When you look at the state of the “Star Wars” franchise, there are two different stories to be told. On the one hand, you have the TV side of things over on Disney+, which seems to be thriving. But on the film side, things are struggling. Nothing has been released since 2019’s ill-received ‘Rise of Skywalker,’ and though Lucasfilm announced three new films, none have dates or timelines. And according to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, that’s all part of a new plan to not rush into any new “Star Wars” films.
Speaking to Empire, Kathleen Kennedy discussed the evolving strategy for releasing “Star Wars” films. When Disney first purchased Lucasfilm (and thus, “Star Wars”), there was a concerted effort to release a new “Star Wars” film each and every year. Due to a variety of factors (rushing into production, changing filmmakers during development, etc…), this strategy resulted in subpar films and diminishing box office results. Now, Kennedy said there’s a new strategy that aims to slow down the release of movies and not rush into anything.
“I’ve often brought up Bond,” Kennedy said. “That’s every three or four years, and there wasn’t this pressure to feel like you had to have a movie every year. I feel that was very important to ‘Star Wars.’ We have to eventize this.”
As for what that means for new films in the franchise and if there will be any of the three recently announced projects that will be released in 2024 or 2025, it looks like it’ll be 2025 at the earliest.
“It’s much better, to tell the truth,” she said. “That we’re going to make these movies when they’re ready to be made and release them when they’re ready to be released.”
It seems obvious to only make films when they’re at a point in development where they should be made and then releasing a movie when they’re finished and ready to be released. However, when you look at Lucasfilm and the disarray in recent years when it comes to the film side of things, this is a return to the basics of studio filmmaking and, hopefully, results in better quality.
As of now, the first new “Star Wars” film since 2019 is expected to arrive in December 2025. We’ll see if that actually happens or not.
