The last episode of the first season of Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian’ is accessible to stream on Disney+ today, as well as the showrunner Jon Favreau wasted very little time approving when we can expect season 2 of the smash hit to land: next fall. But the future is changing, and The Mandalorian perfectly proves what it looks like.
The next three years are going to witness Star Wars’ universe to expand on Disney+. Disney, on the other hand, isn’t planning to release an additional Star Wars movie up until the year 2022.
In the meantime, executives have publicly recognized the audience fatigue the present yearly release calendar brings. It’s the first time ever in four years that there won’t be yearly Star Wars movie, but at the same time, the franchise isn’t really going anyplace.
Favreau tweeted the expected timeline for the sophomore series of “The Mandalorian” on Friday, go along with an image of a statuette of a Gamorrean, a type of alien from the Star Wars universe with a noticeably hog-like appearance. The Gamorrean’s most notable appearance in the Star Wars cinematic universe to date is perhaps in “The Empire Strikes Back,” when they served as guards for crime lord Jabba the Hutt on Tatootine.
Eventually, The Mandalorian’s ambitious, the albeit-hiccup-filled first season was satisfying, and a perfect example of how Lucasfilm can expand the Star Wars universe deprived of having to depend on big theatrical events. Even in parts where The Mandalorian tripped, it never felt as severe as difficulties people have with Star Wars movies, such as the prequels and The Rise of Skywalker.
Those stumbles are rising pains that can be ironed out in the following season. There’s less pressure for a Star Wars show compared to a new movie — and particularly a new series. At present, Lucasfilm and Disney are in a perfect spot: The Mandalorian is a success, Star Wars is ripe for more experimentation, as well as Disney+ is a new sandbox that is going to allow for same experiments. The future of Star Wars won’t only live and die by big event films such as The Rise of Skywalker; it’ll succeed with a consistent run of weird and fun Star Wars shows.
On the other hand, the Mandalorian is one project that was tested as well as exceeded everyone’s expectations, comprising Disney CEO Bob Iger. The Mandalorian turn out to be the most talked-about show of the year and created a phenomenon in Baby Yoda. Weekly publicity on Twitter for new episodes starkly as compared to the negative discourse surrounding The Rise of Skywalker. Much of the conversation, which brought up concerns people had with the trilogy as a whole, comprising The Last Jedi, seemed to signal a point of exhaustion for the present Star Wars saga. While on the other the movies aren’t going away forever, fatigue is settling in.
The following couple of years is going to exist as the time for Disney to tweak Disney+, and test out ideas within much-loved franchises to see what people want and what they don’t. The animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars is coming back for a seventh season next year, and there’s a chance that Diego Luna’s series based on his Rogue One character, Cassian Andor, could land in the second half of 2020.
The Mandalorian, on the other hand, is already renewed for a second season, likely to appear in the year 2020 or 2021. And then there’s Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan show, once rumored to be a spinoff-film similar to Solo, which is probable to hit as a streaming series in the year 2021. Star Wars as a universe feels even more integrated with Disney+ than it did as a series of films as well as select animated shows.
If Disney wants to move Star Wars forward as a franchise, with the help of Disney+ as a playground to take bigger swings and push creative boundaries is necessary. The Mandalorian, on the other hand, is proof.
