STAR WARS: Simon Kinberg Reportedly Seen As "Safe Choice" To Develop New Trilogy Despite Past Flops

STAR WARS: Simon Kinberg Reportedly Seen As "Safe Choice" To Develop New Trilogy Despite Past Flops

A new report details the thinking behind Simon Kinberg being hired to take charge of a new Star Wars trilogy, including why Lucasfilm thinks he's a good fit and exactly how far along these movies are...

By JoshWilding - Nov 11, 2024 08:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Star Wars
Source: Variety (via SFFGazette.com)

Late last week, we learned that Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy have turned to Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg to write and produce a new Star Wars trilogy.

There have been conflicting reports about whether these movies will serve as Episodes 10, 11, and 12 in the Skywalker Saga. However, most outlets have since confirmed they won't be a continuation of that story. 

According to a new piece from Variety (via SFFGazette.com), the news came as a surprise to executives at Lucasfilm and Disney, but is "considered internally to be in deep development and not nearly ready to be made public." In other words, this could be another announced Star Wars project that fails to ever come to fruition. 

The trade acknowledges that many in the industry were shocked by Kinberg's hiring, particularly as his track record as a writer is spotty at best (2015's Fantastic Four, X-Men: The Last Stand, and his original sci-fi movie The 355 rank among his worst efforts).

Despite that, his history working on franchises means "Kinberg is seen on one level as a sensible and safe choice." 

Love or hate them, the movies he's written have grossed over $3 billion worldwide and he has produced some hits beyond X-Men. "He’s said to understand how to talk to film executives about franchise filmmaking in a way that allays their concerns about creative decisions affecting the costly bottom line for these kinds of projects," it's noted. 

The trade runs down Kinberg's many critical and commercial failures but reveals his hiring, in part, is due to "Kinberg’s continuing creative relationship with Lucasfilm creative executive Carrie Beck and chief creative officer Dave Filoni." 

They worked with him on Star Wars Rebels and Kennedy has made several attempts to bring the veteran producer back into the fold, first as part of a braintrust with Michael Arndt and Lawrence Kasdan to come up with ideas for the Star Wars sequels and later to work on the scrapped Boba Fett movie alongside Josh Trank and, a couple of years later, James Mangold.

Finally, it's said, "Kinberg’s efforts are meant to create a new saga, but as is the case with virtually all script development, specific plot details and characters are light years away from taking their final shape, let alone arrive in theaters."

Rian Johnson and David Benioff & D. B. Weiss both tried and failed to launch new Star Wars trilogies at Lucasfilm, so whether Kinberg will have any greater success remains to be seen. Remember, he's also busy overseeing the Star Trek franchise for Paramount. 

While working on the X-Men franchise, Kinberg made a lot of creative decisions that upset fans. Whether that will be the case with Star Wars remains to be seen, though there doesn't appear to be a huge amount of excitement to see what he'll potentially bring to the table with a new series of movies. 

Stay tuned for updates as we have them.

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Conquistador
Conquistador - 11/11/2024, 8:36 AM
Playing it safe is what got them in this mess.
supermanrex
supermanrex - 11/11/2024, 9:43 AM
@Conquistador - they let rian johnson have some freedom and pissy star war fans had a cow over his "unsafe" choices. so which is it?? ya [frick]ers bitch when they play it safe ala a familiar formula with episodes 7. then you bitched at episode 8 being different, then you bitched again at 9 for playing it safe with familiar formula. they gave us tons of jedis with acolyte but they were not white enough or straight enough for everyone so bitch and complain. Andor some of the best star wars ever gets bitched at for being "boring" for god forbid going into heavy detail about star wars lore like andor did like the much loved expanded universe did. [frick] what do ya [frick]ers want?????
Conquistador
Conquistador - 11/11/2024, 9:47 AM
@supermanrex - What you mean "Ya [frick]ers"

I actually liked what they did with Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi. Ok i disagreed with Luke's Arc, but they could always bring back as a force ghost...which they did... overall a solid film and the best of the 3 (IMO)

I was hoping they would expand on those other force sensitive kids, but yeah, they played it safe with Ep 9 instead of going off into a new direction.
EskimoJ
EskimoJ - 11/11/2024, 10:08 AM
@supermanrex - To complain.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 11/11/2024, 10:31 AM
@Conquistador - Star Wars began their downhill slide with Rian Johnson. KK and others saw his TLJ script and what he had in mind for Luke was anything but safe. Episode 9 was just as bad and unsafe. Nor would I characterize Acolyte as safe.
Conquistador
Conquistador - 11/11/2024, 11:01 AM
@GeneralZod - Downhill, disagree. Divisive, sure. They still let him make the movie though, unlike Trevorrow. And critically and financially it was successful.
MikeyL
MikeyL - 11/11/2024, 8:39 AM
I’m not willing to hold Dark Phoenix against him since the original two-part plan sounded great and from reports it was studio interference that demanded it be cut to one film which resulted in that rushed bag of shite… but his other work isn’t much better.

I think if he has someone resigning him in and quality controlling him then it could potentially be okay
DevilsDreams
DevilsDreams - 11/11/2024, 8:40 AM
"considered internally to be in deep development and not nearly ready to be made public."???

Or will there be a few strategic "leaks" to test the waters and see what pisses people off the least?
xfan320
xfan320 - 11/11/2024, 8:43 AM
At least we know they're actually going to try and plan out the trilogy's story before making the individual movies (unlike with episodes 7,8, and 9)

So Maybe the films will actually make sense and have an earned sense of pay off for the audience this time.
TheyDont
TheyDont - 11/11/2024, 8:51 AM
@xfan320 - Do we though?
The1st
The1st - 11/11/2024, 9:43 AM
@xfan320 - True, but for me personally it inspires little to no confidence in a franchise that currently has only a few bright spots currently imo. My response to the news was, literally, ..........

Maybe he'll surprise, but this doesn't give me the same jolt say the news about Goddard and the new Matrix films did.
IAmAHoot
IAmAHoot - 11/11/2024, 8:46 AM
He sure was safe for the X-Men franchise, lord knows... *cough*
We're gonna get a Star Wars trilogy oddly reminiscent of the Dark Phoenix storyline.
SethBullock
SethBullock - 11/11/2024, 8:53 AM
@IAmAHoot - Dark Rey, Palpatine's granddaughter turns to the dark side to become The Last Sith.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/11/2024, 8:49 AM
I guess it makes sense he knows how to talk to execs. He did convince Fox to do Dark Phoenix again after butchering it the first time, and still was troubled by exec interverence.

Still, I really don't think this trilogy will get made like the other dozens movies they have announced. Let's start with one movie first and see how it fares critically and commercially.
The1st
The1st - 11/11/2024, 9:47 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Agree. The trilogy mindset has plagued Hollywood for a while imo. Everything is preplanned except for the films themselves. Maybe work on one cohesive effort instead of several bad films/shows that "have their moments" first.
tluciotti74
tluciotti74 - 11/11/2024, 8:56 AM
As long as Kennedy is in charge, I have zero positive expectation of anything that is not Filoni or Favreau, because they have proven that they can deliver
Itwasme
Itwasme - 11/11/2024, 9:57 AM
@tluciotti74 - Filoni is in charge of all creative decisions and has been for a long time.
tluciotti74
tluciotti74 - 11/11/2024, 10:44 AM
@Itwasme - He has been CCO for a year but from all reports, Kennedy is still making decisions on things such as this next trilogy so apparently he does not have complete creative control or it would be him making these decisions.
99OPTIMISTPRIME
99OPTIMISTPRIME - 11/11/2024, 9:03 AM
Guys like Simon Kinberg, are able to build deep relationships with the right people in Hollywood, and obtain long-term job security. Especially within the "nerd genre". Zack Snyder, David Goyer, Will Beall, and Akiva Goldsman, were others.
The1st
The1st - 11/11/2024, 9:49 AM
@99OPTIMISTPRIME - I can't say I haven't had similar thoughts about guys like Roberto Orci helming Trek, for example, although hopefully Skydance cleans that up.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 11/11/2024, 9:53 AM
@99OPTIMISTPRIME - 100%. Only Washington, D.C. is more corrupt than Hollywood.
TrentCrimm
TrentCrimm - 11/11/2024, 11:02 AM
@GeneralZod -

It's not really corruption, I mean I'm sure a lot of jobs in Hollywood are given to people under shady practices and favors owed, but really it's just a result of $$$, love 'em or hate 'em, they bring it money (more often then not at least).

Places like here and Reddit are echo chambers, the people who hate these directors or producers are going to be the loudest, the reality of it is the general audience doesn't know, care, or pay attention enough for it to make a difference to the bottom line.
It's about who can present a product that's going to put butts in seats, studios don't need a movie to be good, they just need it to sell, that's why franchises like Transformers and the Fast & Furious movies do so well.

People tend to have this delusion that Hollywood studios are trying to put out well constructed pieces of cinema, and they aren't, they're out to make money, and the box office has proven time and time again that they don't need to put out a quality product to make money.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 11/11/2024, 9:03 AM
Hollywood is officially out of touch. Surprised they’re actually moving forward with this and not shutting down all of hollywood for a week long mental health break since the Don got elected
LilJimmy
LilJimmy - 11/11/2024, 9:15 AM
@Matchesz - I thought they were all moving away if he won?.....
DocSpock
DocSpock - 11/11/2024, 10:41 AM
@LilJimmy -

They say that every time.
LilJimmy
LilJimmy - 11/11/2024, 9:14 AM
"Safe choice"

Meaning he will do whatever KK says
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 11/11/2024, 9:31 AM
It's truly amazing to watch Disney slowly, but surely destroy this IP. What an incompetent studio they've turned out to be.
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 11/11/2024, 9:33 AM
@TheJok3r -

Minus marvel pre endgame, they’ve manage to butcher every IP they acquired.
supermanrex
supermanrex - 11/11/2024, 9:35 AM
@TheJok3r - im having fun. not all projects are great but overall its fun. lucas would be under the same scrutiny and hate as kennedy if he was still in charge. all the same clowns sucking his balls right now were the clowns who drove him out of star wars for the prequels of which these same clowns all of a sudden love.
supermanrex
supermanrex - 11/11/2024, 9:36 AM
@HulkisHoly - no they haven't.
TheFinestSmack
TheFinestSmack - 11/11/2024, 10:12 AM
@supermanrex - "lucas would be under the same scrutiny and hate as kennedy if he was still in charge."

I doubt it. KK most gets the hate she gets because she's a woman in power.
jst5
jst5 - 11/11/2024, 11:13 AM
@TheFinestSmack - LOL!!!!!!!!!Damn you're stupid.
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