New rumors have surfaced regarding the future of Hasbro’s Star Wars . I debated talking about it because the source was the usual YouTube rumor mill in the form of “Future Rulers of Earth” aka “The Overlord DVD”. Before you groan or shake your head…I think this rumor, if not true, is at least worth discussing. And, it should be fun, like “let’s guess.” Because even if it’s not true, there are things we know for sure that at least make it seem plausible.
So what exactly are the rumors? Hasbro is said to have grown tired of Star Wars and wants to break out of the contract and sell the license, which reportedly still has five years left to run. But sales dropped so much that it wasn’t worth it for Hasbro.
Click to read my thoughts on this.
Using the usual truckload of salt, you know what to do
So the basic question is: Would Hasbro consider giving up on Star Wars?
Well, in my opinion, if something is discontinued, then yes. Hasbro is not going to stick around if Star Wars is no longer bringing them any revenue and nothing improves.
These are what we know:
- Partner brand sales have now declined for several consecutive quarters, hitting record lows
- According to analysts in the fourth quarter of 2023, both Marvel and Star Wars toy lines are “tired” because sales are declining (this is for the all-important holiday season)
- TVC HasLab climbed across the finish line this year without even unlocking the last tier, and Spec Ops crushed it, with sales soaring to 28,000 units, of course with all tiers unlocked
I’d like to add: all the toys released recently are fan channel/Amazon/Pulse releases. They are not issued by Walmart or Target. In short: Neither retailer will carry these toys. Not at all.
In fact, when was the last time Hasbro released a ton of new figures…and none of them were exclusive to Walmart or Target? There are still some, but the number of exclusives has been greatly reduced. While you might think “great” at first, this is bad news for Hasbro. Because if retailers believe in a brand, they will demand exclusivity. If they no longer want exclusive content, that’s bad news. This means they are losing confidence, even as a loss leader.
Now, according to rumors, not even the “retro toys” are on sale, reports say these are Luke, Vader, Leia, etc… but I’m not so sure, not entirely clear if “retro collection” is being referenced here.
Anyway…I always thought Hasbro would keep the license until at least 2027 so they could capitalize on the 50th anniversary of Star Wars.
But when you look at Hasbro’s roadmap and potential sales, I have to say…even though the rumors may not be true, I think it’s reasonable that Hasbro is considering all options here. Because when you look at the Star Wars roadmap, you’ll see there’s almost nothing Hasbro can do to make money. They must be angry at Lucasfilm for their inability to release content that the mainstream can enjoy (let’s also not forget the failure of the Indiana Jones toys).
- 2024: The Followers and the Skeleton Crew – The Followers are a complete disaster, and it’s a safe bet that the few Followers toys we’ll get won’t be sold at all. A crew of skeletons with a bunch of kids, Jude Law and the remaining villains from The Mandalorian almost certainly wouldn’t have moved many toys around either, if Hasbro was touching these kid characters in the first place
- 2025: Andor – As far as we know, this is the only thing happening in 2025, and while I personally love Andor, it’s also not a show that sells a lot of toys
- 2026: The Mandalorian and Grogu – Now this movie may be a success, but Hasbro will still have problems. Unless Lucasfilm radically redesigns everything, everyone and their aunts and uncles already have all the Mando and Grogu merchandise anyone could ever need. Will Hasbro make their 10th Mando figure? So I don’t understand how Hasbro can move a lot of toys to merchandise that people are already buying from a successful show on Disney+
And then there’s the potential Rey movie (although there are other rumors here that that movie may never come out now, Kennedy won’t get funding for her movie, and the writer has other plans now, and he wants to create a new one in Hollywood studio later in 2026, which will likely keep him busy writing a script that will never be released (my money is on it). If Hasbro is contractually obligated to support this with merchandise. movie, they might end up with shipping containers full of stuff that no one wants, clogging up their warehouses. If the Rey movie doesn’t come out, that still means there’s nothing to boost sales.
Maybe Ahsoka season 2 could come out in 2026 as well…but that has the same problem as the Mandalorian movie…unless they redesign all the characters (which is possible) people already have all the necessary Acolyte toys. How many more Ahsokas are needed? Or Sabines?
In short: If you look at the upcoming Star Wars movies, there’s almost nothing that will boost sales or even create demand in the next few years.
Great, you might say, so Hasbro can focus entirely on the Lucas era. But the problem is, there just aren’t enough people in OT/PT to support the brand anymore. Hasbro, Star Wars, Lucasfilm need new content to maintain interest. Toys based on movies that are nearly 50 years old can only sell so many. The hype and buzz surrounding The Mandalorian in 2020/2021 proves that. It was The Mandalorian that breathed new life into Star Wars toy sales. It’s not worth it to Hasbro if it can only sell toys to the dwindling number of die-hard fans of the Lucas era.
Now that Star Wars production is significantly reduced and no upcoming shows or movies can revive sales…the question is…is it still worth it for Hasbro? Considering they cost so much and have a lot of toys to move around. One of the designers (Chris) famously said in a YouTube fan Q&A that a completely new character (with all new tools) no longer needs to amortize the cost of its tooling over the initial production run. Few people seem to notice this, but the statement is instructive.
Let’s understand this. Hasbro is in it for the money, not nostalgia.
All things considered, I think this rumor is at least credible. Do I believe it? not necessarily. Maybe Hasbro hopes things will get better. Maybe they hope the Mando movie will somehow get people to buy their 10th Mando and Grogu figure or plush toy, maybe they hope the 50th anniversary will be a huge event.
But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Hasbro dropped the Star Wars license or licensed parts of the brand to smaller companies.
Just look at the earnings report, look at the numbers, they’re bleak. Rumor has it that overall Marvel and Star Wars sales are down 68%. Marvel, like “Star Wars”, also suffered a huge failure…Agatha was never able to reverse the situation, but for Marvel, the “Avengers” movie starring Robert Downey Jr. at least brought… Here comes a glimmer of hope. Kennedy really wanted to bring Rey back. Like I said…even a super successful Mandalorian movie wouldn’t necessarily lead to high toy sales, because I think the market for Mandalorian toys is pretty saturated. Din will still have his Beskar armor, Grogu will still be a kid in a weird coat, Razor Crest will probably return, but we’ve got a HasLab ready for it.
So, Hasbro likely has nothing to look forward to from Star Wars in the next few years, and unlike the period between the prequels and sequels, there simply aren’t enough collectors to sustain the brand without new content to build the hype. survival and interests. Moreover, when “Clone Wars” was airing, the ratings were quite high and people’s interest continued to rise. The question is whether Hasbro is willing to sit back and hope that things will turn around again for the 50th anniversary. Maybe they already know what Lucasfilm is planning and Hasbro needs to start preparing for this around 2025. So Lucasfilm had to coordinate with their key partners.
But what do you think? Do you think it’s at least possible that Hasbro will quit Star Wars? Or do you think this is all common nonsense and drivel? Like I said, I don’t really believe any of this…but I think it’s at least something worth thinking about. When will Hasbro revoke the license? at what time? How many more times can Lucasfilm fail before Hasbro says…”Sorry, that’s it!”?
