Has Disney Ruined Star Wars? -

By Luis Zonenberg

Ah, Disney, much to learn you still have. It has been well over a decade since the company purchased the rights to Star Wars from George Lucas, and the results have greatly varied since then. For every Andor and The Bad Batch, there is a Rise of Skywalker hiding around every corner. Yet, their recent releases like The Acolyte and Star Wars: Outlaws have drawn much negative attention.

Waning interest is quickly draining the company of any profit they wish to make. And considering their past successes, is it safe to say that their monopoly on the franchise is ending? To answer this question properly, we must go back to the original reason why George Lucas sold the franchise in the first place: the fans.

With Lucas getting older and only working on the animated The Clone Wars series, he clearly was losing interest in his own creation, and the constant backlash from his own fanbase did not help either. This inevitably led him to sell the franchise, but not without his own pitch for a sequel trilogy. While that can be saved for another time, it was instead tossed into the Sarlacc pit in favor of rebooting the franchise.

An agreement with Bob Iger, J.J. Abrams, and Kathleen Kennedy resulted in the creation of The Force Awakens, which proved to be a massive success that grossed well over $2 billion at the box office. And with the following release of Rogue One, the first Star Wars spin-off at that, grossing well over a billion dollars, it was clear that there was potential for it to have a bright future. But that hope was all but shattered by the time The Last Jedi arrived, dividing many fans to this day.

While Rian Johnson remains a brilliant filmmaker in his own right, it was clear that he had a different vision than what Abrams had and instead chose to “subvert audience expectations.” With the film, he coined the term, “Destroy the past, kill it if you have to.” Clearly, Disney took this to heart when they pivoted back to JJ Abrams after the box-office disappointment of Solo.

This resulted in resurrecting Emperor Palpatine for a finale that was clearly not set up for him to be the antagonist. “The greatest teacher failure is,”and that failure resulted in poor critical reception and box office earnings of not even half of what The Force Awakens earned. It was clear that Disney had run into a brick wall, or so it seemed.

With the launch of Disney+ merely a month before the release of The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm and the company debuted the very first Star Wars streaming series, The Mandalorian. With the ever so adorable Baby Yoda or Grogu, as we now know him, paired with the lone bounty hunter, it provided a nice alternative that quickly stole the hearts and minds of many viewers alike. And to this day, it remains Disney’s only multi-season hit out of all the shows. Why is this the case?

The first reason would be a little something called The Book of Boba Fett, a long-awaited project that sadly disappointed many. With its emphasis on him as more of a hero than an outlaw and an inconsistent focus, it was clear that Disney had their first dud in the water. This would later be followed by Kenobi, a bittersweet reunion between mega-stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. It was clear after this release that Disney’s grip on the franchise had clearly begun to loosen.

Despite the lukewarm reception to Ahsoka, the later releases proved to be causing more trouble than good for the company. This inevitably led to The Acolyte, which is proving to be the final nail in the coffin. What at first showed the potential to explore a new era of the timeline quickly revealed its true colors, retconning lots of common Star Wars lore and having its cast call the fans racist for hating it, so it was no surprise that it reached the lowest debut for any Star Wars show.

But wait a second, is that it? In case you were thinking that Disney might’ve made more Star Wars projects, that would be because they announced several projects that were inevitably shelved for numerous reasons. Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron is currently still in development while the Lando series and the Rangers of the New Republic film have since gone quiet.

Most of them however were several unnamed projects being helmed by Taika Waitit, Rian Johnson, Game of Thrones’ David Benniof and D.B. Weiss, Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow, and Marvel Chief Kevin Feige, just to name a few. Yet out of all these, the only one that was greenlit and is currently in production is the Mandalorian and Grogu film directed by Jon Favreu, with a script he co-wrote with Dave Filoni. While it is set for a late May release in 2026, not much is known about the plot.

With the release of the Mandalorian movie on the horizon, it does not appear Disney has much in store left for the franchise once that hits theaters. This leads me to the ultimate question that’s been asked for the last few years: has Disney ruined Star Wars? Yes, but not for the reasons you think.

I will laud them for successfully relaunching the brand and creating the first few series for the franchise, considering that it was a huge risk at the time. And the releases of Rogue One, Andor and even The Bad Batch proved to be some rare gems hiding the rough. But their success has been declining for quite some time now and it does not look like the franchise has much of a future once The Mandalorian and Grogu releases.

The greatest teacher, failure is. But that only applies to Star Wars as a brand, or actually has been since the original came out, a franchise. The original trilogy, and yes, even the prequels, have resonated with audiences over the years and their love continues to burn to this day.
Has Disney ruined that? Despite the backlash of the Sequel trilogy or even the aforementioned Acolyte series, fans continue to show their love and passion for the franchise to this day. And the original films that Lucas worked on will continue to resonate with audiences for years to come, no matter what Disney will do.