Kathleen Kennedy talks ending The Skywalker Saga, the future of Star Wars

With multiple television series in the works and additional movies planned after the franchise’s hiatus, the Star Wars universe seems to be constantly expanding. The world created by George Lucas has come a long way since A New Hope hit theaters back in 1977, and Lucasfilm intends for it to keep growing.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy recently sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss what goes wrapping up a series of films like The Skywalker Saga…and what comes after.

According to Kennedy, growing the Star Wars universe is no easy feat. Unlike many blockbusters, which have comic books or novels to base their stories off of, those involved with the Star Wars movies need to come up with most of the content on their own. On top of that, they need to ensure what they do create fits with all that’s come before. It’s a daunting task. “Every one of these movies is a particularly hard nut to crack,” Kennedy explained. “There’s no source material. We don’t have comic books. We don’t have 800-page novels. We don’t have anything other than passionate storytellers who get together and talk about what the next iteration might be.”

Luckily, J.J. Abrams and screenwriter Chris Terrio were able to crack the nut that was The Rise of Skywalker in a way that satisfied Kennedy. “Well, I wouldn’t say you ever get to a point where you just go, ‘That’s it,'” she said. “It’s a constantly evolving process. I mean, there’s still little things that we’re trying to get exactly right, right now. You never stop the storytelling iterations that go on in making these movies. But we know what these previous eight movies are. We know what that story is. So in this movie, we’re taking all of what’s come before, and we’re trying to find a satisfying conclusion. And I think we have, and that’s something that we can only depend on our instincts to arrive at, whether or not we have.”

Kennedy attributes much of the success of recent Star Wars films to the creatives who dedicate themselves to making the story the best it can be. That includes Rian Johnson, who took The Last Jedi to places many of the other films had never gone. Risk-taking was a big part of creating that film, and The Rise of a Skywalker. “We’re talking all the time about how we move Star Wars forward and how we keep it relevant,” Kennedy said. “Obviously, we don’t want to just keep making the same movie over and over again.”

TOKYO, JAPAN – DECEMBER 07: Producer Kathleen Kennedy attends the ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ press conference at the Ritz Carlton Tokyo on December 7, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Christopher Jue/Getty Images for Disney)

Speaking of moving forward, Kennedy also touched on what comes next. “We’ve got various things we’re looking at and various ways in which we can begin or not,” she said. “As you can imagine. You know, do you go back? Do you go forward? All those questions are being asked. Do we stay in this galaxy? Do we go to another? The universe is never-ending. [Laughs.] The good news and the bad news. They have endless possibilities. It’s liberating, it’s exciting, and it creates a lot of pressure and anxiety as well.”

It isn’t just the future of the storytelling Kennedy is unsure of. While she doesn’t appear to have immediate plans to depart from Lucasfilm, she admitted to not knowing where she’ll be down the line, meaning the future films could very well fall into someone else’s hands.

"I’ve really enjoyed this, I have to say. It’s been incredibly exciting. And just the fact that George asked me to do this, I felt a tremendous responsibility with stepping in and taking care of the franchise, and if there were going to be new movies, to really pull a team around this that cared as much as he did. What happens in the future, and how long and how much longer I do this? I don’t know yet."

One thing is for sure, though: Kevin Feige will be involved with new Star Wars projects down the line. Given what he did with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that could bode well for the series. “He talked to us,” Kennedy said of Feige, “and he talked to the studio and said, ‘You know, ‘Is there any chance I could step in and do one of the Star Wars movies?’ And I thought it was a pretty cool idea. So we’re just beginning to talk about what that might be and when that might be. But it’s a ways off.”

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Whatever comes next, it looks like Star Wars fans will have to occupy themselves with the franchise’s Disney+ series following The Rise of Skywalker, at least for a while. Happily, that’s looking like a fantastic way to spend time.

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