Lucasfilm is amping up their output of Star Wars content in 2022, and Lucasfilm Vice President of Franchise Content and Strategy, James Waugh, explains why. Ever since the tepid reactions to the studio's past several theatrical outings (namely 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story and 2019's The Rise of Skywalker), Lucasfilm reeled back their original plan to release one theatrical movie every year. However, following the meteoric success of their ventures into streaming content with The Mandalorian, the studio set its sights on Disney+ as the primary platform for Star Wars content for the foreseeable future. Indeed, 2022 is slated to be packed with Star Wars content for the streaming service.
Although concrete release dates have yet to be confirmed, Lucasfilm is expected to release five Star Wars series on Disney+ next year: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Andor, The Mandalorian season 3, The Bad Batch season 2, and A Droid Story. The former three are live-action series that are currently in different stages of production, while the latter two are animated series. Apart from A Droid Story (of which Lucasfilm has yet to give any explicit narrative details), every other show fleshes out the transitional periods that chronologically take place between the three theatrical Star Wars trilogies. Suffice to say that 2022 is stacked with new content for a franchise that has remained more conservative in its release schedule for the past two years. Lucasfilm VP James Waugh explains how it happened.
In a recent interview with The Direct, Waugh explained that Star Wars' busy 2022 release calendar was more coincidental than anything else. Waugh says, "it was just the way things lined up for the year," and he projects that "there will be ebbs and flows of Star Wars" depending on the availability of passionate new creators. Check out the VP's full quote below:
Oh, I don't know... I don't think it was planned on as being a regular... I think it was just the way things lined up for the year. I think there will be ebbs and flows of Star Wars as great creators come in and have great takes on Star Wars, that we believe fans will want to see.
I think what Disney+ does offers a lot of rich potential to explore the galaxy in new ways, and that's exciting.
Lucasfilm's new strategy will hopefully be a step up from its previous one. The arbitrary, once-a-year release schedule was ultimately detrimental for the sequel trilogy, with previous Disney CEO Bob Iger admitting himself that they "put a little bit too much [Star Wars] in the marketplace too fast." By having content ebb and flow with creators' availability, Lucasfilm can ensure that new content will always result from creative passion rather than corporate obligation.
The recently released Star Wars: Visions seems to be a step in Lucasfilm's new direction. Visions was a rapid departure from typical Star Wars fare in that it gave Japanese anime studios full rein to create any story they wanted to tell. From interviews, it's clear the animation studios appreciated the creator-driven approach, which fostered an environment for writers and animators to let their imaginations run wild. As Star Wars makes its way into a new era of storytelling, Lucasfilm should take inspiration from what worked with Visions and apply the best aspects to all parts of their studio.
Source: The Direct
