Earlier this week, word got around that Kathleen Kennedy — the president of Lucasfilm since 2012 and the person most directly responsible for the modern era of Star Wars on the big and small screens — would be retiring from the position sometime in the near future. Speaking to Deadline, Kennedy confirmed that this is more or less true, although we don't know the details on timing. The 71-year-old producer has been in the job for over a decade and has been working on a succession plan for a while; maybe we'll hear an official announcement in a month, maybe a year, maybe longer.
That said, there's still plenty of work for her to do. She's working on The Mandalorian & Grogu, a movie sequel to The Mandalorian TV series on Disney+. Then there's another Star Wars movie that may involve Ryan Gosling, to be helmed by Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy. Logan director James Mangold is working on a prequel about the Dawn of the Jedi, and Simon Kinberg — best known for writing several X-Men movies for Fox — is working on a whole new trilogy.
That last one is the most interesting to me. According to Kennedy, the new trilogy will be set after Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker. "We’re absolutely rolling fast and furiously," Kennedy said. "That has gone exceptionally well, and he’s literally going to script as we speak. We’ll see something probably around June. Simon, if you remember, he did some work with us years ago with the animated show, which was a really wonderful collaborative experience. And he then got very, very busy with X-Men and then recently became available again, and he segued into this space beautifully. We’re really excited about where that’s headed."
"This is the next iteration, the new saga that moves us into the future."
The Shawn Levy-Ryan Gosling Star Wars movie, whatever it ends up being, will also be set in the future. "It’s all post-[the first] nine," Kennedy said. "Shawn’s is a standalone Star Wars story that’ll take place post-nine, maybe five or six years out."
As for what the Star Wars universe will be like after Episode IX, it's anybody's guess. Would it involve the likes of Rey (Daisy Ridley), about whom there's also a movie in the works?
It's hard to get too excited about this because, since Episode IX, Lucasfilm has had a hard time getting new Star Wars movie projects off the ground. There are a lot of projects that were announced (or leaked) and then abandoned. That includes Star Wars films from the likes of Kevin Feige, Patty Jenkins, Rian Johnson, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and Taika Waititi.
Kennedy still has hope that Waititi's movie may one day come to fruition. The Deadline interview is very kind on this topic, allowing Kennedy the grace to say that it's normal for movies that go into development not to make it to the finish line. But I'm not convinced. Yes, it's common for movies not to make it out of development, but it's not common to, for example, put out a teaser trailer featuring the director wearing a Rebel Alliance flight suit only to let her project slowly die. Star Wars is on another level when it comes to canceled movies.
As of right now, the only Star Wars movie we know is actually happening is The Mandalorian & Grogu, which is due out in theaters on May 22, 2026. That one is set after the original trilogy but before the sequel trilogy, so the future will have to wait.
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