Star Wars: Disney Reportedly Wants Kathleen Kennedy to Stop Announcing New Projects

Disney is reportedly taking a "do or do not" approach to Star Wars and pressing pause on formally announcing new projects and creators amid a stagnant film slate. The storied franchise has been on a theatrical hiatus since the release of 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final Skywalker Saga film, shifting focus to the television side of the galaxy far, far away with acclaimed Disney+ series The Mandalorian and Andor. Following word that LOST and Star Trek scribe Damon Lindelof is scripting yet another untitled Star Wars film, insider Matthew Belloni's Puck News reports Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has been "advised" by Disney to "stop announcing projects and creative partners."

According to Belloni, an entertainment lawyer and former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, the reason is to quell online backlash "when those projects don't actually happen, as is the case frequently at Lucasfilm." 

In late 2018, after Solo: A Star Wars Story failed to take flight at the box office, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger declared a Star Wars "slowdown." Plans for more anthology films, including spin-offs starring Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi, were eventually reworked into Disney+ shows. Iger told THR in 2018: "I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast ... I think we're going to be a little bit more careful about volume and timing."

At the time, the studio was plotting a post-Skywalker Saga Star Wars galaxy with two separate trilogies from high-profile creators. 

Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss developed a Star Wars saga that's deader than Ned Stark: they stepped away from the galaxy far, far away in 2019 to pursue a Netflix deal. The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has been attached to his own Star Wars trilogy since 2017, but that, too, is taking a backseat to the two Knives Out sequels he's created for Disney+ rival streamer Netflix.

The same year Lucasfilm closed out the Skywalker Saga with The Rise of Skywalker, Disney officially announced Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige — chief architect of the blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe — was developing a Star Wars film produced by Kennedy. Another Marvel moviemaker, Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi, will also co-write and direct an all-new film after directing an episode of live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

During Disney's Investor Day in 2020, it was announced Wonder Woman filmmaker Patty Jenkins would direct Rogue Squadron, set within the sequel trilogy timeline and focused on the next generation of X-Wing fighter pilots. That project, originally set for December 2023, has stalled and has since been removed from Disney's release calendar.

Another project with little movement is one not formally announced by Lucasfilm. In 2020, THR reported Sleight and Sweetheart director J.D. Dillard was developing a Star Wars spin-off with Luke Cage and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD writer Matt Owens. It was unclear whether that film would be intended for theatrical release or go straight-to-streaming on Disney+.

Disney has bookmarked two untitled Star Wars films for December 19th, 2025, and December 17th, 2027, but the franchise's future in theaters is murky. 

Earlier this year, Kennedy explained why Star Wars shifted to streaming television over feature films and clarified that the next era of Star Wars films has been "in movement all along." 

"As we leave the [Skywalker] saga, we have all this great, exciting work happening on the television side that informs so much about where we're going. We want to be very intentional about that," Kennedy told Total Film. "We have great talent that we're working with — people who care so deeply about what the next iteration of Star Wars is and about getting people back into movie theaters, so we can really come out with a bang. That's important to us." 

Lucasfilm next releases the Willow series, releasing November 30th on Disney+; Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 3, streaming February 2023 on Disney+; and the Harrison Ford-starring Indiana Jones 5, in theaters June 30th, 2023.