As “Star Wars” moves away from film (for the moment) and pivots to the streaming space, one of the tenets that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has vowed and repeated for a while is that the company is moving away from the Skywalker Saga, following the ninth film in the series, “Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker.”
And in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, the Lucasfilm chief has reiterated that notion once again.
“I think it is vital. Just staying within the construct of George’s storytelling, to keep chipping away at that, I think would be wrong.” Kennedy said. “It’s our job to step away now, but still, have a connection to the mythology that George created. That won’t stop. But we are moving on from the Skywalker saga. That’s what’s taking a lot of time, discussion, and thought right now.”
Be that as it may, one can pardon and excuse your skepticism. While Lucasfilm might be directly done with the Skywalker Saga, indirect vestiges to the saga remain everywhere. For one, Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker has been seen in both “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett,” and that latter bounty hunter is obviously a character from the saga first introduced in ‘Empire Strikes Back.’ There’s a little limited series coming up called “Obi-Wan Kenobi” starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader (and maybe Anakin Skywalkerflashbacks), and last we checked, that’s another story you know from the saga. Hell, even Ahsoka Tano from the upcoming “Ahsoka” series is a character first introduced in ‘The Clone Wars’ animated series, the pupil of Anakin, and again, pretty damn, well closely tied to the series. Hello, Baby Yoda? You’ll have to excuse of if we’re cynical about these statements unless they’re meant to be taken as “you’re not getting a tenth Skywalker saga movie.”
While we’re still waiting on more concrete details on the films coming from Taika Waititi, Patty Jenkins, Rian Johnson, and MCU screenwriter Michael Waldron (“Loki,” “Doctor Strange 2”), we’re hopeful that Lucasfilm attempts to have the audience follow the journeys of brand new characters instead of filling gaps in existing material.
Kennedy also talked about the future of the feature films hinting at more creatives/filmmakers joining the franchise in a similar way to Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. She also gave a little hope to Patty Jenkins’ “Rogue Squadron” project, which sounded indefinitely shelved last time there was news.
“We have a road map,” Kennedy explained about the lane for feature films in the “Star Wars” universe. “I would say that Taika’s story fits more specifically into that. ‘Rogue Squadron’…we kind of pushed off to the side for the moment. Patty is developing the script further. Then we will talk about how that connects to the central spine that we’re working on. There’s a couple of [filmmakers] that we’ve been in conversation with over quite a long period of time that I’m hoping will come in and make the overall commitment that Jon and Dave have made. That’s ideally what I would love to see happen in the feature space.”
Meanwhile, the following “Star Wars” projects coming include the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” limited series which debuts May 27 and Diego Luna’s “Andor” series is eyeing a release in late summer.