Photograph Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Day by day Beast/Disney+
Did anybody else’s complete physique tense up when Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, instructed Selectionthat Star Wars “might go on ceaselessly”?
Whereas we waited for the debut of Obi-Wan Kenobi in late Might—not lengthy after Kennedy mentioned this now-infamous line—Disney introduced an entire slew of recent tasks in a single fell swoop: the sportStar Wars Jedi: Survivor; animated anthology collectionTales of the Jedi; and a February 2023 launch for The Mandalorian Season 3.
This all got here out alongside the primary teaser for the collection’ subsequent spin-off of a spin-off, Andor. In the meantime, we nonetheless await extra particulars of one other, Ahsoka, and a wholly new Star Wars collection,Acolyte, from Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland. And there are much more apart from that—to not point out these new motion pictures from Taika Waititi and others which can be nonetheless reportedly within the works. That’s an inventory of upcoming tasks that actually feels prefer it goes on ceaselessly.
I’m a Star Wars fan, however none of this information was excellent news to me. It wasn’t so way back that a new Star Wars film was a once-in-several-decades occasion. Suppose again to 1999, once we have been queuing for weeks simply to get tickets to The Phantom Menace. Now, there are a number of Star Wars motion pictures, TV collection, film/TV spin-offs, and shorts; there may be something we might probably need and extra, all obtainable immediately.
I’m able to admit that the glut of not simply Star Wars content material, however all types of high-profile content material—particularly ones that belong to interconnected franchises—has lastly turn out to be an excessive amount of for me to maintain up with. Frankly, I don’t know the way anybody does. Worse, I don’t know why they’d even need to anymore.
Once I sat down to look at the primary episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, I couldn’t have been much less enthused. The present’s premiere wasn’t a particular second or the fruits of an extended look forward to me, because it was for a lot of different followers. Quite, the load of all of the content material that got here earlier than it made it really feel like an obligation. Kenobi felt prefer it was only one extra oversold Disney present I had no selection however to look at, lest I get left behind and turn out to be deprived in tales that reference it later.
Disney+
Streaming providers already fireplace out an unsustainable stage of content material, however Disney is pushing it to new ranges of oversaturation. With that, comes an inevitable dip in high quality. Listening to the stilted dialogue in Obi-Wan Kenobi and The E-book of Boba Fett, or watching the staid storylines of Lokiand WandaVision, I understand that the drop-off just isn't solely evident but in addition ingrained. Diminishing returns are a part of the material of each present Disney produces, being that every one is pushed by what feels extra like a set of staid model pointers than assorted inventive selections.
It wasn’t all the time like this for me, simply because it wasn’t all the time like this for Star Wars. After the frustration of the 2 J.J. Abrams Star Wars movies, I used to be excited on the prospect of the collection branching out into tv. It felt like a chance to do one thing novel with the franchise, and The Mandalorian’s Western-in-space vibe actually was the balm I wanted when it premiered in 2019. The present wasn’t revolutionary, however it was no less than totally different—the uncommon Star Wars story that was faraway from the small world the collection sometimes inhabits, largely shirking its secure of recurring characters for brand new ones.
Subsequent seasons have fallen again into outdated habits, nevertheless. It was neat for The Empire Strikes Again’s Boba Fett to have a cameo in The Mandalorian, so Disney expanded that cameo right into a collection of his personal. Quite than exploring new concepts and worlds, Disney determined to fill in gaps within the pasts of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Princess Leia. Ahsoka and Andor give attention to much less well-trodden characters, however they may nonetheless heart their stars’ relationships to current Star Wars characters and their place inside established Star Wars historical past. Because the franchise’s new steward, Disney seems intent on eradicating fan hypothesis by filling in each conceivable canonical hole. The end result: an amazing quantity of content material.
If we embrace the varied animated collection on Disney+, there have been six seasons of Star Wars tv within the three years since the primary season of The Mandalorian. (In that very same timeframe, by the way in which, there have been seven Marvel TV collection.) That’s rather a lot. Are you overwhelmed, studying that? As a result of I’m very overwhelmed.
Watching the Star Wars output, particularly, pile up, I ponder whether Disney is within the enterprise of making media or reactions. Why else would each collection spend a lot time mining each plothole, whether or not it’s the gaps in Princess Leia’s historical past in Obi-Wan Kenobi or how Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc Pit in The E-book of Boba Fett? If the tales aren’t probing these what-ifs, they’re filling the panorama with obscure cameos in case there’s potential for a spin-off, like Clone Wars character Bo-Katan Kryze’s reappearance in The Mandalorian. These inevitably result in moments that play properly on social media, that followers and shops can instantly pore over, frame-by-frame, for Easter eggs. In all places I look, there’s extra, and it’s unattainable to not have interaction with it. However by partaking, by reacting, we’re doing Disney’s advertising for them.
The sense that I’m watching moments designed to be reduce out and shared on the Web is one I’ve had for some time, however I lastly confirmed this hunch final yr. It was watching Spider-Man: No Approach Residence, one of many greatest successes in Disney’s different massive, profitable franchise, thatcemented this notion for me. Within the cinema, surrounded by buzzing followers, the nostalgia was made tangible and electrical. However rewatching Tobey Maguire step by a portal and say, “Hello,” or seeing the transient pause after Matt Murdock’s cane seems on display hits in another way at house—they echo with a silence allotted for anticipated applause.
LucasFilm
This expertise was like studying a phrase for the primary time and seeing it in every single place thereafter. Whether or not it’s the fake-outs earlier than Obi-Wan lastly activates his lightsaber in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s third episode, or the way in which the digicam hovers for a second when Wilson Fisk exhibits up in Hawkeye on Disney+, I now instantly discover an deliberately positioned second of lifeless air, pregnant with cynicism. Worse, these exhibits make me really feel cynical for not cheering like Disney me needs me to do
That’s all earlier than you even get to Disney+ platform itself. The service bombards customers with banners for Obi-Wan Kenobi, nudging us towards what Star Wars or Marvel present to look at subsequent, consistently reminding us that these flagship exhibits are new. The app packages all the pieces much less like tv and extra like branded content material, rendering each new launch vague from each other.
I’m all for consistency. Certainly, having a single showrunner with a selected imaginative and prescient overseeing a present is vital. However this stretches past a single collection to a number of entries in a franchise. In constructing an overarching universe into which extra entries can match, each new little bit of Star Wars content material has all began to sound, look, and really feel the identical to me. That barely washed-out aesthetic, the same means all characters appear to talk, the identical thudding music that permeates by each scene: Maybe these repeated motifs wouldn’t be such an issue with room between collection, however on the breakneck fee at which Disney releases them, they’ve melted into one uninteresting, suffocating content material sludge. (All hail our new media overlord: content material sludge.)
I really feel like I want a vacation, however then, Disney has pores and skin in that sport, too.
By the point I start to interrogate what I've seen and maybe deem myself caught up on all the pieces I really feel dedicated to, there’s one thing new I've to look at to maintain up-to-date with the franchises that I'm anticipated to remain on high of: a brand new collection, a brand new movie, extra trailers, extra all the pieces. Disney’s beginning to really feel like that boyfriend who asks the place you’re going each time you permit the room.
By by no means letting up on new releases and by no means letting you overlook that they’re ready for you, Disney is weaponizing F.O.M.O. in a means that feels unfair. When so many people already really feel like we’re lacking out (particularly because the pandemic grinds devastatingly on), that social media is awash with reactions, clips, and commercials is a little bit unjust. It ensures that anybody who takes a second to relaxation goes to run into spoilers and be set other than those that tuned in instantly. Take a second to breathe, and also you’re already behind, and the algorithms that govern what we watch gained’t allow you to overlook it. It’s relentless, and I don’t need it to decelerate, I need it to cease.
Star Wars used to deliver us collectively. Whether or not it was cramming within the cinema, gathering across the TV with our household, or in wider communities that ultimately morphed into the fandoms we all know at the moment. Characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi weren’t simply standard; they have been the topic of nice hypothesis and obsession, which have been what whole communities hinged on. He felt like our character—that his narrative outdoors of Star Wars was ours to construct.
When exhibits like Obi-Wan Kenobi take that away, part of the group dies. As an alternative of bringing us collectively like good science-fiction should, the way in which Disney delivers its overwhelming slate of Star Wars content material—of which Kenobi is barely the newest entry—is driving us additional aside.