One of the best, and worst, things about Star Wars in recent years is just how connected everything has been. It meant characters who may have at first seemed tangential, like Cassian Andor in Rogue One, could be greatly expanded in something like Andor. It also meant audiences who had never watched an animated show like Clone Wars or Rebels might be left confused with the stories in something like Ahsoka. In those cases and others, there always seemed to be some kind of guardrails on what was possible in a galaxy far, far away. But, if a new quote is to be believed, that may be changing.
Recently, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy spoke at a screening of the original Star Wars in London (you can read about the event here) and she commented on how the future of Star Wars is moving from the interconnectivity that has driven the recent history of Star Wars.
“I really think that now we’re in a position where it’s broadened the possibility of stories and filmmakers we can bring in to tell stories that mean something to them,” Kennedy said at the event. “It doesn’t necessarily have to connect to every little thing thats been done in Star Wars; it can actually be a standalone story that then builds into many, many other stories.”
The first example of this is Star Wars: Starfighter, the 2027 release that starts filming in September. Shawn Levy directs, Ryan Gosling and Mia Goth star, and while we don’t know the specifics of the plot just yet, everyone has been insistent that the story is standalone and is unlikely to connect to anything else in the Star Wars universe. Which is easy since it takes place five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
That’ll be harder for other upcoming Star Wars projects such as Ahsoka season two, which is currently filming, and The Mandalorian & Grogu, which will be out in May. Those will, clearly, be connected to other stories, as will other confirmed projects such as the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Rey movie and Dave Filoni’s Shadow of the Empire movie. The films that seem to speak more to Kennedy’s statement are James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi movie, which will take place millennia before any other Star Wars story, and Simon Kinberg’s trilogy, which is said to be the next phase of the overall Star Wars story. Also, maybe the Taika Waititi movie that is still in the works.
The key to Kennedy’s statement, though, is the end of it. To reset itself, to make itself into the power it once was, Star Wars needs fresh faces and stories, which can only be achieved through unique, original. standalone stories. From there, though, those ideas will have to “build into many, many other stories.” So the idea is almost a reset so that they can get back to where we have been the last 10 years or so. The interconnective nature of Star Wars isn’t going away, it’s just being rebuilt.
Are you confident Kennedy is telling the truth here? Will these new Star Wars movies be standalone? Or will that, in some way, hurt the franchise? Let us know below.
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