The Star Wars universe is set to grow even further. Lucasfilm recently announced that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films. The new series will be a separate entity from the Skywalker Saga and Rian John’s previously announced trilogy.
Benioff and Weiss struck gold with their adaptation of the popular book series A Song of Ice and Fire. And with Game of Thrones entering its final season on HBO, it makes sense that the talented duo would be looking to venture out into the film world. They both have a great ability at maintaining an incredible amount of storylines through multiple seasons of television. They have experience at telling in-depth character stories and working with some pretty incredible CGI elements. They’re able to keep secrets for long periods of time, which likely makes things easier for Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
The announcement has raised a few questions and concerns for the future of the franchise. Currently, we’ve been getting a Star Wars film every year since the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We’ve gotten a Saga film one year and then the next we’d receive a standalone film like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story film. With Episode IX set for release on December 20, 2019, and no future films having confirmed release dates aside from one standalone film announced for 2020, where will these new films fall into place? Are we going to get more movies per year like the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Another question you can’t help but ask – will there be more dragons in Star Wars? Ok, that’s not a real question (Actually it was. I’m just playing it off like it wasn’t).
More questions to ask are – what does this mean for the Skywalker Saga? Are we nearing the end of this legendary story? Star Wars: The Last Jedi told a story that left very little for the future of the Skywalkers, save for Kylo Ren. It would make a lot of sense for some finality to come from Episode IX with J.J. Abrams returning to conclude the new trilogy. The end of the Skywalker saga would free up some space (get it?) in their theatrical schedule, perhaps making it possible for a Rian Johnson movie every other year and a Benioff & Weiss film in between those.
The next question would then be, are we still going to get standalone films in the future? After Solo releases, we do not have any confirmed titles upcoming. Rumors have been running rampant that the studio would like to make self-contained film centering around Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was previously reported that an anthology/standalone film would be released in 2020 with no official date.
What we do know is that with the addition of these two brand new sets of films we’re guaranteed a wealth of brand new characters, stories, and locations. We’re likely to visit corners of the galaxy we’ve never heard of before and perhaps some we have in the Extended Universe (Legends) material. We’ve seen previous non-canon characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn introduced retroactively within the Star Wars Rebels animated series, so it’s altogether possible to see something similar happen. When Rian confirmed that his new trilogy would not be set in the Old Republic, it let a lot of die-hard fans down. Now with this new series, it may still be possible to visit this historic setting and dust off some fan-favorite characters like Darth Revan and bring them to life.
What do you think? Are you excited about more Star Wars films coming our way? What stories would like you to see told on the big screen?
