I just finished the end of The Mandalorian season three and I enjoyed it. There were plenty of action sequences, fun Grogu action, and I thought the return of Moff Gideon was pretty cool. There were even some moments I really wasn’t expecting like Grogu taking on more intense combat and Gideon’s voice, while he wore his helmet, sounding like a mix of Vader and Kylo Ren. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel a little… empty at the end. I feel like this is happening a lot after Marvel and Star Wars shows on Disney Plus. I see many people complaining about the people who don’t like the new series online. They comment things like, “You have more nerdy content than ever before. Why are you still not happy?” And the answer is I may have some idea, but I’m not entirely sure.
I think the first reason for this unsatisfied feeling may be an oversaturated market. I remember when The Force Awakens came out and we had to wait years for more Star Wars content. Sure, Rogue One was released in between, but there were no other movies or television shows to watch. But now it seems like there’s a new show to watch every few weeks. Bad Batch, Andor, Ashoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Mandalorian -– even though I love the stories and want to watch them, I can’t keep up. It’s almost like there’s just too much of a good thing. Instead of watching on my own time, when I’m ready to set aside the time, I’m forcing myself to watch the content as soon as otherwise lest I fall behind or get spoiled.
The other issue (for Star Wars specifically) could be the timeline these stories are taking place in. Most of these shows occur between the original trilogy and the new trilogy or, like the Bad Batch, happen even earlier, before episodes 4 through 6. Therefore, it seems like these shows don’t have much impact on the modern Star Wars universe. Sure, it’s fun to explore lore and learn more about the backstories of some of these characters, but it’s hard to really feel the stakes because we already know what things are going to look like years down the line. And these characters are almost never mentioned later on, or if they are, it’s very brief. That’s the problem with having some many different writers and series happening on different timelines: the universe begins to lose momentum.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Mando season three was bad. I think it was good, better than most of the remake shows I’ve seen on Disney Plus in the past few years. But that doesn’t mean it’s not suffering from similar issues. I’m no expert, but if Disney wants to keep momentum for these shows and stop people from checking out, I believe they need to slow down releases and spend more time on cohesion and story. Not just for one series at a time, but think about how they interconnect and affect each other. That’s how you make an effective series. For now, I’ll try my best to catch-up on the old content and get hyped for the upcoming Star Wars series for the rest of the year. But Disney Plus needs to make some changes or they’re going to end up driving away their fanbase.
