Remember “Meet Joe Black”, Brad Pitt’s remake of ’30s drama “Death Takes a Holiday”? What about Bruce Willis’s military drama “The Siege”? Or even Adam Sandler’s American football comedy “The Waterboy”? They’re rarely talked about now, but for a brief period in fall 1998, these three movies — along with Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” — came to unexpected prominence in the lives of “Star Wars” fans.
With anticipation for “The Phantom Menace“, George Lucas’s first big-screen excursion to the Star Wars galaxy in 16 years, comfortably exceeding fever pitch, these films provided an unlikely route back to a galaxy far, far away. Knowing that the first “Episode I” teaser was attached to prints across the States, many “Star Wars” fans bought tickets to these Earth-bound movies, watched a certain red-hot trailer, and then walked out before the feature presentation had even begun.
That promo also taught Hollywood — and movie fans around the planet — that the internet could be the place to go to watch preview videos from upcoming releases. The second trailer, released in Apple’s QuickTime format a few months later, would be downloaded a million times within 24 hours of its launch.
Yes, it’s fair to say that the generations of moviegoers who’d queued around the block to watch the original trilogy in theaters or on VHS — as well as embracing the Special Edition theatrical re-releases in 1997 — were kind of excited about Darth Vader: The Early Years.
How Disney and Lucasfilm must be hoping they can recapture similar excitement ahead of “The Mandalorian and Grogu“‘s multiplex debut this month. It may be easier said than done, however, especially with a report in Deadline suggesting that the movie is tracking for the worst opening weekend in “Star Wars” history.
It’s now almost seven years since “The Rise of Skywalker” brought “Star Wars”‘s most active period in theaters — five films in four years — to a disappointing close. But although the box-office returns of JJ Abrams’ threequel and the previous year’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story” suggested diminishing returns — then Disney boss Bob Iger famously admitted it was “a little too much, too fast” — the studio’s movie strategy had paid big dividends up to that point. No film in history has made more money in the States than “The Force Awakens“, while “Episode VII” and follow-up “The Last Jedi” sit at fourth and fifth, respectively, in the all-time list of the US’s biggest ever opening weekends.
Related: 10 years into the Disney ‘Star Wars’ era: Grading the ups and downs of a galaxy far, far away
“Star Wars” was, at it always had been, a franchise totally at home on the big screen, but something changed in November 2019. Barely a month ahead of “The Rise of Skywalker”‘s debut, Disney launched its own streaming platform, Disney+, and “The Mandalorian” was the headline attraction. It was something of a shot in the dark for a franchise whose TV output had previously been limited to animation — for all its highly acclaimed brilliance, even “The Clone Wars” remained the domain of kids and hardcore fans.
“We were making the show when the sequels were on the big screen,” “The Mandalorian” creator and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” writer/director Jon Favreau told SFX magazine. “Nobody expected anything for us. We were small screen, shorter schedule, smaller budget, and we had to find a way to make ‘Star Wars’ for a new medium.”
“The Mandalorian”, of course, turned out to be the right show at the right time, as Din Djarin and his little green friend, then known affectionately as Baby Yoda, became instant superstars across the world — even in countries that were still (officially, at least) waiting for Disney+ to boot up.
As Disney and Lucasfilm dragged their heels over a new movie, the streamer subsequently became the place to go for new “Star Wars” “content, with “The Book of Boba Fett“, “Obi-Wan Kenobi“, “Andor“, “Ahsoka”, “The Acolyte” and “Skeleton Crew” all following in “The Mandalorian”‘s footsteps, to varying degrees of success. In the last six-and-a-half years, there have been more hours of live-action “Star Wars” TV than 11 movies had generated in the previous four decades.
The problem is, the Disney+ years may have shifted perspectives so much that “Star Wars” now feels like a TV franchise. And while there are numerous examples of TV shows finding their way onto the big screen (notably “Star Trek”, “The Simpsons”, and “The X-Files”), they rarely make a big impression at the box office. Even “Star Trek Into Darkness“, the most lucrative of the 13 big-screen final frontier adventures to date, failed to make the top 10 earners of 2013.
Disney executives will surely also be concerned by the performance of the underrated “The Marvels“, which lifted two of its three leads from Marvel Cinematic Universe TV shows, and is by some distance the least lucrative MCU movie to date.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” now faces the not-insignificant task of convincing fans that a pair of characters they fell in love with on the small screen are worthy of a one-off theater ticket purchase — a challenge made even more challenging by the fact that everyone knows the movie will land on Disney+ in a few months.
And, unlike “Star Wars “‘s previous big-screen comebacks in 1999 and 2015, it’s not as if we’ve been waiting a decade or more for our next instalment. It’s barely three years since Mando and Grogu settled down on Nevarro at the end of season 3, granted a happy ending that was the antithesis of “The Empire Strikes Back“‘s famous cliffhanger.
A fourth season would have been gratefully received, but it’s not like everyone was on tenterhooks to find out what happened to the duo next. In fact, the focus had arguably shifted to the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn and the escalating threat of various Imperial Remnants, stories we now know will be picked up in “Ahsoka” season 2.
Favreau has spoken of his intention to up the scale of the TV show, shooting his movie on IMAX to ensure it feels like an event. He’s also added more aliens, filmed on physical sets (most of the TV show was made against digital backgrounds), and created roles for Hollywood royalty in the form of Sigourney Weaver and Martin Scorsese. But will that be a big enough draw?
On the flip side, with the Skywalker Saga over, Darth Maul headlining a brilliant TV show of his own, and the proposed Rey New Jedi Order movie seemingly trapped in development hell, the Mandalorian and Grogu may now be the biggest stars on the Star Wars docket.
Nobody expected anything for us. We were small screen, shorter schedule, smaller budget, and we had to find a way to make ‘Star Wars’ for a new medium.”
Jon Favreau, writer & director of “The Mandalorian and Grogu”
Baby Yoda has a proven track record of shifting toys, while the man under the helmet, Pedro Pascal, has conveniently been elevated to the Hollywood A-list since “The Mandalorian”‘s debut, largely thanks to “The Last of Us” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps“.
It’s not quite Han/Luke/Leia triumvirate being brought out of franchise retirement to tempt back those original Gen X fans who’d been left disillusioned by the prequel trilogy, but who knows? Maybe they are the best way to convince younger fans weaned on the TV shows that — guess what — “Star Wars” does movies too.
Whichever way you look at it, there’s a significant amount of pressure on “The Mandalorian and Grogu”, especially after “The Acolyte” and “Skeleton Crew” struggled to find an audience. But if those pessimistic Hollywood predictions about a weak opening come to pass? Well, as Yoda was so fond of reminding Obi-Wan Kenobi, there is another hope.
For the 2027 release “Starfighter“, Lucasfilm is taking a completely different tack. For the first time, this is a “Star Wars” movie headlined by an A-lister who’s already made it big elsewhere, as “Project Hail Mary” leading man Ryan Gosling (a man with a proven track record in outer space) engages the hyperdrive to travel from Tau Ceti to a galaxy far, far away. Director Shawn Levy has also had big-screen mega-hits of his own, most notably 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine”.
This feels like a “Star Wars” movie and would arguably have been a safer bet to bring the veteran franchise back to multiplexes. And you have to hope that at least one of these films is a major success because, speaking as someone who grew up repeat-viewing the original trilogy on VHS, there really is nothing quite like watching “Star Wars” on a very big screen.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” is in theaters (not TV screens) from May 22. Need to catch up on the show first? Check it out on Disney+