Out of the four Disney-produced Star Wars films to have hit theaters since the acquisition of Lucasfilm, Solo: A Star Wars Story undershot expectations quite drastically.
An underwhelming box office take ($392M), coupled with mediocre reviews, led many to question whether the Anthology movie was even necessary to begin with – harsh, but not unjust – and it seems that’s something that the studio feels as well.
Speaking to Empire about the ill-fated Solo, President Kathleen Kennedy fully admitted that they may have made a mistake by releasing the spinoff in such close proximity to The Last Jedi.
“Funnily enough I asked Kathleen Kennedy this very question and she was quite candid,” said Empire’s James Dyer. “She said they learned their lessons from Solo; that doing two films in less than a year wasn’t something the fans were prepared to accept. And she’s hands up… ‘we made a mistake with that.’”
In all fairness, Solo: A Star Wars Story is far from what you’d call a bad movie. Sure, it wasn’t quite as exciting or interesting as Rogue One, but Ron Howard’s rip-roaring spinoff was still a swashbuckling adventure worth watching, even if it will ultimately go down as the franchise’s least satisfying entry.
But the show must go on and go on it will, as Lucasfilm will continue to expand that galaxy far, far away this December with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Formally unveiled at Celebration this week, it’s already got the internet buzzing and promises to close out the Skywalker Saga on a high.
And after that? Well, like Kennedy said above, Lucasfilm has learned their lesson from Solo: A Star Wars Story and will be placing the franchise on hiatus (on the big screen, at least), for a little while, as they map out the best way to move forward from here. Although, with the studio already planning for another decade of Star Wars films, you can be sure that we’ll be returning to that galaxy far, far away before long.