A new Star Wars trilogy, written and produced by Simon Kinberg, is in development at Lucasfilm.
Details of the plot are still sketchy. Deadline reported that the new trilogy would follow the Skywalker Saga from George Lucas’s 1977 film and serve as Episodes 10-12. However, anonymous sources cited by The Hollywood Reporter said that it would be set after 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, and would have new characters and a new storyline.
Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy is also slated to produce, but a director has not been named yet.
Kinberg is known for writing several X-Men films like X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), as well as the panned Dark Phoenix (2019).
He also wrote Mr & Mrs Smith (2005), The Martian, Deadpool, and Cinderella in 2015.
Several Star Wars projects launched over the years, with directors Patty Jenkins and Rian Johnson, Marvel producer Kevin Feige, and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D B Weiss attached, ended up being abandoned.
Since The Rise of Skywalker, the most recent film in the Star Wars trilogy, there have been several live-action television series set in the same universe, like The Mandalorian, The Acolyte, and Ahsoka.
The Star Wars franchise is the second-highest-earning film franchise of all time after Marvel. Since Star Wars: Episode IV released in 1977, the films have grossed more than $10bn at the box office globally.
Recently, Star Wars concept and storyboard artist Iain McCaig revealed that, in The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan Kenobi was actually going to be Qui-Gon Jinn, the character played by Liam Neeson.
Qui-Gon Jinn dies in The Phantom Menace, meaning the real Obi-Wan Kenobi was originally intended to be killed off by Darth Maul in the film.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was played by Sir Alec Guinness in the original trilogy, which started with Episode IV – A New Hope and ended in 1983 with Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Ewan McGregor was cast as a young version of the Jedi master, which he played across three films up until 2005 and, in 2022, his very own Disney+ series.
This would have made McGregor’s character a younger Jedi who adopts the name of his mentor, meaning that, if Lucas had proceeded with the twist, Guinness’s Obi-Wan would not have been the original Obi-Wan either.
McCaig explained: “For a time, the older Jedi was named Obi-Wan and the younger Jedi was named Qui-Gon. It was very poignant that at the end, as Obi-Wan dies and Qui-Gon defeats Darth Maul and stays with his Master as he passes away, he not only takes on his Master’s quest, but he takes on his name. Qui-Gon becomes Obi-Wan.”
