Rumor: Disney+ Indiana Jones Series Scrapped So Lucasfilm Can Focus On Star Wars
A new rumor claims that the rumored Indiana Jones TV series for Disney+ will not be seeing the light of day.
Back in November 2022, Joe Otterson at Variety reported that an Indiana Jones TV series was in the works at Disney+.
Otterson wrote, “Disney is actively looking to develop an Indiana Jones TV show for Disney+, Variety has learned exclusively from sources.”
He went on to state, “The Mouse House and Lucasfilm have specifically been bringing up the possibility of a streaming show set in the world of the globe trotting archaeologist in general meetings with writers of late, sources say.”
However, at the time of his report, a writer was not attached to the show and there were no plot details available.
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It appears that project is now dead in the water given the latest rumor from The Ankler reporter and Below The Line Editor Jeff Sneider.
Sneider tweeted, “RUMOR: The Ravenwood/Indiana Jones series at Lucasfilm is not moving forward, and furthermore, I’ve heard that Disney has told Lucasfilm to focus on STAR WARS going forward, hence the cancellation of WILLOW.”
This rumor comes after Disney CEO Bob Iger made it clear the company would be making significant cuts to the amount of content it was producing for Disney+ and also raised concerns about the quality of the programming the various studios under Disney including Lucasfilm were creating.
During an appearance at a Morgan Stanley conference, Iger told those in attendance, “I’m really pleased that the support that I’m getting from the content creators of the company is significant and real, and it comes in the form of reducing the expense per content, whether it’s a TV series or a film, where costs have just skyrocketed in a huge way and not a supportable way in my opinion. They all agree to that.”
He went on to reveal it’s not just about “understanding how much volume we need,” but also “reducing how much we make. So it’s how much we spend on what we make and how much we make.”
He went on to make it crystal clear he would be reducing the amount of content that The Walt Disney Company produces, “And as we look to reduce the content that we’re creating for our own platforms, there probably are opportunities to license to third parties.”
He added, “For a while that was verboten or something we couldn’t possibly do, because we were so favoring our own streaming platforms. But if we get to a point where we need less content for those platforms, and we still have the capability of producing that content, why not use it to grow revenue? And that’s what we would likely do.”
Not only did he claim the company would be reducing the amount of content, but he also pointed to a quality problem, “You know, there’s so much consumer choice right now, and it comes back to, What is differentiated? That’s one thing obviously we have talked about, is those brands: Star Wars, Marvel and Disney and Pixar, for instance. But quality is also a differentiator.”
Using HBO as an example, he said, “I think HBO proved that well, you know, in their halcyon days when high-quality programming made a big difference, and not volume.”
“And because the streaming platforms require so much volume, one has to question whether that’s the right direction to go, or if you can be more curated, more — I used the word ‘judicious’ a few times — but I guess, more picky about what you’re making, and to concentrate on quality and not volume,” he asserted.
Speaking specifically to Star Wars, Iger made it abundantly clear the company would be focusing on quality.
He said, “Star Wars, we made three what we called saga films, which is obviously the successors to George Lucas’ first six. They did very well at the box office — tremendously well as a matter of fact. We’ve made two so-called stand-alones in Rogue One and Solo. Rogue One did quite well, Solo was a little disappointing to us.”
“It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so we decided to pull back a bit. We still are developing Star Wars films. We’re going to make sure that when we make one, that it’s the right one, so we are being very careful there,” he declared.
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It might be too little too late as Star Wars fans have been completely abandoning the once cultural juggernaut. Recent reports about The Mandalorian indicate viewers are quickly abandoning the show’s third season. The show also received its worst user rating on IMDb for “Chapter 19: The Convert.”
Before The Mandalorian, Andor didn’t even make a blip on Nielsen’s Top Overall Ratings. The show’s premiere only drew in 625 million minutes viewed. That was only good for sixth on Nielsen’s Top 1o Original chart.
Reacting to the abysmal premiere numbers for Andor, analyst Valliant Renegade opined, “You’re dead Star Wars. Go home.”
What do you make of this latest rumor claiming the Indiana Jones TV series is canned?
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