A new Star Wars movie is getting set to enter production, and this flick will be groundbreaking for more reasons than one. Sleight writer-director J.D. Dillard and Luke Cage writer Matt Owens have been contracted to put together the new movie backed by Lucasfilm. Should the eventual project move from the very early stages into a full-fledged film, it would mark the first time in the long-running series a Star Wars picture was staffed with all-black creative leads.
Variety reports the project is still in its early stages. Any conversation about the characters, plot or locations of the new Star Wars title is still very much under wraps. Among the questions still up in the air is whether or not Dillard will direct and if this will head to the big screen or is planned for Disney Plus. For its part, Disney is not willing to talk about its plans, and that adds a level of murkiness to the news.
Rian Johnson is also someone who has been tapped to start a new series of films, though it isn’t known yet when production on that expected trilogy is going to start. Johnson is also on board with a Knives Out sequel.
Depending on the timing of both projects, the Star Wars movie being created by Owens and Dillard could hit screens first. What does seem to be clear is that this isn’t another series but a feature film instead. With the way production has worked on the series since Disney Plus launched, that doesn’t mean it being a movie slated for the network is out of the question, either.
It’s also known this will be a story that diverges entirely from the first nine films. The Skywalker saga was officially brought to an end in Rise of Skywalker . While some fans of the original nine films were sorry to see it come to a close, there were others, including actors in the Star Wars cinematic universe, who were more than happy to see it put to rest forever.
As Variety points out, there are three dates in which new movies are set to debut — December 2022, December 2024, and December 2026. While the release dates have been announced, there are no titles currently attached to them. It’s not even known if another trilogy is planned, or whether one or all of these will be standalone pictures. It stands to reason — with Johnson’s schedule and work on a Knives Out follow-up already started — that Owens and Dillard could have their Star Wars project be one, or more, of those slated for those future dates, assuming the films are destined for theaters.
