Kathleen Kennedy: Taika Waititi’s ‘Star Wars’ Script Is Two-Thirds In, ‘Rogue Squadron’ and ‘Lando’ “Still on the Books”, and More

Empire Magazine’s Summer 2023 issue came packed with a 20-page coverage on the Star Wars franchise, from its present to its future. It featured interviews with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, the cast and crew of Ahsoka, and many more. While we’ve been covering some snippets that Empire dropped in advance, subscribers have already been able to get their hands on the full issue, which hits shells on May 11, and they’ve already made their way into the subreddit r/StarWarsLeaks. In this piece you may find some of the highlights from Empire‘s conversation with Kennedy.

 

Perhaps most notably, Kathleen Kennedy has been asked once again about many of the projects that they’ve been announcing over the past few years, and on which we’ve seen little progress. For instance, one question that always pops up is related to Rian Johnson and his once-announced trilogy of films. Kennedy went back to her previous statements, saying that they are talking all the time, but Johnson is just too busy:

 

“Rian and I talk all the time. He just keeps getting more and more successful, and it keeps moving things back further and further. One day we’ll figure this out.”

 

That Kennedy and Johnson had a really good relationship working on The Last Jedi was quite evident at the time, so it’s really no surprise that the two kept in touch. Now, whether these conversations are Star Wars-related, or it’s just Kennedy trying to get her hands on the latest Benoit Blanc script, we can’t really tell. But it sure seems like we’re not going to see any Star Wars film from Johnson this decade.

 

Rian Johnson

 

And speaking on things that were once announced and that are ultimately unlikely to happen, Lando and Rogue Squadron. Interestingly enough, both were announced on the same day, during Disney’s Investor Day 2020, and, next to A Droid Story, are the only projects that haven’t seen much development. The history of Rogue Squadron has been well documented, or at least what the press has revealed (you can check out an extensive breakdown here), yet Lando has seen very little development over the years.

 

At the time, it was only announced that Dear White People‘s Justin Simien was developing an event series titled Lando, but we didn’t have any other names linked to it. (We all assumed it would be Donald Glover donning the capes, but it wasn’t until a year ago that we got semi-confirmation on that.) At the time, Simien was working on finalizing the last season of Netflix’s Dear White People, which aired in September 2021, but instead of focusing on Lando next, he moved on to direct Disney’s Haunted Mansion, which bows in theaters this July. Since then, he’s also signed up to direct a Flashdance reboot for Paramount Plus and a docuseries with Forest Whitaker focused on the Black Experience in cinema history. We don’t know if he’s still in conversations with Lucasfilm about Lando, especially since every time Kennedy is asked about the show, she dodges the question and attributes it to Glover’s busy schedule. She told Empire:

 

Lando is still on the books, and Rogue Squadron is still on the books. We just want them to be great.”

 

Lando Star Wars Series

 

Another film that is still on the books, but perhaps in a more advanced stage, is Taika Waititi’s untitled film. A recent report by Deadline hinted that the filmmaker, despite signing up for every project under the Sun, still wants to make his Star Wars movie and would like to shoot it next year. Kennedy provided a small update here, saying that the script is coming together, especially the first and second acts, but they still need to find a resolution for it. (We’d like to think that they have an outline in place and they have a general idea of how the character arcs will conclude, they just need to put pen to paper and actually write it. We hope, at least.) She said:

 

“Taika is working away. He’s just, and he won’t get mad at me for saying this, slow. We’ve got a couple of acts, we need a third.”

 

Taika Waititi will develop a Star Wars film

 

One movie we do know is happening, at least for now, is the yet-untitled New Jedi Order film, from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and writer Steven Knight, which will bring back Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker (all of the above has now been confirmed by Kennedy). The impact of the writers’ strike on this project, whose script was a few weeks away from completing a new draft when the stoppage was announced, is still unknown. Regardless, Kennedy wouldn’t provide many new details about the series, other than mentioning Rey will be basing the new Order on what she learned from the Jedi books she stole in The Last Jedi:

 

“The First Order has fallen, the Jedi are in chaos — there’s even a question of how many exist anymore — and Rey’s building the New Jedi Order, based on the text that she was given and that Luke imparted on her.”

 

If everything goes according to plan, that movie should be the next one in line, and if the targeted production schedule is followed, we could have it in theaters by December 19, 2025.

 

Star Wars Celebration 2023
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: (L-R) Daisy Ridley, Kathleen Kennedy and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attend the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)

 

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Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.

Miguel Fernandez

Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.

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