New Star Wars film confirmed
Just weeks after the final Star Wars chapter screened, Lucasfilm is preparing to take us back to that galaxy far, far away. But will fans follow?
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Just weeks after audiences farewelled the Star Wars saga with The Rise of Skywalker, Variety has confirmed that Lucasfilm is developing a new Star Wars feature film.
The project is still in its very early stages, but it will involve Sleight writer-director J.D. Dillard and Luke Cage writer Matt Owens.
All further details – characters, location, time period within the Star Wars creative galaxy – remain a mystery.
That includes whether Dillard would direct the film, or whether the project would premiere in theatres or on the Disney Plus steaming service.
Should the project land a green light, however, it would be the first time a black filmmaker was a lead creative force behind a live-action Star Wars movie.
Disney/Lucasfilm declined to comment.
The report comes just weeks after the ninth and “concluding” film in the Star Wars saga, The Rise of Skywalker, finished its run in cinemas.
Although the film took over $1 billion in box office worldwide – including a decent $177.4 million for its opening weekend – its performance was deemed “disappointing” and “underwhelming” by Forbes.
It follows a mixed fan response to the preceding film, 2017’s The Last Jedi, and similarly disappointing box office returns for the stand-alone spin-off, Solo.
Although the streaming service series The Mandalorian has been confirmed for a second season, and another show charting the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi is in development (with Ewan McGregor reprising the role he last played in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith), the diminishing returns for the Star Wars films – and the fact that its main narrative arc is now over – raise questions about the future directions of the franchise.
Other longstanding Hollywood franchises face similar challenges.
After pumping out three films per year over the past three years, Marvel is easing back in 2020 as it enters its so-called “phase four” of its “cinematic universe” with just two releases – Black Widow in May and The Eternals in November.
Star Wars’ longtime sci-fi rival Star Trek is returning from the big screen to its TV base with both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard – and reportedly another three other spin-offs in the pipeline.
The James Bond series returns in April with No Time To Die, with Daniel Craig in his fifth and final outing as 007. Producers who had been hoping for the biggest Bond box office ever have reportedly already had to moderate their expectations, with coronavirus shutting cinemas in China, where the film was expected to do well.
Meanwhile the Fast and the Furious franchise continues to defy all box office expectations, with the 9th instalment in the series set for release in May and a 10th movie already scheduled for 2021 – 20 years after the first film debuted. Last year’s spin-off film Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw earned a tidy global take of $760 million, according to Forbes.
Originally published as New Star Wars film confirmed