The Skywalker saga ended with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019, but the franchise is set to continue with several new films.
The first of these will be “New Jedi Order,” a film set fifteen years later than the sequel trilogy as it follows Rey (Daisy Ridley) rebuilding the Jedi Order.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will direct this film from a screenplay by Steven Knight, with the film looking likely to begin filming in the spring of 2024 ahead of a May 2026 release.
Speaking to Total Film (via GamesRadar) at the launch of ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate’ this week, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said the film will be about starting the franchise’s ‘next chapter’. :
“I think what’s always great about Star Wars is that it’s a big galaxy, and we’re coming out of a major war with the First Order. And now Rey has made a promise to Luke and that’s is really the heart of where we’re going and what this story will be.
I think it provides a great opportunity to introduce new characters and start with something new, because we culminated with what George [Lucas] was creating, and now we’re taking all of that and moving it to the next chapter.
Kennedy also teases that the film will have ties to one of the other ‘Star Wars’ films in development on the other end of the timeline – James Mangold’s ‘Dawn of the Jedi’, set 25,000 years before the Skywalker saga:
“It was something that Jim [Mangold] immediately sparked, and I think that’s a really nice compliment to what we’re doing moving forward into the future with Rey, and then figuring out a little bit more where this all came from. Because it’ll be central to the creation of the New Jedi Order, so getting a real sense of where it may have started with Dawn of the Jedi might be pretty cool.
Another “Star Wars” movie is slated for December 18, 2026, but it’s not yet known if it will be the Mangold movie or Dave Filoni’s team-up movie Mandovere.
The next “Star Wars” project on the horizon is the “Ahsoka” TV series, which will air in August. A new take on the series is set to debut at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans, which will air live on Hulu Friday through Sunday. So, we could upload the next trailer for the show as soon as this weekend.