As Star Wars moves away from the core story, Kathleen Kennedy says the films will still have a distinct shared universe. That goes for movies that will take place thousands of years apart in terms of the story.
Lucasfilm president sat down with GamesRadar+ while promoting Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to speak on some future Star Wars projects. Kennedy dishes about the upcoming Rey Skywalker film and the ‘Dawn of the Jedi’ project from the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold.
“I think what’s always great about Star Wars is it’s a big galaxy, and we’re coming off what was a major war with the First Order,” says Kennedy. “And now, Rey has made a promise to Luke, and that’s really the core of where we’re going and what this story will be. And I think it offers just tremendous opportunity to introduce new characters and start with something fresh because we culminated with what George [Lucas] was creating. Now we take all of that and move it to the next chapter.”
The conversation then shifts to the two announced Star Wars movies, one from James Mangold about the origin of The Force and another focusing on Rey from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Kennedy speaks to how those will fit together, even though Mangold’s film focuses on the past. Looking at The Force’s origins, she explains, “That’s come up a lot; from the moment I stepped in, and George brought me into the company, there’s been a lot of interest in that.”
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Expect a connective tissue between the project as well, with Kennedy adding: “It was something that Jim [Mangold] immediately sparked to, and I think it’s a really nice compliment to what we’re doing with moving into the future with Rey and then understanding a bit more of where this all came from. Because it will be at the heart of creating the new Jedi Order, so to get a real sense of where that might have began with the dawn of the Jedi could be pretty cool.”
The next major Star Wars project will be the Disney+ series, Star Wars: Ahsoka. The series will premiere on the streaming service on August 23rd.