The Mandalorian had a big impact on demand for Star Wars: The Clone Wars as well – explaining why Disney has commissioned so many Star Wars TV shows for Disney+. Recent Star Wars movies may have proved surprisingly divisive, but the franchise has been flourishing on Disney+. The Mandalorian season 1 was the most in-demand streaming show in the US in December 2019, and the second season was just as popular.
Disney recently revealed they are planning to dramatically increase the amount of Star Wars content they release, with no less than 10 new Star Wars shows coming out on Disney+ over the next few years. This includes two spinoffs from The Mandalorian, Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka, continuing to explore the time-period between the two trilogies. Other shows will be scattered throughout the timeline, and there is even one confirmed new animated series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The next few years will clearly see more Star Wars content released than ever before.
Screen Rant has been provided with exclusive data from analytics firm Parrot Analytics, explaining just why Lucasfilm is taking this approach. Parrot Analytics measure demand for TV shows, and their data demonstrates that demand for The Mandalorian increased as the series continued, peaking shortly after the final episode was released – standard for an episodic TV series. But it’s notable that demand for The Mandalorian also led to increased demand for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels as well. Demand for Star Wars: The Clone Wars increased by 104 percent throughout The Mandalorian‘s run, while Star Wars Rebels increased by 128 percent.
This has major implications for Disney and Lucasfilm’s strategy. Clearly the success of one Star Wars TV series leads to a surge of interest in other shows as well. No doubt it helps that all this content is available on the same streaming service, meaning anyone who is watching The Mandalorian on Disney+ can then switch to other shows as well without needing to subscribe to anything else. The weekly episode release may even help establish this synergy, because viewers could be eager to watch more Star Wars when they’ve finished the latest release. Disney is no doubt hoping this trend will hold true as they expand the amount of Star Wars content on Disney+.
It will be fascinating to see whether this kind of synergy continues. There were strong thematic ties between The Mandalorian season 2 and both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, including a number of recurring characters such as Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, and Bo-Katan. Give that is the case, the brand synergy may well have been artificially amplified in this instance. Still, even if it is the case that the synergy is more pronounced with direct connections, that bodes well for the two spinoffs Disney announced for The Mandalorian.
Originally from https://screenrant.com/mandalorian-clone-wars-disney-plus-viewers-ratings-impact/