A recent insight into Disney’s biggest franchises claims that the conglomerate forced Lucasfilm to announce Star Wars projects before they were ready. At Disney’s Investor Day 2020, Kathleen Kennedy took to the stage to announce a slew of upcoming Star Wars TV shows and movies. These projects were Rangers of the New Republic, Ahsoka, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Visions, Lando, The Acolyte, Star Wars: A Droid Story, and Rogue Squadron.
Recently, an insight into these announcements was provided by the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, & Gavin Edwards. This book claims that Disney forced both Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm to announce projects that were nowhere close to being ready for announcement, let alone development:
“Kevin Feige and Lucasfilm chair Kathleen Kennedy appeared onscreen to announce a dizzying number of new projects… Both Feige and Kennedy were pressured into announcing projects that were nowhere near ready, some of which have since been canceled… or significantly overhauled and delayed.”
As proven by these comments, Disney’s pressure on Lucasfilm and Kennedy to announce several projects has led to the instability seen in the Star Wars franchise of late. The constant changing of Star Wars‘ upcoming movie release slate as well as the overhaul of different Disney+ shows are emulative of this, with the pressure on Lucasfilm by Disney providing an adequate explanation as to why this was the case.
Lucasfilm Has Delivered Most Of The 2020 Announcements… But Not All
Despite this pressure from Disney, Lucasfilm has delivered some of the projects announced in 2020, albeit not every single one of them. Ahsoka, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Star Wars: Visions have all been released on Disney+ with minimal issues, with The Acolyte currently set for the same outcome with a release date of 2024. That said, the others on the list have yet to be released and, in some cases, have been either completely canceled or shelved indefinitely. The Lando series is one of these projects which has hit multiple development issues.
While the show is apparently still going ahead, Donald Glover and his brother Stephen replaced the show’s writer, Justin Simien, in July 2023. Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron has been canceled completely, with Star Wars: A Droid Story not being mentioned since its initial announcement. Rangers of the New Republic was also canceled with elements of the story being included in The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. Each of these cases proves that Lucasfilm was not ready to announce a handful of these projects, with the pressure to do so seemingly coming from the very top of the House of Mouse and resulting in a period of flux for Star Wars.
