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On this year's May the Fourth, like clockwork, a new piece of Star Wars news dropped: a trailer for the forthcoming Disney+ show Obi-Wan Kenobi. The previous announcements included that Taika Waititi would be cowriting and helming a future Star Wars movie and that General Mills would be releasing a Baby Yoda cereal. It is also a day for all kinds of fan actions, like making crafts, doing cosplay, and holding movie marathons. Over the years, the holiday has become more and more like a marketing stunt for a show people don't like.
There is a moment of clarity. WIRED has participated in May the Fourth for as long as I can remember, and it's as much as any media organization. Some people may be more excited about Obi-Wan than my feeds show. Since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the future of the franchise has felt like watching the Millennium Falcon go into hyperdrive: lots of bright lights and action, but hard to see where it is going.
The fact that Star Wars is in a bit of a lull has something to do with this. Lucasfilm has released scores of spin-off series following the success of The Mandalorian. The Bad Batch is an animated series, so it lacks the appeal of Mando. The Book of Boba Fett was fine. Obi-Wan is once again resurrecting a beloved character, but also resurrecting the version of him played by the less beloved prequel trilogy. Even though the trailer shows more cinematic thrills than previous series have had, it could still go either way. The Rise of Skywalker came out three years ago, and the next film is not due until December of 2023. Everything in Star Wars feels like it is on autopilot.
All of these releases have come during different times than previous ones, so there is something to be said for that. Rise of Skywalker was a bit of a let down for the more recent trilogy of movies to end on, but it happened just months before Covid-19 hit. In the intervening years, there has been the 2020 US presidential election, Black Lives Matter protests, and a war in Ukraine. The franchise may have served as a distraction at times, but it also seemed less attention-worthy than the real world. An Obi-Wan trailer doesn't feel that impactful because of a leaked draft opinion that the US Supreme Court could vote to overturn. At a time when it seems like the franchise could use a break, now might be the right time to let it coast.
Will it come back? Disney has invested billions of dollars into Lucasfim with the expectation that it will be a content machine for years to come. Diego Luna is set to release Andor, a film about his character in the first season of Bad Batch. There is a Lando Calrissian show in the works, as well as two spin-offs of that show, one featuring Ahsoka Tano. There are already-existing stories in the Star Wars universe. Bob Iger, the former Disney CEO, said not long ago that the Star Wars films would go on hiatus while the studio focused on Disney+ shows.
The future of Star Wars will be determined by whether any of the Skywalker Saga stories can take off. J. D. Dillard will make a feature film, and having Waititi helm one sounds promising. Kevin Feige may be taking over as director of a Star Wars movie. Rian Johnson's trilogy, which was announced years ago but has been quiet in the months since, is the last one. David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were supposed to have a trilogy, but they left the project in 2019. What is it that gives? The movie could be the beginning of a new Star Wars renaissance. They could all fail and leave the franchise with only its past glories. Star Wars will just keep puttering along, like a malfunctioning droid in the Tatooine desert. That may be the most disappointing.
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