Masked singer
Patience, my friend …
The Walt Disney Co. has released its new release calendar for the next several years, and the “pause” that Lucasfilm has talked about with its Star Wars films is going to last three years, with new titles dropping every other year after that.
Following the Dec. 20 debut of Episode IX, now known as The Rise of Skywalker, we won’t see another movie from the galaxy far, far away until December 2022.
From there, we’ll get two more Star Wars films — one in December 2024, and another in December 2026.
Disney did not specify which projects those would be, but Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are developing a new trilogy, and so is The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson.
It’s not clear whether those three films over six years would be the entire saga from one of those teams, or on an alternating schedule. They may also be more closely related than fans originally expected.
“As they finish Game of Thrones, they’re going to segue into Star Wars,” Kennedy told EW last month of Benioff and Weiss. “They’re working very closely with Rian.”
Kennedy also told EW that Lucasfilm is exploring venturing far from the Skywalker era of Star Wars to perhaps distant points in the chronology, sparking hope among fans for a medieval-style Old Republic story.
“Yes, absolutely. I think that that’s absolutely on the horizon,” she said. “We’re looking at whether we can move massively in one direction of the other. It’s still Star Wars, and holding on to the DNA of what George created is still very important to us.”
“I think this is a huge opportunity to step into the galaxy in a little bit different part of the timeline,” Kennedy added.
The change comes after Disney executives feared Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed because it came out just a few months after The Last Jedi, overloading fans who may have grown weary of the Force-feeding.
This is also a reaction to the fact that Disney now owns Fox studios, which plans to debut Avatar sequels in the same December release window in the alternating years.
Star Wars aficionados don’t have to worry about being bereft of storytelling. In addition to J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker and the Disney+ series The Mandalorian from Iron Man filmmaker Jon Favreau, Lucasfilm is developing a galactic spy series focused on Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor from Rogue One, ILMxLab is creating Vader Immortal virtual reality experiences, and Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will be immersing guests in the galactic conflict.
The Force will be with you. Always.
Related content:
- Watch the first teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- Decoding the first teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- Secrets of Episode IX revealed at Star Wars Celebration — get all the details
