Who wouldn’t want to have the most popular show on the planet? But, just like picking the winning Powerball numbers, that’s easier said than done. However if you were going to bet on any upcoming franchise to draw that kind of audience you’d go with one that already has a worldwide following, like Jon Favreau‘s live-action Star Wars TV series, which Disney is wagering a Westerosi-like budget will be a huge hit for their streaming service.
Ricky Strauss, the content and marketing president for Disney’s video-on-demand service launching in 2019, gave some of the first details about what their Netflix competitor will look like to The New York Times, including that Favreau’s series, which he exclusively told us will be set three years after Return of the Jedi, will have a ten-episode run with a budget of $100 million. That’s a massive commitment for a new show; that was HBO’s budget for season six of Game of Thrones, which at that time was already a global phenomenon.
Though compared to a Star Wars film like The Last Jedi, which had a reported budget of between 200 and 250 million, that’s considerably less when you compare ten hours of run time the show’s first season will have to two hours of a film.
Either way, it sounds like the show will be a major linchpin for Disney’s streaming service when it launches. Does that mean it will become the next Game of Thrones just because it has a similar budget? No, but it’s a much safer bet than buying a lotto ticket.
What do you think this news means for the series? Tell us in the comments below.
Images: Lucasfilm
