Now that her immediate future is confirmed with a succession plan in place to overlap with and hand-over to that incoming person, Kathleen Kennedy also delved into the GFFA projects currently on the slate at Lucasfilm. Some are in progress, all have been announced, some are expected and one is very much a surprise. First she looked at the Simon Kinberg trilogy, rumours of which broke late last year that would appear to be very much a focus project for Kennedy as she explains how the Kinberg films will form ‘the next iteration, the new saga that moves us into the future‘.
DEADLINE: I broke a piece last fall about Simon Kinberg making a deal to write and produce a Star Wars trilogy. How’s that going?
KENNEDY: We’re absolutely rolling fast and furiously. That has gone exceptionally well, and he’s literally going to script as we speak. We’ll see something probably around June. Simon, if you remember, he did some work with us years ago with the animated show, which was a really wonderful collaborative experience. And he then got very, very busy with X-Men and then recently became available again, and he segued into this space beautifully. We’re really excited about where that’s headed.
DEADLINE: There are spinoffs and then there is the core Star Wars story broken into trilogies. Is this a continuation of that?
KENNEDY: This is the next iteration, the new saga that moves us into the future.
DEADLINE: And the one by Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy?
Shawn Levy has been hard at work on his project for well over a year, and Kennedy explains exactly where this story is set and how it will bridge the Mandoverse era and that of the Sequel trilogy, which celebrates its first ten years later this year.
KENNEDY: That’s also in the future. It’s all post-[the first] nine. Shawn’s is a standalone Star Wars story that’ll take place post-nine, maybe five or six years out. And Mandalorian really stands on its own because there, we’re dealing with a whole other era in the New Republic. We have other development going on in that space as well. So that’s the space that we’re pretty much focused on right at the moment, because obviously with Mandalorian we have a pretty good sense of where that’s going. And with this, it’s all pretty much new characters. We may bring some of the characters back from the sequel saga, but pretty much new characters.
We’ve known about the James Mangold Dawn of the Jedi project for a number of years, and that seems to be well on its way towards the next stage of production.
DEADLINE: You’ve still got that prequel with James Mangold, who’s Oscar-nominated for the Bob Dylan movie A Compete Unknown?
KENNEDY: Yep. He’s working on this script right now. Simon’s working on scripts right now. Shawn, we had been working with him already for about a year and a half. These guys are available now. Jim, he got delayed a bit because of the Dylan movie and the awards season. You have to accommodate top talent to a certain extent. And quality is so important with what it is we’re trying to do. I like to wait for people that I think are passionate and really good to step into Star Wars.
Finally, many expected that the Taika Waititi project has gone the way of the Dodo, with little news over the past couple of years, but it seems that’s not the case.
DEADLINE: Any others that I’ve forgotten?
KENNEDY: Well, I keep waiting for Taika [Waititi], and he is working with another writer now. He’s so busy. I love him. I think if we ever do get a script from Taika, it’s going to be fantastic. I already saw a first act that I loved, but tying him down, it’s tricky.
This week the fandom has gone from waving Kennedy goodbye to seeing her firmly deny her departure and giving us a delicious feast of future content to look forward to, all of which will be discussed on Fantha Tracks programming over the coming days.
