Simon Kinberg is reportedly returning to the Star Wars galaxy.
Deadline is reporting from sources that Lucasfilm has closed a deal with the former X-men franchise creative to develop and produce a new trilogy of Star Wars films. Unsurprisingly, Lucasfilm and Disney had no comments.
There seems to be some question as to what exactly this new Star Wars trilogy will be focused on. Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr., who broke the story, states that he “heard this will comprise episodes 10-12 of The Skywalker Saga.” However, he does claim other sources have disputed that notion “saying this will instead begin a new saga, and sit alongside Star Wars percolating projects with James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi and Donald Glover.”
This is not Kinberg’s first journey to a galaxy far, far away. He previously helped to co-create the Emmy-nominated animated series Star Wars: Rebels alongside Dave Filoni and Carrie Beck. That show ran for four seasons from 2014 to 218. He also consulted with JJ Abrams during the production of Episode VI: The Force Awakens.
If this new trilogy does continue the numbered episodes of the Skywalker Saga films, it does raise a question as to the future of the project that is to feature Daisy Ridley’s Rey character set some fifteen years after the conclusion of Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker. The most recent reliable reporting on that project was that it was nearing a go-ahead for production under the direction of Obaid-Chinoy, though screenwriter Steven Knight had departed the project, presumably to start preproduction on his Peaky Blinders feature film. If Kinberg’s proposed trilogy is an extension of the Skywalker family story, does it supersede and thus cancel the Ridley/Obaid-Chinoy project or is there a way that the two can exist side-by-side?
Kinberg is coming off of nearly two decades working on the X-Men franchise at Fox, now a corporate sibling to Lucasfilm, as well as a number of other features. He wrote the screenplay for 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, produced 2011’s X-Men: First Class, wrote and produced on 2012’s X-Men: Days Of Future Past and 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Kinberg also served as a producer on the X-Men spinoff films Deadpool (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018) and The New Mutants (2020). He made his feature directorial debut on the X-Men film Dark Phoenix (2019).
Coincidentally, it was ten years ago yesterday, November 6, that the title for the seventh Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, was announced. It was the first in the sequel trilogy of the Skywalker saga films that launched the Disney-era of the Star Wars franchise.
