There’s a ton of Star Wars content currently in the works, including over ten shows coming to Disney+ in the next few years, a brand new publishing initiative of the High Republic, the current War of the Bounty Hunters comic crossover event, and of course plenty of films in the works too.
Though the next movie, Patty Jenkins’s Rogue Squadron, won’t release until December of 2023, other movies are in various stages of development too, including Rian Johnson’s series, Taika Waititi’s movie, and Kevin Feige’s project. That latter movie will see a powerhouse team-up of the two highest-grossing producers in movie history, with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige working with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy to produce the film. It’s still in the early stages of development and no time table has been given, but we know that Feige pitched an idea to Kennedy that was then green-lit.
Since then, Feige has tapped Michael Waldron to write the script for the film. Waldron wrote the scripts for the upcoming Loki series, also serving as an executive producer, and apparently so impressed Feige that he was then hired as the writer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And beyond that, Feige tasked Waldron with writing his Star Wars movie, and it’s clear that Waldron is thrilled about that.
In a lengthy profile of the up-and-coming writer, Vanity Fair’s Joanna Robinson spoke with Waldron about his work on the Marvel projects, about his life, and much more. It’s worth a read, but toward the end Waldron speaks to being asked to work on Star Wars. Throughout the profile he made references to projects like Indiana Jones and others, and so all he has to say about his Star Wars project is about how thrilled he is to be working with Kathy Kennedy. “You’ve heard all my references here,” he said. “Star Wars! Indiana Jones! [Kathleen Kennedy], she’s made so many of my favorite movies. So to get to collaborate with both of those entities is a dream come true.”
It’s cool to see Waldron exhibit such excitement about the project and about the opportunity to work with Kennedy and Feige. It’s easy to forget how many successful movies Kennedy has helped to produce, from the Indiana Jones series to the Jurassic Park films to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and many others – including, of course, the most recent series of Star Wars projects, which have almost all been massive box office hits. Feige’s work has been a bit more recent, but he’s produced massive box office hits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, between Feige and Kennedy, they have produced half of the top fourteen highest-grossing movies in history, as it stands today. This collaboration between them, then, is historic, and so it’s understandable why Waldron would be so thrilled to be working with them.
But it’s still not easy to work on a franchise like Star Wars. And the article quotes Dan Harmon, creator of shows like Community and Rick and Morty, who gave Waldron his start in Hollywood, who sums up well the pressure and difficulty of creating a Star Wars film:
“Star Wars is definitely sticky because if you make a certain brand of nerd happy, you’re actually middle fingering an adjacent breed of nerd. If you take it too seriously, you’re doing it wrong. If you don’t take it seriously enough, you’re definitely doing it wrong. It needs that total joy of the greatest franchise ever, along with a kind of swagger. I do think that Waldron would make a good match for that, but I don’t know if he would make a good match for the machine that’s carrying that stuff.”
So Waldron, Feige, and Kennedy will have their work cut out for them, but it’s certainly a great team to do it.
Star Wars Thoughts 