Whether The Rise of Skywalker manages to topple The Last
Jedi’s box office total of $1.3 billion remains to be seen. Considering the backlash
that The Last Jedi received in some quarters, many were wondering how that
would affect The Rise of Skywalker – particularly as some partly blamed The
Last Jedi for the disappointing numbers taken by Solo: A Star Wars Story as the Alden Ehrenreich-starrer limped to a $390 million box office return.
As the Rise of Skywalker seems certain to pass the $1
billion mark, there’s no doubt that there is clearly still an audience
for Star Wars. From here on out, there has to be some major decisions made by
Disney, however.
Moving forward, the Star Wars movies will be venturing
forward into a world that is not reliant or driven by the Skywalker Saga. That
in itself is a big moment for the franchise. But add on the fact that the Star Wars
fan base is now more fractured than it’s ever been, and the small matter of
Disney having to not solely rely on Christmas releases designed to exploit the
free time that that period offers up to so many, and this could be just the
beginning of an extremely bumpy ride for the Star Wars franchise.
Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics.
As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.
