In a classic case of ‘one-step forward, two-steps back’, despite Disney CEO Bob Iger recently implying that all of the company’s brands needed to be “curated” in order to improve their quality, alleged company insiders have claimed that Taika Waititi’s previously announced Star Wars project is one project that is still moving forward.
This confirmation that Waititi is still on track to visit a galaxy far, far away was first made public on February 16th, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter.
Per their sources, While Marvel is looking to spend the coming year heavily scaling back “the pace at which we’re putting out the Disney Plus shows” in an effort to help save the brand and stop it from hemorrhaging of money – “Numbers matter now, and costs are going to be outlined and enforced,” asserted one such source – Star Wars is allegedly seeking to do just the opposite.
According to one Disney insiders, not only will the company spend the upcoming year seeking to capitalize on the scheduled releases of Ashoka, Skeleton Crew, and The Mandalorian Season 3, but they’re also actively working with both Waititi and HBO’s Watchmen creator Damon Lindelof to help bring their respective projects to life.
“Lucasfilm may ramp up,” noted THR’s source, “but it will have to abide by the same fiscal discipline as the rest of the company.”
As noted above, this confirmation that the Thor: Love and Thunder director’s Star Wars outing is still in active development comes just days after Iger tacitly admitted that all of the House of Mouse’s biggest brands were suffering from both oversaturation and a staggering lack of quality.
“We have to be better at curating the Disney and the Pixar and the Marvel and the Star Wars of it all as well,” the Disney boss told attendees during the company’s Q1 2023 earnings call on February 8th. “And of course, reduce costs on everything that we make because, while we’re extremely proud of what’s on the screen, it’s gotten to a point where it’s extraordinarily expensive. And we want all the quality.”
“And, of course, reduce costs on everything that we make,” he added. “While we are extremely what’s proud on the screen, it’s gotten to a point where it’s extraordinarily expensive. We want all the quality. We want the quality on the screen, but we have to look at what they cost us.”
Disney’s next Star Wars release, the aforementioned The Mandalorian Season 3, hits Disney Plus on March 1st.
