With The Rise of Skywalker, a troubled chapter of Star Wars closed with a whimper. Palpatine somehow returned, Rey adopted the Skywalker name, and the sequel trilogy came to a merciful conclusion. The franchise quickly moved on: The Mandalorian started a new era for Star Wars weeks before Rise of Skywalker even hit theaters.
The franchise has struggled to re-enter the movie space ever since. Projects involving Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige have all fallen apart. But there are still several movies in development... and now a fourth trilogy, helmed by a franchise veteran, will be joining them.
Deadline reports that X-Men franchise mastermind Simon Kinberg will develop a new trilogy of Star Wars movies. Much like the X-Men movies, he will write and produce them, but not direct. The report claims these will be flagship Star Wars movies — Episodes X, XI, and XII — but won’t continue the “Skywalker Saga” storyline of the first nine films.
Kinberg also has Star Wars experience, having created Rebels with Dave Filoni. “Star Wars is my religion,” he told Inverse in 2023, and with Rebels, he got to “write a few verses of the Bible.”
Kinberg now gets to take charge of a whole testament, although its subject matter is unclear. Considering the trilogy continues the numbered sequence, it will presumably take place after the sequels, but that could conflict with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey-focused sequel movie. Perhaps, like with Rebels, it will focus on the unsung heroes of the Resistance, or maybe it will start completely from scratch in a new era, filling in any gaps with flashbacks or dialogue.
This trilogy joins several other Star Wars movies still in development. Alongside Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey sequel, Filoni will direct a movie wrapping up his “Mandoverse” saga that’s dominated Star Wars TV, a movie separate from Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, which has already finished filming. James Mangold, who directed Kinberg’s Logan, is directing a Jedi origin story movie. Donald Glover is retooling a previously announced Lando Calrissian Disney+ series into a feature, and Taika Waititi is still developing his own presumably standalone Star Wars movie. Oh, and Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins is somehow still set to direct Rogue Squadron, almost four years after it was announced.
While this is an exciting development, it’s also a nascent one. This is Star Wars’ third attempt at a post-sequel-trilogy trilogy; aside from Benioff and Weiss’ failed trilogy, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson was also given a trilogy, only for it to be shelved. Still, Kinberg knows Star Wars, and officially making his first movie Episode X is a big step. Hopefully the third time’s a charm, but don’t assume too much just yet.
