Yesterday, the news that HBO’s Game of Thrones duo, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, will take on writing and producing duties for a new series of Star Wars films dominated the internet—and probably not for the reason that Lucasfilm had hoped. That overshadowed another bit of Star Wars news, because there’s just too much of it to keep up with these days: Disney is planning “a few” Star Wars TV shows for their standalone streaming service.
What those will be like is anyone’s guess, but with Rian Johnson also working on movies to follow the current Star Wars trilogy’s end, TV is the only place there’s really room for more. Those TV projects could also easily include live action, animation, or both if there are several in development, and it sounds like they’re in the fairly early stages, so a lot of ideas are likely flying around.
On the earnings call where Disney CEO Bob Iger mentioned the series, The Hollywood Reporter quotes him saying, “We are close to being able to reveal at least one of the entities that is developing that for us. Because the deal isn’t completely closed, we can’t be specific about that.” If the closest they are to being able to talk about any of these projects is nearing a deal to make one happen, there’s a lot up in the air right now.
But one thing is for sure: the catch. Like Star Trek Discovery and the CBS All Access streaming service, these series will be tied to Disney’s streaming app. With the company now owning Marvel, Lucasfilm, and soon to control all of Fox’s intellectual properties, they’re going to have quite a bit of sway over consumers, even if Iger says they’re not planning for their service to be a Netflix competitor in terms of volume of content.
Really though, I’m more concerned about those rumors that Lucasfilm has quietly brought on women and people of color to write and direct for Star Wars, with the lack of publicity serving to shield them from the kind of fans who reacted angrily to The Last Jedi. The rumors specifically mention films, and they require a rather large grain of salt—I’m not giving Lucasfilm any points on that front without knowing for sure—but I have to wonder if they have anything to do with these TV projects.
With the planned debut of Disney’s streaming service looming in 2019, we’ll hopefully know more soon.
(via The Playlist, image: Disney/Lucasfilm)
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