As Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 begins to wind down, we finally get confirmation of at least three Star Wars films.
Taking to the stage for the first event of SWCE on Friday April 7, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that three new live-action Star Wars films are on the way. Helming the movies are Star Wars icon Dave Filoni, and Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy from Ms. Marvel, as well as Logan’s James Mangold, a name that hadn’t previously been connected to any of the rumoured movies.
Mangold’s film will travel back to the dawn of the Jedi, 25,000 years before the chain of events we know and love today. By comparison, Filoni’s will focus on the New Republic, capitalising on his role at the helm of the MandoVerse and focusing on the intersecting stories of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the rest.
Last but not least, Obaid-Chinoy’s film will be set after the events of Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker and, to the great excitement of those in attendance, feature Daisy Ridley back as Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order. Ridley took to the stage to make the announcement.
“As you can see by all the television we’ve been doing, we’re exploring a lot of different storylines. This really spawns from what George Lucas said years ago, that he created Star Wars to move forward and backward along a mythological timeline,” Kennedy explained. “Now, we’re looking to broaden that timeline, building a rich future, expanding upon the present, going deep into the past to tell our stories, and we’re thrilled to be working with some of the best and most passionate filmmakers on projects that will span the past, the present, and the future.”
Nonetheless, just because these three films were confirmed, doesn’t mean that Lucasfilm is stopping there. Marvel’s Taika Waititi was also previously rumoured to be working on a Star Wars film and Kennedy confirmed. in an interview with Variety that this script is still being written currently.
“Taika is still working away,” she said. “He’s writing the script himself. He doesn’t really want to bring others into that process and I don’t blame him. He has a very, very unique voice. So we want to protect that and that’s what he’s doing. But we’re going to make that one day.”
Featured image: Disney/Lucasfilm