Franchise fatigue is a very real thing, and the majority of Hollywood’s biggest brands have suffered from it at one time or another. The focus should always be on quality over quantity, but when there’s potentially billions of dollars at stake if you keep churning out sequels, it’s not like the industry will ever learn.
Before Solo bombed and killed the Anthology experiment entirely, there were plans in place to drop a new Star Wars movie on an annual basis. The advent of Disney Plus has shifted the focus over to streaming until Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron arrives in 2023, with anime-inspired short film series Visions premiering tomorrow.
In a new interview with The Direct, Lucasfilm’s Vice President of Franchise Content and Strategy James Waugh addressed the potential minefield of franchise fatigue setting in, and he seems confident that it won’t be an issue.
“Are we worried about oversaturation? I think we’re always very thoughtful and cautious about how do we keep Star Wars‘ specialness in this landscape. We’re mindful, but this wasn’t one of those instances where we had our spidey-senses on a lot because we felt this was such a new offering. When it comes to things like Visions, I would say that we weren’t ever concerned about the oversaturation potentiality with Visions in particular, and I think the reason was we were offering something that’s kind of a diversification of what the offering is.
We weren’t concerned that this was going to impact Star Wars in aggregate, we thought this would be a breath of fresh air for people to explore Star Wars in an exciting new way. From a broader kind of creative strategy perspective, Disney+ has changed the way we’re viewing a lot of what’s possible with Star Wars. So you can get shows like The Mandalorian and Boba Fett because the platform allows for it.”
Fans have no issues with the Marvel Cinematic Universe debuting ten new projects every year, because Kevin Feige has built trust and faith in his audience that it’ll be worth their while. Lucasfilm couldn’t even get through the Sequel Trilogy without dividing opinion right down the middle, but the streaming era has at least gotten off to a positive start.
As always, time will tell if people end up getting bored of Star Wars, but in the long run it’s entirely dependent on how good the product is.
