Star Wars spin-off movies to be put 'on hold' after Solo flop

The Star Wars spin-off movies are to be put ‘on hold’, following the box office flop of Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Collider reports that Lucasfilm will instead re-focus all of its creative energy on the forthcoming Star Wars IX, and the planned trilogy that will follow it.

The site’s sources add that the Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off, which was previously in ‘active development’ and reportedly had director Stephen Daldry attached, has been shuttered.

There had also been reports that James Mangold was set to write and direct his own spin-off based on bounty hunter Boba Fett.

That news landed to a somewhat mixed response amongst some fans and critics, and came bundled with the reports that Solo was seriously struggling at the box office, and could even end up making a loss for Disney, a scenario previously unheard of in the Star Wars series.

Though still showing around the world, Solo has made $343 million so far, from a reported $275 million production budget, meaning a likely loss once huge marketing budgets have been taken into consideration.

And that’s without the other issues that have faced the spin-off movies so far.

While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story did substantially better at the box office – it ended up grossing just over $1 billion – it involved extensive re-shoots and director Tony Gilroy to be drafted in to take over from Gareth Edwards on the film’s final production.

The production of Solo was equally fraught, with original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller being fired part-way through filming, before Ron Howard was brought in to remodel the entire movie.

Its production costs also rocketed to a reported $275 million, more than the budgets of both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The new Star Wars trilogy will present a huge challenge for Lucasfilm, once Star Wars IX is released in December, 2019.

Game of Thrones helmsmen D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are being tasked with creating a brand new film series, while Rian Johnson will work on a separate trilogy.

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