Looks like Lucasfilm and Disney's momentary Star Wars film freeze is starting to thaw.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a new Star Wars project is in the works with writer Matt Owens (Luke Cage) and director J.D. Dillard (Sleight) set to develop it. And that's about it in terms of facts known at the moment! It is unknown what the plot of said project would be, what era it would be set in, or what Star Wars characters it would include. Yes, sorry to get your hopes up with the C-3PO header image, we just like Threepio's shiny golden head.
It's also not even known yet whether the project is destined for a theatrical release or will be made available on Disney streaming service Disney+. One thing that is clear is that this project (likely a film based on THR's description) is unrelated to the films expected to come from Marvel President Kevin Feige and Last Jedi director Rian Johnson.
Matt Owens is best known for writing for Marvel shows like Luke Cage and Agents of Shield. Dillard's debut film Sleight was picked up from Focus Features out of Sundance in 2016. He followed it with the well-received horror film Sweetheart in 2019.
Star Wars as a franchise has historically been accustomed to winning and winning big. That's why a recent series of only modest successes (and in some cases outright failures) seemed have slowed Star Wars momentum a bit. After Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed at the box office, The Rise of Skywalker became a critical punching bag, and the Game of Thrones creators bowed out (or were let go) from their own Star Wars series, the future of Star Wars on film was in question. So much so that Disney CEO Bob Iger conceded in 2018 that they may have expanded too quickly for George Lucas's galaxy far, far away. The next Star Wars film on Disney's calendar isn't until December 16, 2022.
But then came Disney+. Star Wars on Disney+ has been a rousing success. The streaming service launched with Jon Favreau's dusty space Western series The Mandalorian and it immediately became a big hit. The Mandalorian season 2 is set to arrive sometime in October. The Clone Wars season 7 premiered on February 21 and seems poised for big things as well. An upcoming Obi-Wan TV series was recently placed on hold to produce new scripts but that project is at least retaining prequels' star Ewan McGregor at the moment.
This is all to say that while it's unclear whether this new project is bound for theatrical release or streaming, streaming has been far more friendly to Star Wars as of late. Don't be surprised if this unnamed film becomes the first Disney+ Star Wars movie.
Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad
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