With Solo: A Star Wars Story discourse dying down and the experts saying marketing and timing were to blame for its box office disappointment the question becomes what does Lucasfilm and Disney learn from this and what direction should they head? Let’s take a look.
While experts have stated that marketing was an issue for Solo however among the core uberfans there was also the question of why do we need that story to be told (Note: even if all the boycott people did boycott you are only looking at about at most 8-12 million total in ticket sales. That doesn’t explain the at least 300 million Solo will be short of expectations). We already had a resolution on the character and knowing his origin doesn’t really help us understand the character more than we already did. So if marketing was an issue and likely the lack of desire for more on an already established character, Lucasfilm should be taking a look at what is rumored to be slated: Obi-wan and Boba Fett.
Lets look at Obi-Wan first, he already has had his story told over 6 films and 6 seasons of animated show. I would say that the Prequels were as much if not more Obi-wan’s story than Anakin’s. The area that most think will be explored would be the 18 years on Tatoonie watching over Luke as he grows up. This limits the location, you are pretty much stuck on the desert planet, this also limits the conflict. There will be no Jedi vs Sith and since Obi-wan is hiding likely no lightsaber action, or at least not until the end of the film. Now Ewan McGregor coming back as Obi-wan is exciting and I think most fans would watch him read a night time story to a young Luke for two hours and be OK but is it enough to excite the casuals? I personally don’t think it is, which is the problem Solo had. Also what story needs to be told there, why would that story need to be told?
Now if you want to excite the casuals, Boba Fett might just do that. Despite everything many uberfans think (there is a real backlash against him lately) he is still a favorite and big seller. He could bring in a whole bounty hunting crew and tons of OT characters. There are a ton of stories that could be told in this realm AND you can easily tie in characters from Solo. An added bonus is the actor that last portrayed Boba Fett and canonically has the face under the mask is still heavily involved in Star Wars and would jump at the chance to play Boba again. Honestly there might be as much backlash in recasting him as there would be recasting Obi-wan.
The question is then could Boba’s potential story be told without him? I think the answer is “yes” and probably should. Rogue One was a success for several reasons but one of the biggest was all the new characters and the lack of reliance on old ones. I would even say that having the old ones show up took you more out of the film than if they had been left out. It is a BIG galaxy and so much has yet to be explored, focusing the Star Wars movies on characters we have already had multiple movies and animated shows about limits where creatives can go and lessens the desire of fans to go to that galaxy. If Star Wars wants to continue to be a cultural force then it has to grow beyond the small time frame the Skywalkers occupy.
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