Star Wars: Lucasfilm President Hopes to Find Filmmaker Like Jon Favreau to Spearhead Cinematic Future

In the years since Jon Favreau got involved in the live-action Star Wars world on Disney+ with The Mandalorian, he has gone on to be involved in various other corners of the galaxy far, far away, as he has helped orchestrate the intertwined nature of the various properties that unfold in that landscape. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy recently pointed out that she's currently hoping to find a similar figure who can make such a commitment to the cinematic future of the Star Wars saga, while noting that she knows just how much of a commitment such a task would be not only creatively, but also an obligation of time.

"The biggest challenge is getting all these great minds together and arriving at a structural point of view. We really drive our storytelling through the lens of filmmakers," Kennedy detailed to Vanity Fair. "We depend on people like Favreau and Dave [Filoni] and J.J. Abrams and the filmmakers we've worked with, like Tony Gilroy [on the upcoming Star Wars: Andor series]. We put the basic guardrails around what makes something Star Wars, those fundamental values inherent in Star Wars, that sense of place, the deeper meanings around selflessness, selfishness, and the mythology that George created. Then we pretty much leave them to their own devices and try to support that. "

She continued, "So there's a little bit of luck that comes into this too. With Jon Favreau and the TV side, we've gotten very fortunate that he's made the long-term commitment. I would love to find somebody on the feature side that would make that kind of a long-term commitment. There's a couple of people I'm pretty close to that we may get there, but it's such a competitive landscape right now that availability, exclusivity, those kind of ideas [make it] tough."

Lucasfilm already has two impressive filmmakers attached to direct cinematic adventures, including Taika Waititi and Patty Jenkins, though the hope is that unique filmmakers can all be united under a larger umbrella of storytelling.

"We have a road map. I would say that Taika's story fits more specifically into that," the filmmaker detailed. "Rogue Squadron…we kind of pushed off to the side for the moment. Patty is developing the script further. Then we will talk about how that connects to the central spine that we're working on. There's a couple of [filmmakers] that we've been in conversation with over quite a long period of time that I'm hoping will come in and make the overall commitment that Jon and Dave have made. That's ideally what I would love to see happen in the feature space."

While Rian Johnson was announced back in 2017 to be earning a trilogy of films, Kennedy noted that the studio aims to reimagine how they enlist filmmakers with visions for stories, while also noting that the franchise won't quite embrace the approach Kevin Feige has taken with Marvel Studios.

"Kevin is an anomaly — an amazing one. But [the goal is] definitely having somebody make more of a commitment," Kennedy clarified. "I hesitate to use the word trilogies anymore because Star Wars is much more about persistent storytelling."

Stay tuned for details on the future of the Star Wars series.

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