With Star Wars Celebration underway right now in Anaheim, California, there’s activity aplenty in the galaxy far, far away. The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are imminent, Andor is now officially just months away with its 31 August release date (check out the first teaser here), and there’s more to come from The Mandalorian Season 3 next February, followed by Ahsoka. But while most of the Star Wars activity currently in the works right now is taking place in proximity to the original trilogy and the prequel movies, it seems there’s more to come from the sequel era of the Star Wars timeline too – with Kathleen Kennedy stating that the upcoming movies will be set closer to the time of Rey, Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren than to young Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan.
Speaking to Empire at Celebration, Kennedy confirmed that the sequel era will be explored in the upcoming movies. “We’re moving further beyond the existing sequels as we look to our movie space,” she said. “[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 next confirmed Star Wars movie will be Taika Waititi’s as-yet-untitled film, co-written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, while Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadronmovie is currently undated, but still in the ether. Kennedy also reiterated that Rian Johnson’s trilogy, announced a long time ago (and very possibly in a galaxy far, far away) is not happening any time soon. “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,” she said. “As you know, we have to work three, five years in advance on what we’re doing. So that’s where that sits.”
Elsewhere, much of the Lucasfilm panel at Star Wars Celebration revolved around the current slate of Disney+ series – from Obi-Wan and Andor, to Jon Watts’ just-announced Skeleton Crew. “You know, it’s an ongoing Star Wars story that we’re telling, non-stop,” says Kennedy. “That’s the way to think about it.” Stay tuned for more coming from Celebration in the coming days…