Star Wars: Lucasfilm President Doesn’t Know What’s Next for the Franchise

Just three weeks ago the future of Star Wars seemed very clear. Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had been tapped to write and produce a new trilogy of films in the series which already had release dates set for Christmas 2022, 20224, and 2026. The pair departed the project after landing a new overall deal with Netflix which now leaves the future of the franchise up in the air. Despite a number of other projects also in the works for Star Wars, Lucasfilm’s president says that they’re still not sure what will be next for that galaxy far, far away.

Speaking with Rolling Stone in a new interview about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the future of the franchise as a whole, Kennedy reiterated that no firm plans are in place for the next theatrical Star Wars movie, simply saying “No” when asked if they really haven’t decided what’s next for the series.

“We’ve got various things we’re looking at and various ways in which we can begin or not. As you can imagine. You know, do you go back? Do you go forward? All those questions are being asked. Do we stay in this galaxy? Do we go to another? The universe is never-ending. [Laughs.] The good news and the bad news. They have endless possibilities. It’s liberating, it’s exciting, and it creates a lot of pressure and anxiety as well.”

Among the possibilities for Star Wars are the trilogy of films that The Last Jedi‘s Rian Johnson is developing, which will reportedly cover an aspect of the galaxy that has never been explored. Johnson recently confirmed that he’s still in talks with Lucasfilm about the new films but as of earlier this month there were no updates on the films.

“I think that the fun and challenging part of it is to dive in, figure out what’s exciting and then figure out what it’s going to be,” Johnson previously said about the films. “We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know the way that I’m coming at it and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’ films is figuring out, ‘What’s the next step?’ It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward.”

There’s also the in-development film from Marvel Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige, a long time fan of Star Wars who has said he loves the idea “of exploring new people and new places in that universe.” Beyond that, precious few details about his film have been announced or even hinted at. Given his work with Marvel though, it’s conceivable that his project may not see the light of day for a few years.

For the foreseeable future though, Star Wars will live on the Disney+ streaming platform with The Mandalorian now streaming and a second season already filming, plus a show following Obi-Wan Kenobi with Ewan MacGregor returning to the role, and a series about Rogue One‘s Cassian Andor also in development.

The new film in the Star Wars saga, and the official end of the Skywalker storyline, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, hits theaters on December 20th.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is directed by J.J. Abrams and also stars Daisey Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, Carrie Fisher, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, Joonas Suotamo, Anthony Daniels, Jimmy Vee, Dave Chapman, Brian Herring, Mark Hamill, Billie Lourd, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan, and Greg Grunberg.