Lucasfilm has tapped Jon Watts, the director of Tom Holland’s first three Spider-Man films, to direct the first installment of a new Star Wars trilogy written by Simon Kinberg. The trilogy is being developed as the next chapter of the Skywalker Saga, the story of the Skywalker family that ran through Episodes I to IX.
The project is still in development and has not yet been greenlit by Disney. Lucasfilm had no comment. No release date, production start or cast has been announced, though Daisy Ridley’s Rey, the Jedi at the center of the last trilogy, is expected to appear in some capacity.
Watts Has Already Worked In Star Wars
This is not Watts’ first job in a galaxy far, far away. He co-created the Disney+ series Skeleton Crew with Christopher Ford, a coming-of-age adventure set in the New Republic era that starred Jude Law and followed four kids lost in the galaxy. The series premiered on Disney+ in December 2024, and Watts also directed two of its episodes.
Before that, Marvel picked him to relaunch Spider-Man with Holland. He directed Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017, Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, each a bigger production than the last. Watts, his production company Freshman Year and producer Dianne McGunigle signed a first-look feature deal with Walt Disney Studios in 2024.
Kinberg’s Trilogy
Lucasfilm hired Kinberg to write and produce a new trilogy in November 2024. He is best known as a writer and producer on the X-Men films and directed X-Men: Dark Phoenix. He also has history with Lucasfilm: he consulted on The Force Awakens and co-created the animated series Star Wars Rebels with Dave Filoni.
If the plan holds, the new films would pick up the numbered saga for the first time since Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker, in 2019, making the first installment Episode X. The sequel trilogy, which began with The Force Awakens in 2015, followed Rey from a scavenger on Jakku to a Jedi who took the Skywalker name in its final scene.
Where It Sits On The Star Wars Slate
The Kinberg trilogy appears to be the furthest along of Lucasfilm’s film projects after Star Wars: Starfighter, which is in post-production. That movie, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling, opens in theaters May 28, 2027, including in IMAX 70mm. It is a standalone story with all-new characters, set about five years after The Rise of Skywalker.
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