Call it a new hope or a massive corporate restructuring after the Skywalker saga ended with a whisper, but really a plan for the future of the “Star Wars” universe.
Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy teased a “road map” for the franchise, outlining new film and television projects on the horizon in a comprehensive Vanity Fair cover story published Tuesday.
Addressing the gap in the film slate following the release of 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker”, the producers said, “We all recognized, each and every one of us, that this was a new chapter for the company and that we had to do all the work. together to create the architecture for where we were going.”
Instead, of course, the company shifted gears and invested in television programming, becoming the focus of Disney+’s breakout hit series “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett.”
“I think it was a little fun making these huge films. Business, stakes, everything that has been put in over the last 10 years. There’s a kind of spontaneity and good timing that we have to be careful to preserve,” Kennedy said.
So what’s next? On the film front, a new “Star Wars” project from “Thor: Ragnarok” director Taika Waititi will hit the big screen before Patty Jenkins’ “Rogue Squadron” hits the screens.
As far as “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson’s previously announced trilogy of films go, Kennedy confirmed that the “incredibly busy” filmmaker’s upcoming film will be released as part of his deal with Netflix. The project is on the back burner due to the ‘Knives Out’ sequel.
“I hesitate to use the word trilogy now because Star Wars is more about consistent storytelling,” she told the outlet.
Expect to see more “Star Wars” stories on Disney+ in the near future, with the much-anticipated premiere of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” later this month. “Endor,” which accompanies Diego Luna’s “Rogue One” character, will arrive later this summer, ahead of the premiere of “The Mandalorian”‘s third season in late 2022 or early 2023. Rosario Dawson will then appear opposite “Ehsoka”. The first female-led Jedi live-action “Star Wars” story, which is on track for a 2023 release.
Vanity Fair Deep Dive also revealed new details about “The Acolyte,” an upcoming series from “Russian Dolls” showrunner Leslie Hedland set in the High Republic era that will reportedly star Amandla Stenberg. The mystery thriller takes place 100 years before “The Phantom Menace” and will “explore the political and personal and spiritual things that unfolded in a time that we don’t know much about.”
Finally, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” director Jon Watts will also create a new series under the code name “Grammar Rodeo,” set after “Return of the Jedi.” The Disney+ project will reportedly star a group of teen actors and is described as a “galactic version of the classic Amblin coming-of-age adventure movies of the ’80s.”
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