The Skywalker Saga Will Continue Until Star Wars Morale Improves

After seven years toiling in the Disney+ content mines with one mid movie to show for its troubles, Lucasfilm is reportedly sticking with its plan to continue the Skywalker Saga on the big screen in the future.

Deadline has confirmed that Cop Car and Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts will helm a new trilogy set in a galaxy far, far away, with Simon Kinberg (XXX: State of the Union, Jumper) on writing duties. Both have previously dipped their toes in Ahch-To-adjacent waters; Watts co-created Skeleton Crew, while Kinberg co-created Rebels. The trade notes that Disney hasn’t yet signed off on the new trilogy, which will supposedly continue Rey’s adventures after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

The news will no doubt disappoint some fans who had lost interest in Star Wars following the release of that very film until the more adult-leaning and Jedi-free Andor appeared on Disney+ in 2022, gifting the franchise a huge dose of critical acclaim and proving that it was capable of creating something fresh, interesting, and subversive instead of traipsing back to the Skywalker well for another bucket of lightsaber battles.

Since Andor wrapped on the streamer, Dave Filoni has become Lucasfilm’s new President and Chief Creative Officer, and the company has released a feature film spinning off the family-friendly adventures of Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian and his little green charge, Grogu, which underperformed at the box office. Next year, Starfighter, a standalone movie from Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) set five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, will slide into the multiplex, infused with a Ryan Gosling charm offensive and a script by Banshee and Warrior co-creator Jonathan Tropper.

Despite its departure from the Skywalker Saga feature films, Lucasfilm seems intent on keeping the family name alive in audiences’ hearts and minds with its planned new trilogy, though not its bloodline, which died with Adam Driver’s Ben Solo at the end of The Rise of Skywalker. Daisy Ridley’s Rey, daughter of Emperor Palpatine (he somehow returned), took up the Skywalker name in the film’s final moments, continuing the family legacy symbolically. Later, Driver tried to bring his character back for a new movie called The Hunt for Ben Solo, but Lucasfilm couldn’t get Disney’s green light.

Lucasfilm has tinkered with developing a clutch of other Star Wars movies since Rise of Skywalker whiffed onto the big screen back in 2019, including one produced by Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige, a Patty Jenkins Rogue Squadron project, and a movie from Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, none of which made it into production. Touted trilogies from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and Game of Thrones TV show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss also slipped into the development ether and never emerged.