Earlier this year, the Star Wars tv show The Book of Boba Fett was released (read my thoughts here). A couple of months after that show, a highly-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off show was also released. The first three episodes of the origin story of Rogue One character Cassian Andor are currently available for streaming on Disney+ with the fourth episode becoming available on the streaming service tonight. Later this year, The Bad Batch season 2, The Mandalorian season 3, and a new show Tales of the Jedi are all being released. All Star Wars tv shows, all released this year.

This amass of content reminds me of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Comparing Star Wars with Marvel isn't uncommon as it is such an easy comparison: both are owned by Disney, both have a lot of money invested in them, both are available in many different types of mediums including movies, tv shows and books, and both release (for the most part) fairly high-quality content. However, the MCU somehow manages to release more content than Star Wars. This year, Disney released 2 movies and 4 tv shows under their MCU banner with 3 more to come before the end of the year.

When I first got Disney+ a couple of years ago (about the same time I founded Only The Best Movies), I set out to watch every MCU movie in chronological order. However, this task was more challenging than I first thought. There are currently 29 movies in the official MCU timeline. Plus many more 'unofficial' movies which also tie into those main 29. Not to mention, the many tv shows add up to many more hours of viewing. I gave up on the MCU after only getting just over a quarter of the way through the movies alone. Although I was writing fairly positive reviews on the movies, truth was, I wasn't enjoying them all that much and it was such a task to watch every single one.

The movies and tv shows that have been released this year have received mixed reviews. The highest Rotten Tomatoes Audience score for any of the movies was 90% for Moon Knight. The lowest was 37% for She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. The one or two that I've seen were alright; but nothing outstanding. I'm starting to think that the studio is running itself thin. From what that I've seen (and from the opinions I've heard from others), the best movies seem to be those released when during quieter times such as Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man and Black Panther. I think that the quality of their movies has dropped drastically over the last couple of years, and I don't think they can blame COVID. Not to mention, it is so hard to keep up. It appears to me that you have to watch every movie and every tv show (except for a couple) to understand the overarching storyline, otherwise parts of the movies will not be making sense. Of course, this is no problem for the die-hard Marvel fans but this is going to turn off the average movie-goer who enjoys some of the Marvel movies like me. This is something Marvel is seriously going to have to consider if they are planning on continuing down this road (which it appears they are from their current 'Phase 5 plan').

But how does this relate to Star Wars? Well, I am concerned that Star Wars is going to suffer the same fate. As I mentioned, Star Wars releases similar amounts of content. They haven't released a movie since before the pandemic, however, they have released quite a lot of tv shows over the last couple of years. Almost too many tv shows and that opinion is coming from someone who loves every piece of Star Wars (except Star Wars Visions but this is not the time for that). Star Wars is yet to see the drastic implications of too much content that I have noticed in the MCU, however, hints of it are noticeable to the eagle-eyed viewer. 

Earlier this year, Obi-Wan Kenobi was released... and I wasn't too impressed. The show was originally supposed to be a full-length movie but was changed to a tv show due to the financial failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story which I don't think was due to a recasting of Han Solo or anything like that but was instead because it was released five months after the previous Star Wars movie. But back to Obi-Wan Kenobi, I think that the story would have worked much better as a movie. The show was too long and slow, something that would have been avoided if it had been a movie. The show felt like some more thought and effort needed to be put into it. But perhaps the executives at Disney were too focussed on the Andor show which is currently streaming on Disney+: three episodes in and the show is turning out to be better than Obi-Wan Kenobi but we'll wait and see how things play out.

Fortunately, the average movie-goer does not need to watch or read every piece of Star Wars media to understand and enjoy the overarching storyline or even a single movie; it is more a choice for the viewer on how deep they wish to go in the franchise. However once again, a hint of that could be seen earlier this year with viewers needing to watch The Book of Boba Fett to understand The Mandalorian.

Some fans may disagree with me on this, but I don't think that Star Wars fans need this much content. Many Star Wars fans are also fans of the MCU (which obviously requires a lot more effort to enjoy). I'm currently enjoying rewatching every Star Wars tv show and movie in chronological order. One of my other favourite movie franchises, the Jurassic franchise, doesn't release anywhere near as much content with only six movies over the course of thirty years and one relatively new animated tv show. I get much more excited when I see a trailer for a new Jurassic movie than Star Wars due to the rarity of these (I talked about this more in an article released during Jurassic Park Week). 

Additionally, it is hard to ignore that the best things of Star Wars were released in quieter times. The Mandalorian, potentially the best Star Wars tv show was released in 2019, 5 years after the last Star Wars tv show. No matter what your views are on the sequels, The Force Awakens was a fairly high-quality movie and was the first Star Wars movie after a very quiet decade. Rogue One (in my opinion the best Star Wars movie) was similarly released in a relatively quiet time. If you even look at the original three Star Wars movies: they were all released three years apart.

I would personally be happy with a new Star Wars movie every three to five years with one or two tv shows every year at a maximum. Plus we have all the books, comics and video games to enjoy during static. This would ensure that the Star Wars movies and tv shows are being released at a standard as high as possible. It also makes the fans further enjoy the rarer moments of receiving Star Wars content. So I am begging the Star Wars producers to slow down! Don't follow the path of the MCU and I will continue to rave about these incredible movies and tv shows. 

Article by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 28/09/2022