Disney's Bob Iger Says They're Being "Very Careful" With Future STAR WARS Films; Asks If Every Marvel Hero Needs a Sequel

Disney CEO Bob Iger is looking to tighten up the ship moving forward at the company. In an appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Iger was asked an open-ended question about the health of the company’s tentpole brands. He first remarked, “I think a lot of all of them — they’re all my babies, in a way,” then he went on to say that as far as Star Wars goes, “disappointing” box office returns in 2018 for Solo, one of two stand-alone films integrated among three “saga” installments, “gave us pause” in terms of the feature pipeline. Executives determined that “maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive,” he added. Disney is “still developing Star Wars films,” Iger continued, but “we’re going to make sure when we make one, it’s the right one. So we’re being very careful there.” He added that episodic series based on Star Wars mythology, including The Mandalorian, Andor and several others, have been “extremely successful.”

He also talked about Marvel, saying:

“There are 7,000 characters, there are a lot more stories to tell. What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel stories we’re telling but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters. Sequels typically work well for us. Do you need a third and a fourth, for instance, or is it time to turn to other characters?”

He went on to add:

“There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand. I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining. If you look at the trajectory of Marvel in the next five years, there will be a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise with a whole new set of Avengers, for example.”

When referring to the main Disney brand, Iger said it remains “very strong, certainly the most powerful brand in family entertainment” 100 years after it was created. The forthcoming live-action version of The Little Mermaid, he said, attests to the potency of Disney. “I think when you see that, it will remind you just how strong the brand is,” he said.

All that sounds about right. I hope they do choose the next Star Wars movies wisely. A lot is riding on the path they choose, and it will be interesting to see where it leads.

via: Deadline