At Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced plans to explore the past, present, and future of this franchise in three upcoming movies.
James Mangold will take us 25,000 years into the past to tell the story of the first Jedi. Dave Filoni, meanwhile, is plotting an epic crossover event that will bring together the stories of TV shows like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka for what sounds like a finale to the New Republic-era of storytelling.
Finally, there's a movie from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy that takes place 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker which will bring Daisy Ridley back as Rey.
According to a new story published by The Hollywood Reporter (via SFFGazette.com), this movie is expected to be the first of these projects released in theaters, with a December 2025 debut looking like a real possibility. A year later, we would get Filoni's movie, meaning there's time for additional seasons of The Mandalorian and Ahsoka before then.
Mangold, meanwhile, is expected to start work on his Star Wars movie after he's finished shooting his Bob Dylan biopic later this year.
After years of false starts, plenty of fans don't entirely believe these projects will become a reality, a sentiment many Hollywood insiders also seem to agree with.
"They don’t have a George [Lucas]," says one producer. "Kathy is not George. Filoni is kinda the closest at this stage." Another says, "If they don’t make at least that Rey movie, Lucasfilm will burn whatever goodwill it has left with this fan base."
It's hard to disagree with that point, and if Filoni's movie is going to end that particular era of storytelling, Lucasfilm will also be without its popular slate of fan-pleasing Star Wars TV shows (though The Mandalorian's third season has been nothing if not divisive in recent weeks).
We'll hopefully have more details to share with you soon as Kennedy did say she plans to reveal more details in the months ahead.