Star Wars, James Bond, and Company America’s Hunt for Larger, Not Higher

Who knew audiences would romanticize the times when studios solely produced sequels to their hits? Warner Bros. made a Deadly Weapon, it was a success, so that they made a Deadly Weapon 2, and when it turned out Murtaugh (Danny Glover) was not getting too previous for this shit, WB made a Deadly Weapon 3 and so forth.

At the moment, sequels aren’t ok for a studio that desires to stretch their IP additional than it’ll go. When you’re going to do a sequel, likelihood is it additionally must be a legacy-quel the place filmmakers pair new characters with returning favorites like in The Pressure Awakens, which is how we get motion pictures like Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Scream 5, and Blade Runner 2049.

There additionally must be spinoffs, prequels, and spinoffs which can be additionally prequels, comparable to Solo: A Star Wars Story or the TV sequence Dune: Prophecy. When companies see a billion-dollar franchise like Star Wars or James Bond, they now not assume, “Oh, individuals like seeing these motion pictures, so we’ll make extra motion pictures.” They assume there’s demand far exceeding solely sequels, and they also try to crank up manufacturing on model expansions.

One of many individuals chargeable for creating this development is award-winning producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who’s rumored to be retiring this yr, following over a decade on the helm of the corporate. Her tenure did embody the large revitalization of the Star Wars model beneath Disney with hit movies like The Pressure Awakens, Rogue One, and The Final Jedi in addition to the favored present The Mandalorian.

Nevertheless, the reverberations spiraled outwards when it comes to the form of tales we get from franchises and studios working to fill streaming platforms with spinoffs galore. There’s by no means been extra Star Wars than there may be now, and it additionally has change into cultural wallpaper, with informal followers shrugging at live-action exhibits like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka.

Not too long ago, we noticed Amazon take the reins of the James Bond franchise from the Broccoli household, initially spending billions to accumulate MGM earlier than shelling out one other billion to realize inventive management of 007. Whereas Bond was no stranger to discovering methods to push the sequence past its motion pictures, with widespread video games like GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo64 or the animated sequence James Bond Jr., the following section for the character might mirror Disney’s method with Star Wars and much broaden the output past a single film each few years.

As a substitute of seeing Star Wars as a cautionary story about viewers retention within the face of relentless model growth, Amazon might determine to forge forward with a bunch of sequence specializing in supporting Bond characters, no matter whether or not the viewers is genuinely interested by these figures.

From a company perspective, this can be a profitable method. Disney spent $4 billion to accumulate Lucasfilm, and in 2024 the studio claimed Lucasfilm generated $12 billion in worth in solely 12 years. The extra Star Wars stuff Disney makes, the extra income streams it creates whether or not it’s Grogu toys or new theme park sights primarily based on the sequel trilogy.

Some followers might take a look at these expansions and get giddy on the considered extra of the factor they love, since there may be an attraction to having the ability to discover the nooks and crannies of a narrative world {that a} characteristic movie would by no means have time for. There are occasions the place this works nicely — take Disney+’s Andor, which doesn’t concern itself as a lot with lore as a lot as crafting a taut political thriller and setting it within the Star Wars universe.

Sadly, Andor proves extra the exception than the rule: As a substitute of creative new explorations, the majority of latest Star Wars tales have been diluted tales that make these worlds really feel smaller and extra insular, and the reception to those exhibits has been blended at finest.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Disney+)