Thursday's film and television panel at Star Wars Celebration delivered its fair share of surprises and announcements, but Lucasfilm was oddly quiet when it came to the franchise's big screen future. At the end of 2020, the studio dropped a flashy announcement video for Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron movie, though that project appears to have stalled after failing to take flight.
Talking to Total Film (via SFFGazette.com), Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy was asked if the next Star Wars movie will be the one being developed by Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi. "That's correct," she responded, adding that it's coming "late 2023" (but stopping short of revealing whether it will be in theatres in Star Wars' old December slot).
During a separate conversation with Empire, Kennedy actually confirmed plans for future movies to move beyond The Rise of Skywalker. That's a big departure from the past few years which have seen Lucasfilm focus on filling in some gaps during well-known parts of the timeline.
"We’re moving further beyond the existing sequels as we look to our movie space," she explained. "The sequel era] is what we talk a lot about in terms of where we’re going with our movies, and just how far out from that we’ll go. That’s very much the space we’re concentrating on."
The site also pushed for an update on The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson's trilogy after it was first announced nearly half a decade ago. "Rian had such a gigantic success with Knives Out that he’s very committed to trying to get that done. So it’ll be a while," Kennedy said. "As you know, we have to work three, five years in advance on what we’re doing. So that’s where that sits."
We'd like to think a slate announcement is imminent, but Lucasfilm struggles to plan ahead, and when they do, half of what they lay the groundwork for doesn't seem to become a reality.
Needless to say, you'll want to keep checking SSFGazette.com for updates as we have them!