‘Star Wars’ Live-Action Series Stay Relevant Among Disney Plus Originals Months After Finishing Their Run, New Study Shows
Variety published earlier this week new data that suggests that, despite having been released before 2024, several Star Wars series have been performing rather well on Disney Plus since the year began.
The graph at the bottom was made by the data analytics company Luminate Data, which observed that four Star Wars series account for more than 15% of the viewership share of Disney Plus originals between Dec. 29 and May 10. This includes last year’s Ahsoka, the most-watched live-action Star Wars series since the beginning of the year (3.6% of total viewership), as well as seasons 1 (2.6%) and 3 (3.3%) of The Mandalorian.
Interestingly, too, even though X-Men ’97 may have gathered a lot of media attention since its debut in March, The Bad Batch is not that far behind in viewership share, according to this analysis: 6.3% vs. 6.8%. It is the fourth most-watched series of the year in this graphic, but it’s also one of the three high-profile series that hit the service since Jan. 1 — four series if we count Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which debuted in December but had most of its run in 2024.
But that also highlights the elephant in the room. Yes, these series have a significant viewership among Disney Plus originals — but how big is this pie when compared to Disney Plus viewership overall? We learned recently that The Phantom Menace is the most in-demand Star Wars movie on Disney Plus, but how does Ahsoka compare to that? How many people have been watching The Mandalorian these past few months versus Grey’s Anatomy?
This is a very relevant question these days, as streaming services prepare to enter a new era in the Streaming Wars. Netflix has pretty much annihilated everyone on the battlefield, but Disney’s streaming bundle is close to turning a profit, Bob Iger recently announced. In fact, the pair of Disney Plus and Hulu was already profitable this past quarter; it’s only when you add in ESPN Plus that the totals are in red.
Iger and Disney are in an era of bringing budgets down and watching closely their spending. If the streaming originals are not luring in as many subscribers as the library titles, should they be spending as much money as they are to make as many TV shows as they are? In the same earnings call where Iger disclosed the near-profit margins, he also confirmed that they will be trimming down the number of Marvel shows per year.
He didn’t specifically mention Star Wars, but the future of that franchise on Disney Plus is already looking a bit grim. Besides The Acolyte, which is coming out in a few weeks, two shows are currently in post-production: Skeleton Crew, which comes out this Christmas, and Andor season 2, which debuts in 2025. And at this rate, the Diego Luna-led series could be the only live-action series from a galaxy far far away to come out in 2025. A new season of Ahsoka has been announced, but it seems unlikely they will be able to finish it before 2026.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
