Star Wars Could Learn One Important Lesson From Deadpool

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 50 seconds ago

With both Star Wars and Marvel under their thumb, Disney controls two of the biggest IPs in the entire world. These IPs produce wildly different movies and appeal to very different fandoms, but they do have one thing in common: a slow loss of relevancy. Since Avengers: Endgame, superhero fatigue has set in, and Marvel movies and shows have dwindled in both box office gross and critical acclaim. Meanwhile, the failure of the Sequel Trilogy drove Star Wars out of theaters for the better part of a decade in favor of TV shows that have delivered increasingly diminished returns.

Now, Star Wars is poised to make a theatrical comeback with The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is intended to be the first of several new big-screen films set in a galaxy far, far away. Disney has high hopes for this comeback, but I can’t help but think the House of Mouse could learn from Deadpool, or at least learn from the guy playing him. Recently, Ryan Reynolds argued that “Deadpool works best on both scarcity and surprise,” which is why he doesn’t want to flood us with too many new movies and appearances. Sadly, Star Wars never got the memo, which is why it’s most likely (as C3PO would say) doomed.

Maximum Effort, Minimal Appearances

Recently, Ryan Reynolds did an interview with Collider that didn’t exactly push the envelope. He discussed how much he loves working with Marvel, how much he enjoys writing and playing Deadpool, and so on. But on the topic of when we’d see Deadpool again, he did say something quite surprising: that the character “works best on both scarcity and surprise, so jumping right back into it full on right now is probably something I’m not going to do.”

Say what you will about Ryan Reynolds, but this is a surprisingly commendable attitude. He could probably crank out a Deadpool movie every year or two for a lifetime of easy paydays, and the studio would certainly jump at the opportunity to put its most bankable hero in as many movies as possible. However, Reynolds is holding out so that his future appearances will have (ahem) maximum impact. Unfortunately, Disney is taking the opposite approach with Star Wars as a whole, and that decision may very well doom this powerhouse sci-fi franchise.

Before The Dark Times. Before The Empire

A long time ago, in theaters not-so-far, far away, Star Wars movies felt like special events. That was mostly due to (you guessed it) scarcity and surprise. After Return of the Jedi, it seemed like we might never get another film in this franchise, which is why it was such a pleasant surprise (well, hello there!) when The Phantom Menace came out 16 years later. After Revenge of the Sith came out in 2005, it seemed like big-screen Star Wars was done for good. That’s part of why The Force Awakens was such a successful film: fans were just happy to see more of their favorite characters in this blockbuster fictional universe.

After that, though, Disney began to unleash the firehose of Star Wars content. The sequels kept coming (each one pissing the fandom off more than the one before), and before The Rise of Skywalker even came out, shows began popping up on Disney+. The Mandalorian was a success, but after that, the TV content became a decidedly mixed bag. The Book of Boba Fett was a disappointment, and Obi-Wan Kenobi was completely superfluous. Andor was a masterpiece, but The Acolyte was a complete disaster. Adding insult to injury, the third season of The Mandalorian was an utter disappointment that currently has a 51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

More Andor, Less Acolyte

Obviously, the worst of these shows were hampered by poor writing. But here’s the thing: even the crappiest of them would have likely been a hit if we only got one show every few years. But while Ryan Reynolds decided audiences would reject Deadpool if he popped up too much, Disney decided audiences would reject Star Wars altogether unless they got endless content. Unfortunately, they simply proved Reynolds’ thesis correct: Star Wars stopped feeling like a special event and started feeling like ongoing seasons of a TV show that should have been canceled many years ago.

Would scarcity magically make the writing for shows like The Acolyte better? Of course not. But if Disney only released a new Star Wars project (film or show) every few years, we would be more likely to get shows like Andor and films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Unfortunately, the House of Mouse is too pot committed to their current plan of releasing as much Star Wars content as humanly possible. Even worse, they are unlikely to realize their mistake until they have done what even the prequels couldn’t do: run this beloved franchise into the ground.