Secret Star Wars project revealed, Spider-Man’s Jon Watts to executive produce

The first details of a long whispered about secret Star Wars project has finally been revealed.

Lucasfilm has finally revealed tantalising details about a long-whispered secret Star Wars TV show. Spider-Man director Jon Watts created and will oversee the streaming series.

The series still has no name but has the codename “Grammar Rodeo”, a reference to an episode of The Simpsons in which Bart and his friends stole a car for a weeklong joyride adventure.

The news was revealed by Vanity Fair in a feature article about the future of the Star Wars universe being heavily focused on streaming rather than cinema releases.

Vanity Fair described Watt’s project as being akin to “classic Amblin coming-of-age adventure films of the 80s”. Amblin is Steven Spielberg’s production company which made movies such as E.T. and The Goonies – it’s become a byword for big spectacle adventure stories led by young characters, such as Stranger Things.

Jon Watts will helm a new Star Wars project for streaming. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

The VF piece said the plot is still a secret but it will take place in the time after Return of the Jedi, and a casting notice has gone out for four child actors, aged roughly 11 or 12 years old.

Watts is best known for directing the three Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man movies and was to, until recently, direct a Fantastic Four movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One of his Spider-Man: Homecoming co-writers, Chris Ford, co- created the Star Wars show.

“Grammar Rodeo” is one of a slew of upcoming Star Wars shows heading for Disney+.

The next will be the Ewan McGregor-led Obi-Wan Kenobi series, scheduled to premiere on May 27. Obi-Wan Kenobi will be set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith and will find also feature the return of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.

The series will also star Joel Edgerton, Rupert Friend, Kumail Nanjiani, O’Shea Jackson, Sung Kung and Simone Kessell. Deborah Chow directed all the episodes.

Ewan McGregor is reprising his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The other Star Wars shows include a spin-off focused on Cassian Andor, a Rebel fighter from Rogue One, Ahsoka, centred on a Jedi character who first appeared in animated series The Clone Wars and in live action, as portrayed by Rosario Dawson, in The Mandalorian, and The Acolyte, a series created by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and set 100 years before The Phantom Menace.

The third season of The Mandalorian is also coming later this year or early 2023.

On the big screen side, Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi is still plugging away on a movie, collaborating with 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns while Wonder Woman filmmaker Patty Jenkins is working on another.

The previously announced trilogy from Rian Johnson, who made the equally beloved and reviled The Last Jedi, has been put on the backburner, with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy citing Johnson’s busy schedule on the Knives Out sequels and his Netflix deal.