How The Mandalorian Changed Disney’s Star Wars Strategy
By: Lucas Quagliata
Tags: Disney, Disney Plus, That Good You Need, Star Wars, Business

How The Mandalorian Changed Disney’s Star Wars Strategy

Photo by James Pond on Unsplash

Last week, WarnerMedia made waves by announcing that the films in its 2021 slate would debut on HBO Max and in theaters on the same day. This week, it was Disney’s turn to make the big streaming-related news. They did not disappoint.

Disney held a 4-hour (FOUR-HOUR!) event for investors last Thursday, where they announced an enormous number of projects. Somewhere around 80% of that forthcoming content is specifically for Disney+. Vulture has a list of everything here. It is a massive list.

There is plenty of analysis out there about Disney’s decision to continue debuting some movies in theaters, the remarkable subscriber growth at Disney+, and what announcing all these projects really means for the future. Here, though, I want to dive into the Star Wars portion of things.

I have always loved Star Wars. While I’m not an extreme fan who goes to conventions and reads all the companion books, I have spent countless hours watching the films and consuming adjacent content. I really enjoy escaping into franchises that offer wholly alternate worlds — Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones — and Star Wars was the first bit of storytelling I encountered that offered that experience.

Of course, my experience is not unique. Star Wars is one of the most popular pieces of intellectual property to ever exist. That’s part of the reason why Disney purchased the rights from George Lucas for $4 billion way back in 2012. That was a great moment, as fans considered the revival of the universe and imagined the new stories that could be told.

8 years later, the results have been mixed. The core trilogy started off well enough, and it even looked promising in the middle, but ultimately it was poorly planned and concluded with a truly disappointing, manic third act. Still, there were bright spots. It was fun to be back in that world. Watching older actors reprise their roles was surreal and at times naked fan-service, to say nothing about those who appeared from beyond the grave thanks to CGI, but watching a younger, more diverse set of characters interact with the older cast on screen in Star Wars — Star Wars!!! — was also extremely cool.

Outside of the core trilogy, the results were similar. Rogue One and Solo struggled through development and did not deliver as well as the Skywalker saga at the box office. At the same time, they seemed to be opening the door to larger possibilities of what Star Wars could be. In each of the 5 films, there was a feeling that Disney was trying very hard to make some monolithic Star Wars instead of writing and creating freely, but within the Star Wars universe. With the exception of Rogue One — in which Darth Vader has a brief appearance — each of the movies heavily features characters that fans already knew. From selecting which stories to tell, to writing those stories, to putting them out into the world, Disney appeared to be making safe choices. Again, Rogue One is the exception here, which is one of the reasons it’s probably the best of the new films.

But my adoration aside, it isn’t like Rogue One was a huge commercial hit. Instead of building momentum, the films in the series were losing it. Disney announced that it would be pausing development on Star Wars films.

Then came Jon Favreau and The Mandalorian. This show was different. It starred a character that looked like Boba Fett, but wasn’t. It featured a cute lil’ baby that looked like Yoda, but there was no mention of Yoda. Its characters had problems, but the problems didn’t involve multi-generational conflict or the fate of the galaxy. Instead, they were broke or needed gas. It explored the edges and depths of the Star Wars universe, but it also just kind of seemed like a procedural.

And people loved it.

We discovered that people don’t love Star Wars just for the soaring, awe-inspiring moments that can result from an epic galactic war. Those stories have their place, and you can bet that they will return. But the truly fascinating thing about Star Wars is its vastness. There are all kinds of rabbit holes to explore, and there is no need to tell the core story over and over again. And by the way, why does the Skywalker saga have to be the core story? There are, presumably, giant populations who are only minimally affected by the events portrayed in any of the 9 main movies. What are their core stories?

The Mandalorian, under Favreau’s hand, showed that Star Wars could be something different. This has of course coincided with the need that studios have to develop content to feed their streaming services. This has led Disney to reengage with Star Wars, but in a different way. Instead of asking how to tell different parts of the same story, what if they told entirely different stories? If The Mandalorian is a Western procedural, but make it Star Wars, then what else could be done in this universe? Could you make a horror film? Could you make a political drama? Could you make a sitcom?

Much of that is yet to be determined, and frankly the only thing that you can be almost certain about is that not all of the projects Disney announced last week will make it to the finish line. But the announcement was a signal that they seem to be ready to reboot Star Wars and to make choices that will make the series their own. Not by destroying norms or ruining characters — which plenty of fanboys will claim they’re doing regardless — but by telling new stories that might simply not have much to do with the other films. Certainly there will be crossovers and cameos, something season 2 of The Mandalorian is exploring right now, but they won’t be each show’s raison d’être.

It’s hard enough to make great entertainment. Mixing in beloved IP that many feel an ownership of further complicates the process. Truth be told, you will almost never please everyone. The only way to make something interesting and worth watching is to stop trying to do so. It would appear that Disney may have learned this lesson.

Of course, as their presentation Thursday showed, Disney doesn’t have to make one thing to please everyone, because they have the capital to make everything. You’ll find something you like.

Why should you care?: This is an impressive move, and will further solidify Disney+ as a top streaming service. We are living in a new world.