10 Years of Disney's Star Wars: How TV Became the Franchise's Best Medium
A decade has now passed since the Star Wars franchise released its seventh live-action movie, The Force Awakens. This sequel to the original trilogy of films was a commercial and critical triumph which introduced sci-fi’s greatest theatrical saga to a whole new generation of viewers. Since that time, Disney has introduced us to many of the best Star Wars TV shows ever created, as well as serving up four additional feature films. Now, with a new franchise movie fronted by Ryan Gosling already in the works, it seems as though the media conglomerate is redirecting its most valuable sci-fi asset towards the big screen. It’s easy to see why, when Disney’s Star Wars movies have been extremely profitable, to the tune of more than $1 billion in cumulative net earnings. There are five prospective Star Wars films already in the pipeline, including the 2027 Gosling-led release Starfighter, and next year’s big-screen spinoff The Mandalorian and Grogu. Yet, for all the spectacular financial returns of these cinematic releases, the greatest success stories of Disney’s Star Wars takeover have taken place on the small screen. Shows like The Mandalorian and Andor are arguably the only works of the franchise comparable in stature to the original movie trilogy starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford.
It’s 10 Years Since Disney Release Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
John Boyega holding a lightsaber as Finn in Star Wars The Force Awakens
The 10th anniversary of Disney’s first Star Wars movie allows us to reflect on the highs and lows of the media giant’s time in charge of the franchise. There are some fans who still see Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens as the peak of this period, during which there have been more Star Wars releases than ever before. This seminal return to the big screen saw the franchise make new stars out of John Boyega Daisy Ridley, while returning the triumvirate of Ford, Hamill and Fisher to center stage once more. Helmed by Lost and Fringe co-creator J. J. Abrams, The Force Awakens restored Star Wars to its former glory. At the same time, the movie precipitated a seismic shift in the scope and the boundaries of the franchise. The Star Wars universe was about to become a lot bigger, for better and for worse.
Disney’s Sequel Movie Trilogy Was Good, But Recent Star Wars TV Shows Are Better
Mon Mothma, Perrin, and Luthen Rael standing together at a party in Andor season 2©Disney+/Lucasfilm /Courtesy Everett Collection
As good as The Force Awakens and its follow-up movie The Last Jedi were, and as well as received as the nostalgia-tinged The Rise of Skywalker was by fans, none of the Star Wars sequel trilogy could hold a candle to the best small-screen series produced for the franchise over the past decade. In addition to closing out The Clone Wars with a spectacular final season, Disney has produced wonderfully idiosyncratic animated series in the form of Rebels and Visions. Meanwhile, their live-action Star Wars TV shows have been better than the franchise’s movies over the past decade. As much as the shows have varied in quality from one to the next, their finest achievements cast a shadow over the five Star Wars movies released during the same period. The likes of Andor, Ahsoka, and The Mandalorian have turned one of cinema’s most iconic franchises into a seemingly unstoppable TV juggernaut.
The Mandalorian & Andor Are 2 Of The Greatest Star Wars Releases Of All Time
Din Djarin and Grogu flying in the air in The MandalorianCredit: Disney+ via MovieStillsDB
It’s fitting that Star Wars: Andor creator Tony Gilroy acknowledged his debt to The Mandalorian earlier this year, because these two series stand out as all-time greats in the franchise’s canon. The Mandalorian stakes its claim to be TV’s best space Western superbly, and Andor examines the Galactic Empire and its key political players with profound nuance and complexity. These are shows made for the golden age of television, which go far beyond the broad sketches of interstellar conflagrations and simplistic character tropes that typify other releases in the franchise. They’re responsible for propelling Star Wars forward into a new era of sophisticated sci-fi.
Perhaps only the first two Star Wars movies, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, can claim to have left an even greater legacy for the franchise to continue. The original film trilogy will always remain the most significant and influential part of the franchise, but Andor and The Mandalorian arguably exceed them in terms of overall quality.
TV Is Now The Best Medium For Star Wars Releases
Cassian Andor and Luthen Rael riding on a speeder bike in Andor
Like various other legendary movie franchises, Star Wars seems as though it’s found a comfortable new home on television thanks to the advent of streaming. The small screen has given the franchise’s best new characters, such as Din Djarin, Mon Mothma and Cassian Andor, more time to develop, whilst there’s also more space for storylines to be expanded. The nature of television as a storytelling medium has worked wonders for the likes of Andor and The Mandalorian, which have benefited from presenting parallel, slow-burning subplots in episodic form. TV seasons lasting several hours each remove the need for the kind of cumbersome exposition the Star Wars movies notoriously feature. Given recent developments in Disney’s plans for the franchise, Star Wars TV shows might not have much of a future in the immediate term. Either way, they’ve certainly changed the franchise for the better, taking their rightful place at the forefront of its screen universe.
Disney’s Upcoming Star Wars Movies Will Shake Up The Franchise
Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray in Star Wars Starfighter
Despite the enormous commercial and critical success of its TV series, the Star Wars franchise seems set to return to its big-screen roots in the coming years. Aside from Ahsoka season 2, there are no live-action Star Wars shows in production at this point. On the other hand, work has started on no fewer than five live-action franchise movies. The Mandalorian has now spawned a spinoff movie about its title character and Grogu, an infant version of the legendary Jedi master Yoda, which is set to be released in 2026. Meanwhile, 2027’s feature-length release Starfighter is inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy. What’s more, franchise producer Kathleen Kennedy is overseeing the development of three more feature films, set in three different eras of the Star Wars canon. As well as these five confirmed movies, several more have been proposed as possible big-screen projects. There are enough realistic proposals out there to keep the franchise busy with cinema for the next 15 years. Yet, we shouldn’t forget the indelible mark the live-action Star Wars TV shows have made on modern sci-fi. The Mandalorian might not be perfect, but its central character is already among the genre’s most iconic antiheroes. By the same token, Tony Gilroy’s Andor is quite simply a science fiction TV masterpiece.
