Simon Kinberg to Write and Direct a Star Wars Trilogy
According to an exclusive report from Variety, Simon Kinberg is working on a Star Wars trilogy for Lucasfilm that he will write and produce, the latest in an ever-growing list of announced films. That would be normal for a big Hollywood studio, but Lucasfilm is unique in that we rarely see the projects come to fruition. Kinberg is best known for his work on Fox’s X-Men franchise, although he also co-created the animated series Star Wars: Rebels with Dave Filoni and Carrie Beck and consulted on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Within the X-Men movie series, Kinberg directed X-Men: Dark Phoenix after writing X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, and 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, and producing 2011’s X-Men: First Class, 2016’s Deadpool, and 2017’s Logan. Lucasfilm denies that this mysterious trilogy of films will continue the Skywalker story started by George Lucas with the original Star Wars. Lucasfilm still has Jon Favreau’s Mandalorian movie The Mandalorian and Grogu, Dave Filoni’s Mandalorian-timeline movie, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order, and James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi on order. Interestingly, the only one of these films with anything to show is Favreau’s, with a sizzle reel being shown at D23 earlier this year. This Mandalorian spinoff film will be Star Wars’ first foray into theaters since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. The sequel trilogy made progressively less money, dropping by almost half from The Force Awakens to The Rise of Skywalker. The prequel Solo: a Star Wars Story is the only Star Wars film to ever lose money, and the smaller projects on Disney+ have had mixed results financially and critically. The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi drew good streaming numbers, and Andor is a critical darling, but the shows rarely achieve both.
Why does Lucasfilm keep announcing new Star Wars movie projects when they clearly can’t get the ones they already announced made? The Rian Johnson trilogy, Benioff and Weiss’ movie, Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron, Taika Waititi’s movie, and more have languished in production hell or been outright canceled. They can get one, two, or even three shows out on Disney+ in a single calendar year, but one movie since 2019 is too much to ask. And don’t get me wrong; after the sequels, Solo, and even Rogue One (which I know a lot of people actually liked, but I didn’t), I’m not that eager to see a new Star Wars movie. I will see it when one actually comes out, and I hope it’s good, but their inability to produce one at all is simultaneously sad, funny, and embarrassing. I don’t understand how it’s productive or at all helpful to announce more movies instead of trying to actually finish one.
As for Simon Kinberg, I actually don’t have any strong feelings for or against him. I liked Dark Phoenix, although I know a lot of people didn’t. The X-Men movies are a mixed bag, both the ones he worked on and in general. However, they could announce that Brad Bird was working on a Star Wars movie, and I wouldn’t care because they never actually get made! Kathleen Kennedy can’t seem to get along with any of the talent she hires, so these films may be doomed by virtue of that more than who’s attached to them or what the concept is. No concept was announced, by the way.
But what do you think? Do you like Simon Kinberg’s filmography, and do you think he’s the right choice to shepherd Star Wars’ next trilogy? Is there any real hope of the film succeeding or even being made? Let us know in the comments!
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