In the wake of the lacklustre critical response and relative box office underperformance of Star Wars’ grand return to the big screen with “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” I’ve been thinking a lot about where this once behemoth cinematic dynasty stands in our current cultural zeitgeist. Do people still care about “Star Wars”? If not, then why? Is this salvageable? The conclusion I’ve come to is that, yes, to be honest, it kind of has never been more over. But let’s talk about why I think that is, and what I think the solution might be.
Where Did We Go Wrong?
Problem 1: ‘The Sequel Problem’
When Disney purchased the “Star Wars” franchise from George Lucas back in 2012 for a reported $4.05 billion, it represented an opportunity to rectify the shortcomings of Lucas’ digital re-imagination of his beloved original trilogy — dubbed the prequels — that left many fans of his original work perplexed and disappointed. And, to be fair to them, things actually got off to a pretty great start.
Fans from all across the galaxy eagerly awaited the release of “The Force Awakens,” with the promise of a return to the practical filmmaking and legacy characters that we all fell in love with enough to get the world on board with the franchise’s 10-year-in-the-making comeback.
The movie’s huge $2.071 billion box office return and wide critical acclaim confirmed the series’ return as a major success, and with plans for more to come, it looked for all intents and purposes that Lucas’ wrongs were on track to be made right. And following the success of Gareth Edwards’ “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” just a year later, Disney looked to be cooking on gas. This, however, to quote Hulk Hogan’s entrance theme, “Real American,” all came crashing down — and boy did it hurt inside.
Rian Johnson’s “Force Awakens” follow-up, “The Last Jedi,” is quite possibly the most divisive movie in the medium’s history — revered by half of the fanbase, and despised by the other. But whichever way you look at it, it remains the single most consequential moment for the current landscape of “Star Wars,” fandom, and movies at large — with Johnson’s intrepid swings causing an outrage so loud that IP handlers all across Hollywood have been so afraid to make a misstep of the like that the blockbuster landscape left in its wake has been as unimaginative as it has been safe.
The greatest example of this would be what came next for the franchise: “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and “The Rise of Skywalker.” Frankly, two of the most cowardly and disastrous blunders in Hollywood history (the firing of “Project Hail Mary” directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from “Solo,” and the ‘Somehow Palpatine returned incident from “The Rise of Skywalker”), the failures of which are what marked the turning point in this new era of “Star Wars” as a streaming franchise.
Which brings me to…
Problem 2: The ‘MCU-ification’ of Star Wars
Where the movies were concerned, “Star Wars” couldn’t have been closer to rock bottom after the tumultuous release of the finale to Disney’s sequel project. But, where TV was concerned, a new opportunity presented itself to the powers that be at Lucasfilm, with Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian” — a western/samurai inspired TV series that truly felt like the closest thing to Lucas’ Kurosawa inspired original trilogy — premiering with the launch of Disney’s new streaming platform, Disney+, in November of 2019.
The show’s major success was undeniably critical in keeping “Star Wars” alive in the moment, with an estimated 63% of Disney Plus subscribers regular viewers of the show. Success! “Star Wars” still mattered! But at what cost?… What this meant in the minds of the suits at the mouse corporation was that, from that point on, “Star Wars,” the most theatrical franchise of all time, would now be known as nothing more than television IP. And what followed was a myriad of original Disney Plus content: “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Tales of the Jedi,” ‘Ahsoka,” “Tales of the Empire,” “The Acolyte,” “Skeleton Crew,” “Tales of the Underworld,” “Maul — Shadow Lord,” three seasons of “The Bad Batch,” seasons one and two of “Andor,” and, of course, two more seasons of “The Mandalorian,” with no movie yet in sight.
This all changed this past Friday with the release of “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a feature-length spin-off following on from the three seasons of the show. But, so far, things aren’t looking so good. Critics have slammed the movie for its TV look and feel and lack of typical “Star Wars” cinematic spectacle, whilst the box office isn’t looking too pretty, either. The Hollywood Reporter reports that the film made just $12 million in previews compared to the $14 million that the lowest-grossing “Star Wars” movie, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” made in 2018. Whilst the film’s opening weekend as a whole totalled just $165 million, $6 million shy of Solo’s $171 million, without even adjusting for inflation. It’s certainly looking bleak, but why is this happening?
When your last major work is something as divisive as Disney’s late-era Star Wars films, and you then disappear from cinemas for seven years, it’s easy for audiences to forget you. Or at least they forget about your theatrical presence when you spend as much time as the franchise has encouraging its viewers to enjoy the content from the comfort of their own homes. You made the bed, Disney, and I’m afraid it‘s time to lie in it.
But with “Star Wars” seemingly less relevant now than it ever has been since its inception almost 50 years ago, where do we go from here? Well, we actually know where we’re headed next: Shawn Levy’s “Star Wars: Starfighter” — A Ryan Gosling-starring original story set approximately five years after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker.” And, for what it’s worth, I actually think this is a step in the right direction.
Gosling’s most recent project, “Project Hail Mary,” is one of the great success stories of 2026 so far, and I think it represents something about the kinds of movies that audiences are craving. Those being movies that I heard Sean Fennessey of The Big Picture Podcast coined ‘Familiar but different’ — movies that are telling original, or at least fresh stories, but ones that still feel completely identifiable as an idea.
The sort of stuff that invites audiences into the cinema with a welcoming ‘Hey, we still make the kinds of movies you remember, but with a story you haven’t heard before’ kind of message. And “Star Wars” — a franchise we’re all familiar with — releasing a movie with new characters, a new timeline, and a new story with a recognisable movie star at the centre of it, sounds a lot like a recipe for a we’re back pie. Save me, Shawn Levy’s “Starfighter,” you’re my only hope.
But besides that, there is one thing they actually did recently get right, and maybe they ought to learn from that.
The Solution: The Andor of It All
The only time since the first season of “The Mandalorian” that Star Wars seemed firmly back in the fanbase’s good graces was during the release of Tony Gilroy’s superb “Andor,” a two-season prequel chronicling the events that led to Cassian Andor’s ultimate sacrifice alongside the Rebel team in “Rogue One.”
The announcement of the show was unsurprisingly met with some trepidation, given the miniature role that Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor had played in the grand scheme of “Star Wars” up to that point. It all just felt a little… pointless? Weird, even? But the result came as a surprise to even the greatest of “Star Wars” optimists: A thrilling, and really just superbly put together, piece of television that transcended that of the Star Wars universe.
And with the show’s viewership numbers seeing a 40% increase from the end of season one to the end of season two (compared to a 16% drop for “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” a 31% drop for “Ahsoka,” and a 33% drop for “The Acolyte”), it proved that there’s no substitute for quality product if you want your franchise to withhold its prestigious status — and the numbers are certainly there to prove the show’s worth:
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer:
- Andor — 96%
- Skeleton Crew — 92%
- The Mandalorian — 90%
- The Bad Batch — 88%
- Asokha — 85%
- The Acolyte — 79%
- The Book of Boba Fett — 66%
The show was a financial success, too, estimated to have generated over $300 million in subscriber revenue for Disney+.
So, obvious and silly as it may sound, really, the answer seems to lie in the idea that if you make quality content, viewers will tune in. And if you don’t, well, then, you’ve got a mountain to climb. The proof is in the pudding, I’m afraid.
But what is it about “Andor” that separates it from its Disney+ counterparts, I hear you ask. Tony Gilroy. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and director Tony Gilroy, who was given the keys to do whatever he wanted with the show, free of the restrictions set in place post-”The Last Jedi.”
The show tackles tyranny, fascism, sexual assault, and any other real-world issue Gilroy wanted to face head-on, and it’s clear that in handing the reins back over to auteurs with strong visions and big ideas, audiences are responding in a way that should not be ignored. People want to be challenged; they want their “Star Wars” to feel fresh, cinematic, clever, and delivered by people who have strong visions and artistic identities of their own — an idea we seem to have mostly lost in the aftermath of Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi.”
Since then, we’ve seen projects delivered exclusively without the artistic cutting edge that keeps audiences coming back, all whilst projects like Steven Soderbergh’s “The Hunt for Ben Solo” have been cancelled, whilst word on James Mangold’s “Dawn of the Jedi” has gone quiet.
If the huge success of “Andor” and failure of “The Mandalorian and Grogu” have taught Lucasfilm and Disney anything, we can only hope that this new Dave Filoni-led era of “Star Wars” should be loud, cinematic, daring, and everything these past seven years haven’t been. “Star Wars” belongs on the big screen; the world is a better place when it is, but that comes with a promise that the cinematic spectacle on offer is unlike anything else available elsewhere. And in that regard, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is not the way.
For the security of the franchise’s future, a pivot is clearly needed. And the data tells us that the way to do that might just be to finally move past the ghost of “The Last Jedi” that has haunted Bob Iger across the past nine years, and once again be free to take risks with the franchise that gave us some of the most magical moments in all of cinema history. The Binary Sunset, “I am your father”, Duel of the Fates; a few more of these and a few less attempts at selling us a Grogu doll (cute as he is) would go an awful long way.
