Star Wars Rogue One Won't Be As Successful As Force Awakens, Disney Boss Says

Star Wars: The Force Awakens stands as the third biggest movie of all time, with a total worldwide gross of nearly $2.1 billion. With the next movie in the blockbuster franchise, Rogue One, set to be released in December, the head of Disney has now revealed that he doesn't expect it to do as well.

As reported by Variety, Disney CEO Bob Iger attempted to lower expectations for the upcoming spinoff. "We never felt it would do the level that Force Awakens did," Iger said during an investor conference.

Nevertheless, he did stress that audience anticipation for the movie was just as strong. "The level of interest [in Rogue One] is as high as it was for Force Awakens," he said.

Iger went on to state that he was very happy with what he had seen of Rogue One so far. "It's really interesting in terms of Star Wars storytelling," he said. "Star Wars has only been told as a saga, and this is a moment in time... we love what we've seen."

The Disney boss added that he and Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy had mapped out the plans for the franchise until 2020. This includes Episode VIII and IX, a Han Solo spinoff film, and a third spinoff for which a writer has been hired.

"We have movies in development for Star Wars 'til then, and we started talking about what we're going to do in 2021 and beyond," he said. "So, she's not just making a Star Wars movie, she's making a Star Wars universe."

Two new trailers for Rogue One have appeared in the past couple of months. The first debuted during the Rio Olympics, while the second was an international teaser that contained footage not seen in the earlier trailer.

Rogue One stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, and Mads Mikkelsen. It hits theaters on December 16, 2016.