It is being reported that Jon Watts has been hired to direct the first of Simon Kinberg’s trilogy of Star Wars films in development – and that the movies are intended to be a continuation of the Skywalker saga.
The fact that Lucasfilm is looking to continue the main storyline is not surprising, despite The Rise of Skywalker being heavily promoted as the final chapter. There have long been plans to bring back Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker, and though it seems that story has gone through various iterations of development, the fact that they were so interested in bringing the character back was an indication of their willingness to further the saga. Exactly what, or how, remains to be seen – but it’s being developed as a trilogy.
We’ve known for a while that Kinberg was brought in to develop this trilogy. He’s best-known for his work writing and producing on the X-Men films, but this isn’t his first foray into the Star Wars franchise. He was a consultant on The Force Awakens, and helped Dave Filoni create Star Wars Rebels. Kinberg was an executive producer and writer for the popular animated series. While he’s developing this trilogy, he isn’t necessarily going to be directing the movies.
That task, at least for the first film, will fall to Jon Watts, who is himself no stranger to Star Wars. He helmed the live-action series Skeleton Crew, as creator, showrunner, executive producer, director, and writer. As far as movies go, he’s best-known for directing the Spider-Man trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
