Yet another attempt is underway to bring Star Wars back to the big screen.
A new report in Deadline claims that Simon Kinberg, who is perhaps best known as a longtime writer and producer on the Fox X-Men franchise, has been tapped to write and produce a new trilogy of Star Wars movies for Lucasfilm. At least one person told the trade that the films could “comprise episodes 10-12 of The Skywalker Saga that began with George Lucas’s 1977 first film” but also quotes other “insiders” who “disputed” that description, “saying this will instead begin a new saga, and sit alongside Star Wars percolating projects with James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi and Donald Glover.”
Kinberg was previously a co-creator of the animated series Star Wars Rebels. He was also thanked in the credits of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One.
THE ACOLYTE
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Bringing in Kinberg to write an Episode X would be a real surprise, for a few reasons. For one thing, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s film is supposedly about Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Unless these projects are being merged together (which is possible, I suppose), that would present a lot of potential overlap.
For another thing, Lucasfilm made it pretty clear that The Rise of Skywalker was the end of the so-called Skywalker Saga, and while it did leave room for further stories (like whatever Obaid-Chinoy has in mind for Ridley and Rey), it also put a pretty emphatic conclusion on the saga of Anakin and Luke Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine. The idea was that future Star Wars shows and movies would begin to explore other time periods and other characters in that same galaxy.
Then again, Palpatine has somehow returned before. And a lot of what Disney and Lucasfilm has produced in the Star Wars galaxy since The Rise of Skywalker has been met with very mixed reactions. TV shows like The Book of Boba Fett and The Acolyte received lukewarm reviews from some critics and fans, and none of the film projects mentioned above (along with others that have already been permanently dumped) got off the launching pad.
Let’s face it: Star Wars could use a big hit. It’s now been five years since there was a Star Wars film in theaters, and it’s going to be at least a few more. That might be reason enough to reverse course.
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