects at once.

 

[FavouriteDream]

Not a great idea. Market saturation is very real and it kills franchises. It'll probably earn them a tonne of coin though so I doubt they'll care.

 

[flying_whimsy]

If Disney hadn't made the marvel movies what they are, I would have discounted this outright. Even so, I can't help but be skeptical. But hey, if they can bring us something equal to Captain America 2 or Guardians of the Galaxy it'll be totally worth it.

And as others have mentioned, nothing disney does can be worse than what lucas was doing. Although the higher cost of all star wars toys is kind of pissing me off (the second the disney logo hit, everything went up 15-20%).