Lucasfilm said to be focusing on ‘official’ episodes of franchise after disappointing results for prequel

Further Star Wars spin-off movies have been put on hold after disappointing box-office results for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

According to the website Collider, “sources” have revealed that Lucasfilm, the franchise’s main producer, has decided to concentrate its efforts on the official episode series and scale back development of future one-off movies, known as the anthology series.

Solo’s US box office takings stand at $196.2m (£148m) after three weeks on release. By comparison, Rogue One had banked more than $455m at the same stage. Globally, Solo’s total is now $343.3m, well off the pace to match Rogue One’s final $1.06bn. Industry analysts have predicted Solo will lose at least $50m for its studio, Disney – the first time that a Star Wars film has failed financially.

Star Wars’ spin-off movies were originally conceived as a way to both modulate the franchise into a Marvel-style “universe” while filling the gap between releases of the main-narrative episodes. Episode IX, directed by JJ Abrams, is in production and scheduled for release in December 2019.

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However, the release of the Solo prequel only a few months after The Last Jedi has led to what industry observers have called “franchise fatigue”, with Disney subsequently forced on to the back foot in terms of its strategy.

The next Star Wars spin-off movie appeared to be about cult favourite Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who featured in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, with reports that Logan director James Mangold had been hired to work on the film. The release date was expected to be in 2020. An Obi-Wan Kenobi film was reportedly put into development in 2017, with Stephen Daldry and Ewan McGregor under consideration as director and star. No information has emerged as to whether either project is going ahead.