The underwhelming box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story told the world that despite what we all thought, Star Wars isn’t invincible, but it seems that Episode IX is already well on its way to putting the franchise commercially back on track.
You can pin down the reason for why audiences stayed away from Solo on a number of things, ranging from poor marketing to franchise fatigue, but no matter what the real cause was – and it’s likely a mix of several factors – it seems the studio’s confident that their next effort is going to right their past wrongs.
In a report published by Variety today regarding a record-setting deal J.J. Abrams is about to strike, they mention that Lucasfilm sees the next chapter in the saga as a course correction of sorts, after Solo kind of let us all down.
“He’s [Abrams] currently working on Star Wars: Episode IX, which has been billed as a course correction at [the studio] after spinoff films like Solo failed to meet the label’s high commercial expectations,” the publication writes.
Though Variety refrained from going into further detail about just why Lucasfilm is so sure that they’ll be able to close out the Sequel Trilogy on a high note and wipe the taste of Solo from our mouths, we’ve got good reason to believe that Episode IX‘s in good shape. Abrams has already proven his Star Wars credentials with The Force Awakens, which was mostly an out-and-out success, and with reports pointing to the studio ensuring that the trilogy-closer plays it a bit safer than the controversial Last Jedi, we imagine it’ll be a satisfying conclusion to the current arc.
Angled as the ninth and final installment in Lucasfilm’s storied Skywalker Saga, look for Star Wars: Episode IX to zoom into theaters on December 20th, 2019, and with any luck, it’ll get this widely loved franchise back on track.