Two years ago, Lucasfilm tapped Star Wars Rebels co-creator Simon Kinberg to write a new trilogy series for the galaxy far, far away. The initial report said those Star Wars movies might be a new installment of the Skywalker Saga. Now the latest update says Kinberg is in fact writing Star Wars: Episode X and that Disney has already found its director. The Mouse House has turned to someone who has led both a Disney trilogy and a Star Wars series. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Spider-Man‘s Jon Watts is Disney’s choice to continue its main Star Wars story.
And if this news about the Skywalker Saga “somehow” returning has you feeling absolutely exhausted about the future of Star Wars, we don’t blame you. But if we are getting Star Wars: Episode X and a new trilogy, it sounds like we might be getting the best possible version we could hope for.
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Who Is Writing, Directing, and Starring in Star Wars: Episode X?
Jon Watts will direct Star Wars: Episode X. (Caleb Williams at Knight Edge Media first broke the news, and we heard about it at THR). Star Wars: Episode X will be the first installment of yet another Skywalker Saga trilogy that Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) is writing. However, it’s unknown—or more likely undecided—if Watts will handle the next two installments.
Disney would obviously trust Watts with taking on the whole trilogy. He helmed all three movies in the first Spider-Man trilogy starring Tom Holland: that includes Spider-Man: Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home. He’s also familiar with the galaxy far, far away. Watts co-created and served as co-showrunner on Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. It earned critical-acclaim but low viewership numbers on Disney+.
According to Knight Edge Media, Star Wars: Episode X will see Daisy Ridley return as Rey Skywalker in “a minor role” that “may possibly expand in the sequels.” No other sequel trilogy stars are attached to the project yet. Instead, Disney is said to currently be casting “relatively unknown male and female leads” for its new Star Wars movie. It’s possible production on the movie will begin next year.
That’s a lot of Star Wars: Episode X news. And you might not feel good about any of it for one pretty obvious reason.
Why the News About Star Wars: Episode X Is Bad
Say what you will about the Star Wars sequel trilogy and The Rise of Skywalker. No, seriously, say whatever you want because I certainly have and will. But even if you think Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams absolutely crash-landed the Skywalker Saga on the runway, they still technically finished the flight. Disney definitively and intentionally ended the Skywalker Saga with Star Wars: Episode IX. And for that reason alone, it’s clearly time to move on from the family and their tale that has dominated the franchise from the start. When it comes to whatever “main” Star Wars story Lucasfilm wants to tell on the big screen—which is still and forever the most important screen in the franchise—the Skywalkers should not be part of it.
(We’ve long accepted we’re never going to be done with the time period of the Skywalker Saga in standalone movies or Disney+ series. But none of those should revolve around the Skywalker clan like Episodes I through IX, which clearly belong to a category all their own.)
The Star Wars: Episode X announcement has us saying: Just move on. Move on already. (Seriously, how many times can you kill Palpatine?) It’s so easy to do exactly that, too. Lucasfilm could easily move on by going backward in new Star Wars movies if it wants. The galaxy’s history goes back millennia. Better, though, would be going forward. Lucasfilm can move its main story hundreds or even thousands of years into the future and still be set “a long time ago.” Instead, with this Star Wars: Episode X news, it feels like the studio is holding on to the same singular story it just finished telling. It’s frustrating and feels desperate, like it’s afraid to abandon the Skywalker cash cow for uncharted territories. And that refusal to take a risk is coming at the expense of creativity and originality.
“Yes, but they botched the Skywalker Saga ending so badly they need to fix it. Star Wars: Episode X is a good thing.” you might say. But no, they don’t. They really don’t! Bad endings happen, and they stink, but they still happen. Besides, eventually people will say they didn’t botch anything. A whole generation of fans will come along in 20 years and say the sequel trilogy was “good actually,” just like the Prequel Truthers have falsely convinced themselves those movies are good. (I can say that because I love the prequel trilogy even though all three movies objectively stink.)
When Star Wars finally does move forward, so many of the things we love about this franchise—the Force, light and dark, Jedi, Sith, good, evil, sassy droids—will still exist. They’ll just exist in a world free of Anakin Skywalker’s presence and memory.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy didn’t go the way anyone hoped. But it did the most important thing fans needed: it revived the franchise. Now it’s time to take its main antagonist’s advice and let the past die. The Skywalker Saga is finished. Leave it that way and tell a whole new story. Give someone the enormous potential of the galaxy far, far away’s sandbox without telling him which action figures he must use. The possibilities of what Disney can do without the Skywalkers far outweigh anything else they can further squeeze out of Darth Vader’s kyber crystal.
But since it seems as though we’re not going to get something fresh and new, at least it sounds like we’re getting the most interesting version of Episode X we could hope for. And it will do so in a way that will also address the biggest creative failing of its predecessor trilogy.
The Good News About Star Wars: Episode X
The Watts news also includes the tidbit that Disney has “shelved” Daisy Ridley’s New Jedi Order movie. Rey is a fantastic character who transcended the sequel trilogy’s issues thanks to Daisy Ridley’s performance. But the premise of that movie also felt like more of the same. Since Rey adopted Skywalker as her name and legacy, even a standalone film about her rebuilding the Order felt like a pseudo-Episode X movie. (Especially as the whole premise “rhymed” with Luke’s post-Return of the Jedi life.)
This new trilogy will seemingly instead focus on all new characters, with Ridley playing a much smaller role to start. This is a far more interesting creative choice, which means the trilogy won’t be as Skywalker Saga-heavy as it might sound. The new characters were the best part of the sequel trilogy. This approach could even mean Episodes X, XI, and XII end up being more of a fourth Skywalker trilogy in name rather than actuality.
If that’s the point—that Disney wants to capitalize on the financial aspect of saying these movies are part of the Skywalker Saga without actually making this trilogy about the Skywalkers—fine. Fine! Great, even. Make your money, so long as we get good, creative, original, engaging films. If this means Disney is simply going to use the term “Skywalker Saga” as a catchall for its main series of films (told in trilogy form) we’ll adjust our expectations in the best way.
Nerdist Take: Call Star Wars: Episode X Part of the Skywalker Saga Trilogy, But Tell New Stories Please
The issue we have with the announcement of Star Wars: Episode X is not telling “more stories.” It’s telling “more Skywalker stories.” If Disney does that in name only, who cares? Just give us a good trilogy about the eternal battle between light and dark. And if you can do that while also including Rey, Poe, Finn, BB-8, Jar-Jar, Mon Mothma, and anyone else from the previous three trilogies, that’s not inherently bad. In many cases, it might be good. It will depend on whether the movies are good.
The easiest way to make them good is to have a plan before making them. The ping-pong nature of the sequel trilogy was a disaster. The Last Jedi felt like it said everything teased in The Force Awakens didn’t matter. The Rise of Skywalker then undid all of the work of the second installment. It was an awful non-strategy to making a trilogy, one Lucasfilm seems intent on avoiding this time. It has hired one writer to write all three films. There is clearly a plan in place this time when there clearly wasn’t one before. And that plan will remain in place whether Watts directs all three or not.
“A new Skywalker Saga trilogy” is the last thing we wanted from Lucasfilm. We want a whole new story set during an entirely different era untouched by Anakin Skywalker and his kids. But what we most want from Star Wars are “good movies.” And, in true Star Wars fashion, there’s at least a reason to hope Star Wars: Episode X will begin a run of three.
The post Good News/Bad News About Jon Watts’ STAR WARS: EPISODE X appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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