Kathleen Kennedy Discusses Possibility of More High Republic-Era Shows, Introducing More Fan-Favorite Characters to Live-Action ‘Star Wars’
We’re barely a week past the most recent Star Wars Celebration event, which gave us sneak peeks at the multiple series in production, and unveiled that three new live-action Star Wars movies are headed our way. However, news and speculation regarding future Star Wars projects rarely ceases, and fans naturally remain curious as to what lies in store on the big and small screen for the galaxy far, far away.
Luckily, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was recently available to shed a little light on these questions. Entertainment Weekly interviewed Kennedy at Celebration to find out more about the future may hold for Star Wars television.
First, EW asked Kennedy if there were any plans for more High Republic-era shows, given that The Acolyte will be the first live-action project set in that time period. Kennedy’s response, while vague, does seem to suggest that Lucasfilm is considering the possibility:
“It could be, because one of the things we talked about in publishing was, how we could begin to incubate certain ideas. And in the case of the High Republic, there’s been some wonderful storytelling that’s gone on there. It’s not necessarily what Leslye [Headland] is doing with The Acolyte, but it certainly opens up the possibilities for being able to tell stories in that space.”
Ever since Star Wars started expanding past the boundaries of the original trilogy, writers have had several eras to choose from when telling new stories in the beloved universe. Stories set in time periods well before or after the movies have entertained fans for decades, so it’s good that Lucasfilm is thinking about making shows that don’t take place anywhere close to the Skywalker Saga.
That said, television isn’t the only medium where Star Wars has found success lately. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases in less than two weeks, and the excitement around Respawn’s video game series has led some fans to wonder if any characters from those games will get live-action adventures soon. Sadly, it doesn’t look like there are any such plans for the near future:
“I’ve seen a lot of chatter online about that. [Laughs] It could be really interesting. It’s not something that’s front and center right at the moment, but what’s interesting in the company that we do is that everybody across all these different lines of business, we all talk to one another. That often doesn’t happen in situations like this, but because so many of the people at Lucasfilm, are used to working together, we’re very transparent about what the storytelling is that’s going on – whether it’s in the streaming space or the movie space, or books, animation, games, whatever it is. Eventually, it’ll be some kind of immersive entertainment.”
Next, Kennedy spoke about how Lucasfilm decides which projects to make as movies and which ones would work better as streaming shows:
“I think your question is one of the most interesting ones facing many of us who are doing high end premiere television, because there are so many things we can do in streaming now where we do massive effects. We really increase the scale and size of these stories. And I certainly find myself personally looking at, well, what is that distinction that moves something onto the big screen versus the smaller screen? And it’s usually the intimacy of the character-driven stories that you try to really push in the television space, and then the spectacle that you can still preserve in the movie space.”
Lastly, Kennedy reiterated her previous stance regarding whether or not Obi-Wan Kenobi will get another season. She didn’t fully shut the door on doing more with the character, but if the famed Jedi Master is revisited, it may not be in a second season of his own show:
“You know, I always hesitate to say, “No, we won’t do anything more with Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Maybe what we end up doing is something that gets incorporated into some of the other stories we’re doing, or eventually into a movie. Who knows? But right now it’s still our standalone limited series. We have no plans for expansion right now.”
While Kennedy’s answers may prove disappointing to those wanting to see Cameron Monaghan play Cal Kestis in live-action or see more of Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, fans can at least rest easy knowing that plenty of new Star Wars content is on the way. Whether you prefer movies or television, animated or live-action, video games or books and comics, there’s lots to enjoy coming soon.
Eric has been a fan of Star Wars ever since the age of five (or so) when his parents sat him down in front of a TV with pizza and a Sprite and showed him the original trilogy. He keeps trying to convince more fans to read the amazing 1980s Star Wars newspaper comics by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson. When he's not reading, watching or playing Star Wars media, he's often enjoying other great fantasy and science fiction sagas or playing roleplaying games with his friends.
