There is certainly no shortage of Star Wars projects in the works, with the franchise looking to dominate Disney+ for years to come. However, the future of the cinema franchise is more uncertain; we haven’t had a Star Wars movie since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker and there are none on the immediate horizon.
So far, we’ve seen projects by Zack Snyder, David Benioff, and D.B. Weiss fall by the wayside, with the original Obi-Wan Kenobi trilogy being converted into this year’s hugely popular limited series. In many respects, it seems like Disney doesn’t know where to go after the hostile reception to Episodes VIII and IX.
Speaking with The New York Times, Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi says that he still hasn’t finished writing his own Star Wars movie and isn’t even sure whether Disney will move ahead. “I’m trying to write the Star Wars idea at the moment,” he said. “I’ve got to see how that goes because once I submit it, that might determine when it gets made or if it gets made, even.”
It was back in 2021 that Waititi said he had only just begun on the script, telling Wired, “It’s still in the ‘EXT. SPACE’ stage, but we’ve got a story. I’m really excited by it because it feels very me.” In terms of what the movie would actually be like, he confirmed it would retain his humorous style, moving away from the more serious tone that much of Star Wars has taken under Disney.
“I tend to go down that little sincerity alleyway in my films,” Waititi said. “I like to fool the viewer into thinking, ‘ha it’s this, and then them going, ‘Damn it, you made me feel something!'”
The future of Star Wars in cinemas remains uncertain
Waititi’s comments contrast with those made by LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy just last month. Speaking in an interview with Total Film, Kennedy stated that Waititi’s film would definitely be the next Star Wars movie released in theaters. “Yeah. Well, not 2023, but late 2023,” Kennedy said, adding that “we haven’t locked anything in.”
Despite being announced to much excitement in 2020, very little information about the Waititi movie has come to light, with no more announcements and nothing in the way of a storyline. The only information we have is that the film will be a single standalone project, perhaps indicating a resumption of the “A Star Wars story” line.
According to Kennedy, the movie was at the head of Disney’s “road map” for the future. “I hesitate to use the word trilogies anymore because Star Wars is much more about persistent storytelling,” she told Vanity Fair.
"I do think a little bit of fun has gone out of making these gigantic movies. The business, the stakes, everything that’s been infused in the last 10 years or so. There’s a kind of spontaneity and good time that we have to be careful to preserve. We all recognized, every single one of us, that this was a new chapter for the company and that we needed to all work together to create the architecture for where we were going."
New movies or no, there’s still plenty of Star Wars stuff to watch and look forward to:
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