Samuel Brace on the announcement of a Rogue One: A Star Wars Story prequel series following Cassian Andor…
Simply because something isn’t necessary doesn’t mean that its existence should be questioned altogether. This is well worth considering in response to the news that Disney+, the studio’s new streaming service, will be receiving its second Star Wars live action series in the form of a Rogue One prequel. The show will centre on Diego Luna’s character Cassian Andor and take place before the events of 2016’s box office hit Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. While the concept isn’t one that will blow the socks off Star Wars fans, it’s a move that makes a lot of sense, from a certain point of view. While I’m certainly not champing at the bit to get my hands on the show, the fact that this is a series for an online streaming service and not a movie, to me speaks well of where Star Wars is heading.
The show will apparently fall under the spy genre and will follow Cassian’s exploits, “filled with espionage and daring missions to restore hope to a galaxy in the grip of a ruthless Empire.” If you polled Star Wars fans across the globe, such a premise probably wouldn’t receive a single vote. Certainly, a TV show that focuses on a more important, sprawling narrative that has bigger ramifications for events not yet seen would be far more desirable. However, would such a series be the right fit for Disney+? I’m not so sure about that. You see, in the aftermath of Solo’s box office disappointment, Disney is clearly rethinking things a little, realising that these smaller, unnecessary stories don’t quite belong on the big screen, but that doesn’t mean they are not stories worth telling at all.
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On the contrary, these types of stories can be incredibly entertaining, providing fun, intrigue, and depth to the Star Wars universe in many different ways. They should absolutely be told if Lucasfilm has the creative bandwidth to tell them. Which they certainly do. The great thing about Star Wars is that there are so many mediums available to it, with the cinema being just one of them. A story about Cassian’s early years is not appropriate for the big screen, but bringing such stories as this to books, comics, or TV is more than acceptable. If the model going forward is a big, important blockbuster movie every couple of years; and then animated shows, live action streaming series, books, and comics in between, then a Cassian Disney+ series is far from an egregious proposition.
With a model such as the one suggested, Star Wars fans can look forward to that enormous cinematic event far on the horizon, knowing that it will be a blockbuster movie of significant consequence, and in the meantime, while the general public drift in and out until the next movie arrives, fans can get their much needed Star Wars fix by enjoying the latest run of comics, that new novel, an animated series, and, of course, exciting live-action series like The Mandalorian and The Cassian Chronicles (please don’t use that title, Disney). This to me is the perfect solution. Star Wars’ most loyal base gets to enjoy content on a regular basis but the films retain their big event status, bringing in the general public (thus recruiting future audience members for content existing on other mediums), and delivering those game-changing classic Star Wars tales that we all want from the franchise. Everyone wins.
So while there will be very few transformed into a rambunctious mess at the prospect of this Cassian series from Disney+, if Lucasfilm can conjure a product of substantial quality, replete with compelling characters and top performances, which tells an engrossing story, I see no reason why the show can’t succeed. Disney is more than welcome to correct me if I’m wrong but shows such as this aren’t meant to set the world on fire, they are meant to attract Star Wars fans to Disney+ and keep the core audience satiated until the real money making events arrive at the box office. It seems to me that this newly announced show has every chance of being able to pull off such a mission. Let Disney save their Old Republic stories for a gargantuan movie extravaganza, we don’t need to see it on our laptops or TVs right now, keep us fans invested in the franchise throughout the year with entertaining, quality content and then blow us all away once every couple of years with future classics at the cinema. Sounds good to me.
Samuel Brace
