Sitting down for a new profile in the Los Angeles Times, Lucasfilm mastermind Kathleen Kennedy laid out the future of the galaxy far, far away in the lead up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It’s a great read for fans of the franchise but there was one particularly interesting segment from Ryan Faughnder’s expansive feature that really got us excited.
“Kennedy said she plans to make key decisions about the direction of the franchise in the coming weeks. But some things she already knows. While the Skywalker saga is ending, the company won’t abandon the characters created in the most recent trilogy.”
“Additionally, she said, the plan is to move beyond trilogies, which can be restricting. ‘I think it gives us a more open-ended view of storytelling and doesn’t lock us into this three-act structure,’ she said. ‘We’re not going to have some finite number and fit it into a box. We’re really going to let the story dictate that.'”
Lucasfilm
So what does all of this mean for the franchise going forward? Trilogies have always been key to the world of Star Wars, the core narrative is of course made up of three trilogies: the originals, the prequels, and the sequels. But as Kennedy states, that can be a prohibitive format. A great potential example is the fact that Disney has spent the past five years introducing audiences to the new heroes of Star Wars, but as the trilogy comes to an end the studio could be forced to move on from Finn, Poe, and Rey’s stories. Luckily, according to the prolific producer that probably won’t happen, which is an intriguing tease that pleases us as huge sequel trilogy fans.
In a period where Disney/Lucasfilm is in the process of delivering their first (critically-acclaimed) live-action Star Wars TV show, have multiple Star Wars bestsellers on bookshelves, and are delivering some of the best animated series‘ on television, it makes sense that the beloved new characters might live on outside of their soon to end trilogy. But this exciting admission means that there is also the chance that characters could live on in their own films or the future non-trilogy Star Wars movies that Lucasfilm has planned.
Lucasfilm
Who among us wouldn’t want to see a Jedi Academy style film about Rey establishing a space to train new Force Users, maybe under the moniker Skywalkers? Maybe a movie about Finn helping to reintroduce rehabilitated Stormtroopers to a post-First Order world? We know we’d love to watch a Poe Dameron-centric Rogue Squadron inspired film about his X-Wing crew and their exploits either before, during, or after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. Also if Rian Johnson’s proposed trilogy happens, wouldn’t it be amazing to see one, Commander Rose Tico pop up? I mean, heck, we’d watch a Tico sisters movie if Lucasfilm was inclined to make one.
Basically this is very exciting news for fans of the sequel trilogy and the awesome new characters they introduced.
Header Image: Lucasfilm