The Star Wars Celebration in London brought exciting news for all fans of the Far Far Galaxy, especially dedicated to new projects for the big screen in the past, present and future of the saga.
It is directly from the crowded halls of the Star Wars Celebration di Londra that some of the most interesting and unexpected announcements of the moment are arriving. Obviously they concern the Far Far Galaxy and its ever-expanding universe, but above all the new cinematic path of the franchise, insecure and undecided after The Rise of Skywalker and the launch of streaming television series on Disney+. Disney’s post-acquisition Star Wars project has brought little satisfaction and much perplexity ever since Awakening of the Force in 2015, with a maximum consensus peak reached in 2016 with Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One (among other things, the first live-action spin-off film of the franchise) to then slowly collapse one title after another, first with The Last Jedi by Rian Johnson (among the most divisive chapters of the saga), then with Solo – which remains extremely underrated – and finally with the aforementioned ninth chapter.
Since then, a certain distrust has grown towards Kathleen Kennedy (president LucasFilm), who had to indirectly put the creative curatorship of the IP back in the expert hands of Jon Favreau e Dave Filoniradically changing goals. This is how cinema, Star Wars’ first home, was completely set aside for four years (the pandemic is also to blame), with a focus dedicated to live action seriality, the recovery of old glories of the saga and a genuine return to expansion of the narrative universe that seemed to be completely shelved by now. And instead this conceptual expansion is more alive than ever and finally ready to extend its tentacles also in the cinematographic field with three new and intriguing feature films announced. Let’s discover them together
25 thousand years ago
The greatest interest in new film titles arises from the names involved in directing and from the concepts of the stories. First of all, just to present these three new projects, LucasFilm has revealed a precise updated info-graphic of the Star Wars timeline to divide the different historical moments of the franchise. So far the oldest period told in theExpanded universe (and to be precise between books and video games) was the Old Republicwith events taking place roughly between 4,000 and 3,500 years before Star Wars: A New Hope. Following the course of the official timeline, the prequel trilogy dedicated to Anakin Skywalker and animated series Clone Wars e Rebels occupy the period ofHigh Republicthe Star Wars Jedi videogame series starring Cal Kestits fits into the Fall of the Jedi Orderthe first and historic trilogy together with products such as Andor is set during the Imperial Kingdom and theAge of Rebellionand finally The Mandalorian, Ahsoka and the New Trilogy between the establishment of the New Republic and theRise of the First Order. However, the new cinematic course will lead to the introduction of two new eras: that of Birth of the Jedi and that of New Jedi Orderexactly at opposite ends of the timeline.
The now highly sought-after will take care of the first period James Mangold, already behind the direction of the awaited Indiana Jones and the Quadrant of Destiny and ready to write and also direct the film on Swamp Thing from DC. The author was chosen by LucasFlm to write and direct a film precisely set 25,000 years before A New Hope and dedicated to the first Jedi in history. According to the director’s and production’s statements, the project will have “a biblical breath“, to recall the epic of Ben-Hur or the Ten Commandments, and will tell the dawn of the Jedi order and consequently the origin of the Force, such as its nature and the reason for its expansion. It is a extremely ambitious project that will delve into the deepest recesses of the Star Wars mythology, explaining its origin in a context never explored before.The risk of running into narrative distortions and exasperating Midi-chlorian-style explanations is just around the corner, but Mangold is a conscious auteur and an enlightened filmmaker (just think of the work done with Logan), which bodes well for an exciting and optimal result.
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Summing up
Also according to the timeline, the second and new film of the next Star Wars cinematic course will be set in the period of the New Republic. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, it’s the time frame between the fall of the Empire at the end of Return of the Jedi and the rise of the First Order seen in The Force Awakens. The live-action series The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba-Fett and the next Ahsoka with Rosario Dawson take hold in this era and in fact the film in question will close all the narrative arcs opened and undertaken in these streaming projects, summing up the plots and interconnected dynamics. The feature film will be written and directed by Dave Filoni, already behind the curation of the Disney + shows together with Jon Favreau and ready to pack a dream film for all fans. In this regard, he declared that the leitmotif of the series “there’s a big conflict coming, the idea that the Empire hasn’t quite been defeated and that it’s re-organizing itself out there somehow“.
All the protagonists of the live-action series seen so far will therefore return to the project, from Din Djarin to Boba-Fett, including main and supporting actors, so as to draw a definitive framework of the storylines in a sort of epic and intense cinematic crossover. Finally, the third film announced during the Celebration will arrive, directed by the Pakistani journalist, activist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (twice Academy Award for Best Documentary Short) and set after the fall of the First Order, with Rey Skywalker grappling with the founding of a new Jedi order. Daisy Ridley Rey will obviously resume the role and the screenplay of the film will find the legendary and talented Steven Knight, already behind Peaky Blinder, Taboo, Spencer, Locke and Allied. The project will also mark firsts for the Star Wars franchise, Obaid-Chinoy being the first woman and first person of color to direct a feature film in the franchise.
Apparently her narrative tact and her content vision have intrigued Kennedy for a female-led product strong in an author’s screenplay. It must be said that this time the Star Wars universe seems to have much clearer cinematic ideas than in the recent past, with the hope that each of these three novelties will be made in as serene a creative and working atmosphere as possible, thus not to repeat previous and gross mistakes. In this regard we can cite Rogue Squadron Of Patty Jenkins – what was supposed to be a new trilogy entrusted to Rian Johnson and that LucasFilm has decided to abandon – and a series of announcements that have not yet managed to find finalization, between a Taika Waititi involved in the franchise or a Kevin Feige grappling with an imaginary working on a Star Wars title. The mantra to follow is that of making it concrete, and it seems that, at least for now, society has finally understood it.
