Kathleen Kennedy Shares New Details About Daisy Ridley's 'Star Wars' Movie
By Kristin Myers on April 13, 2023 at 10:00 AM EDT
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is sharing even more news about the galaxy far, far away after Star Wars Celebration wrapped up in London earlier this week.
Three new movies were announced, as well as updates involving many new Disney+ series, including “Ahsoka,” “The Acolyte,” “Skeleton Crew,” and the second season of “Andor.”
However, there are some details that weren’t shared on stage that Star Wars fans definitely want to know about concerning all three of the new movies that were announced.
Kathleen Kennedy Reveals The ‘Crawl’ Is Making A Return For All ‘Star Wars’ Movies
The opening crawl should be at the beginning of ever Star Wars movie until the end of time pic.twitter.com/3CBUOWNLIe
— Mushroomcloud1 💭 (@Mushroomcloud16) April 10, 2023
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly at Star Wars Celebration London, Kathleen Kennedy admitted that the opening text crawl was going to make a return. Although it has been used for most “Star Wars” movies, it was notably absent for “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Kennedy confirmed that the crawl would return for the next movie starring Daisy Ridley as Rey, which will take place fifteen years after “The Rise of Skywalker.” When asked if the crawl would only open films directly related to the Skywalker Saga, Kennedy replied, “No. The crawl is for movies.”
She also revealed more about what Lucasfilm’s plans are for the movie, which wants to see how the galaxy begins to take shape after the First Order was defeated.
“As we move into the future space — this story is about 15 years outside of The Rise of Skywalker — obviously we realized post-war, post–First Order rise of the New Jedi Order, we left episode 9 with Rey making a commitment to Luke Skywalker that she would rebuild the Jedi Order,” Kennedy said.
“And so here we are — we're ready to do that. And it took a lot of discussion because obviously we've been developing stories in different spaces, and television has been a big focus of our attention right now,” she continued. “But there's still so much interest in what happens after The Rise of Skywalker. So we're excited to be doing that.”
So far, Rey is the only character from the sequel trilogy confirmed to return. When asked if any other characters would be making a return, Kennedy laughed and said, “It’s entirely possible to see some people come back.”
Kathleen Kennedy Also Sheds Light On The New James Mangold Movie
The “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold is trading one Harrison Ford franchise for another as his own movie set in the “Star Wars” universe was announced at Star Wars Celebration. His movie will focus on the first Jedi and the origin story of the Force.
“We've been talking a lot about going well into the past, and one of the things that's really knitting this all together, obviously, are the Jedi,” Kennedy said. “What happened with the Jedi over time? How did the Jedi evolve? They were wiped out with Order 66. Then they gradually have been coming back.”
Eventually, she is hoping to link the origin story of the Force with Rey’s journey to rebuild the Jedi Order fifteen years after “The Rise of Skywalker.” Kennedy continued, “The question we're going to ask with the New Jedi Order and Rey is, does the galaxy need them anymore? Do they want them back? So there's a lot of food for thought in what we're doing, whether it's in the past, present, or future.”
Dave Filoni Will Also Combine ‘The Mandalorian’ Timeline Into A Movie
Right now, the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Ahsoka,” and “Skeleton Crew” all take place in the same universe. But are there any plans to tie all these different series together?
That’s where creative boss Dave Filoni comes in. The third movie Star Wars Celebration announced was Filoni’s New Republic-era film, although Kennedy hesitated to say that it will only involve just those four series.
“I hesitate to say it's a big meetup from just those because Dave has been developing Star Wars storytelling inside Clone Wars and Rebels and so much of the work he has done for 20 years,” Kennedy admitted. “So it will be little bits of all of that. There are a lot of sources he's drawing from to see where we're going.”
No release date for any of the three movies announced at the Star Wars Celebration fan event has been revealed, but according to the Disney release calendar, the next Star Wars film expected to hit theaters is December 2025, six years after 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker."