This Year, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: 2023 Was the Year of Publicly Rebuilding ‘Star Wars’
Welcome to a special, New Year’s Eve edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away“. For those who maybe haven’t been following, this is a weekly space on Star Wars News Net where I recap some of the biggest news of the past week in Star Wars and add some analysis and context to them, in the style of a newsletter. It’s an informal and direct way to communicate with our readers, and I always ask you to let me know your thoughts via our several ways of contact, including the comment section below.
But with this being not only the last piece of this kind of the year, but also the last day of the year, there is no better way to end it than doing a detailed look back at what 2023 has meant for Star Wars. In particular, we’ll be focusing on the place 2023 will have in this new era of Star Wars. If you want a full recap of the biggest news headlines of the year, you may check out the piece Jay and I wrote on the matter, and if you want to share your favorite Star Wars memories of the year, check out our latest SWNN Roundtable, in which members of the staff pitched in with theirs. I’m also working on my Top 15 2023 movies for our sister site MovieNewsNet.com, as well as the 24 most anticipated movies of 2024. Be on the lookout for that soon!
No recurring segments this week, let’s get right to it.
2023 Was the Year of Publicly Rebuilding Star Wars
The hard thing about playing a historian of Star Wars is that the story is still evolving, and whatever conclusions we try to reach here from the short peaks we’re given behind the curtain might be deemed obsolete in a few months. As we look back at the past few years, it seems clear that there was a big transition that happened at the end of 2019. That was the year that the first era of Disney’s Lucasfilm was closed, and another one began. We’re not discussing the quality of output here, that’s for you to decide. We’re just examining the facts. Bear with me for a second as we go through memory lane.
2020 and the Transition Into TV
In the fall of 2019, Disney released the final film in the Skywalker Saga, closing out a five-year period focused on bringing the franchise back to the big screen. And though the experiment was financially successful, it took a giant toll on Lucasfilm’s resources, which was part of the reason why they pivoted to another medium with another event that happened that season: the release of their first-ever live-action series The Mandalorian. 2020 acted as the transition period to TV, in which they started taking in pitches from several filmmakers and developing other Disney Plus series left and right: The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Andor, The Acolyte, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Lando were all either conceived or developed during that year. They even sought to bring in a new head of physical production (“Mo” SenGupta) who was a TV expert (she came from Netflix’s TV division) — she was hired in January 2021.
They knew that at some point they wanted to get back to film, which meant they couldn’t overlook that department for the time being. They tossed around some ideas, including Rogue Squadron from Patty Jenkins and an untitled film from Taika Waititi that he would co-write with 1917‘s Krysty Wilson-Cairns. But Waititi was busy with Thor 4 for the time being, so they didn’t really have to worry about that for a minute, and though they initially set Rogue Squadron for December 2023, they probably never really committed to that project. It was thrown out the window a few months later when Jenkins also shifted her attention to Wonder Woman 3. Did Lucasfilm genuinely want to make Rogue Squadron or was it always meant to be something they could release while they figured out what to do on the features?
2021: Let’s Get Serious About Films
In (late) 2021 they decided it was time to actually start thinking about the film slate and figuring out a plan: “What do we want to do, exactly? Is the Old Republic something worth exploring, or should we move further into the future, post-Rise of Skywalker?”
That was a big transition year for them, in which they not only scrapped Rogue Squadron, but I’m willing to bet they also told Guillermo del Toro “Thanks but no thanks” on his Jabba the Hutt movie (which I think started in a previous “figuring out” phase in 2017-2018, in which they also heard from other filmmakers like Louis Leterrier). David S. Goyer said that this happened “four years ago”, but was that when the script was written or when the project was discarded? Maybe I’m off for a few months. Goyer also said that he wrote a scriptment for an “origins of the Jedi movie” that took place 25,000 years before The Phantom Menace. Does that sound familiar?
Also in 2021, Kathleen Kennedy started a closer relationship with James Mangold, who was knee-deep directing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the time. My bet is that they pitched Goyer another idea to develop as compensation for the Jabba the Hutt film, and that was one of the things they were considering in 2021. Kennedy discussed it with Mangold and he probably said “That sounds fun, but I wanna do it my way”, which is why he’s now supposed to write it on top of directing it. (Will Goyer get any writing credit for it? I’m curious!)
That second half of 2021 probably included a lot of meetings with directors as they tried to figure out what to do with the films, now that they had the TV division sort of under control. Some names that maybe met with Lucasfilm then: Watchmen creator Damon Lindelof, who got a green light for a script, Free Guy director Shawn Levy, Halloween director David Gordon Green, and Nomadland Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (we know she was not going to direct Kevin Feige’s film, but what if she met with Lucasfilm for another project?)
2022: Rebuilding Star Wars Internally
2022 was then the year of rebuilding the Star Wars film division internally: “Damon Lindelof wants to do a post-Rise of Skywalker story with an elder Rey? Alright, so let’s do this the right way and put together a writers’ room to figure out how to start from there. We’ll also sign Shawn Levy and James Mangold so they can come to work for us by the time they’re done with their next project. Taika is still busy, but Donald Glover’s schedule is getting cleared out — and he wants to revisit that Lando idea we’d discussed! Also, now that it seems we know where we’re going with these Mandalorian-era storylines, let’s discuss that ‘culmination event’ concept again.”
I’m also willing to bet that Kennedy and/or some of the top brass at Lucasfilm started having second thoughts about Lindelof’s idea of moving on with an elder Rey, and obviously, I understand: If you’re going to revisit that character, why recast it when Daisy Ridley is still there and her CAA agents are desperate to get her face back on a movie poster again? And if you want to rebuild the Jedi Order many decades after Luke, Han, and Leia’s death, why not just do 200 years and do it from scratch? (I don’t know if this is what caused them to have second thoughts or if the story was just not coming along as they’d maybe hoped, though.) But with all of that in mind, they probably thought: “You know what? Let’s have Daisy back on speed dial again, shall we? Let’s not pitch her the idea of coming back just yet, but let’s have lunch and see what she’s up to!”
2023: Rebuilding Star Wars Publicly
In early 2023, when Lindelof’s script was due, the decision to move on had already been made. Kennedy probably wanted a Rey-centric story to be the next film on the big screen, and they didn’t have time to go back to the drawing board. The chess pieces were already in place even before Lindelof and co-writer Justin Britt-Gibson submitted their draft, as Lucasfilm probably had already contacted Steven Knight and asked him to be on hold to write a younger Rey sequel story once they got the “yay” from Ridley. That happened just a few weeks before Star Wars Celebration, which is part of the reason why they were able to keep it under wraps.
That event was key to Lucasfilm. We’d been hearing for a few weeks that Lucasfilm had plans they were going to reveal, and it was a big moment for Kathleen Kennedy. They know the skepticism that the fanbase has towards them on this particular matter, and they needed to not only come out with a bang and get everyone excited about what they had in mind, but also deliver on it. No more margin for error here. 2023 was the year in which they wanted to tell the world there is a solid future for Star Wars stories on the big screen, by announcing the three titles they are most confident in: the New Jedi Order (wt) movie starring Daisy Ridley, which will likely be the first one out the gate, the Dave Filoni movie culminating the Mandalorian-era stories, and the Dawn of the Jedi (wt) movie from James Mangold.
Three other movies remained undiscussed (and possibly a few other ideas too): the Taika Waititi film, the Shawn Levy film, and the Lando film. Taika’s film remains a mystery because even though it’s progressing, the writer-director keeps committing to other stuff, and the excuses sound pretty lame. Levy’s film is one I discussed last week: I don’t think Lucasfilm will be focused on it for the time being. And Lando is another mystery, since Stephen Glover has said they were working on the script and Donald Glover’s schedule is not that busy coming up (that we know of). Did they not announce it at Celebration because it’s not going to be theatrical? So many unanswered questions about this one. We’ll probably learn more about it as the release of Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith gets closer.
The feature film slate may be the thing that has me the most obsessed about Star Wars at the moment, but it’s far from the only thing Lucasfilm is working on, of course. And though 2023 was the year when The Mandalorian season 3 came out, it’s clear now that the spotlight was always going to be on Ahsoka. We’ll discuss a bit more about this in a few moments, but in terms of the company’s overall strategy, this was meant to be a message about what to expect from some of their future storytelling. Whether or not season 2 happens, more things like Ahsoka will be coming out, even if the ratings weren’t all there. People will eventually come.
Who Won the Year in Star Wars?
I threw this question into the chat when we were putting together Friday’s SWNN Live! YouTube show to see what my colleagues thought, and they reached similar conclusions to what I had in mind — which I was always going to discuss here. To me, Tyler got it half right: It’s obviously Dave Filoni.
It’s not just the big promotion he got as the new Chief Creative Officer, but everything that had happened up until that point. Looking back, The Mandalorian season 3 was a major step down from the previous two seasons, and it’s the one he was the least involved with. His announcement as one of the three directors of an upcoming Star Wars film was met with an uproar of excitement at the ExCel Centre in London (and around the world), and Ahsoka, his baby, the first live-action series he was the sole architect of, had people losing their minds all year long.
Moreover, he now gets royalty treatment at Lucasfilm, with one of the episodes he directed, “Shadow Warrior”, getting a small theatrical release as everyone in the company was very confident it would finally bring all Star Wars fans together. And if that wasn’t enough, Kathleen Kennedy is so confident in him that she’s given him the keys to the kingdom as overseer of all things Star Wars stories. I may have rolled my eyes every time I logged into Twitter after a new episode of Ahsoka and everything I saw was the meme of his face in the sky as if he were God, but the truth is: those memes were there. I might not be the biggest fan of the series (even if I thought the first five episodes were really strong), but from my limited point of view, I’m in the minority with that take.
Other runner-ups: Carrie Beck, who also got a big promotion after becoming the executive producer of a live-action series for the first time; Daisy Ridley, who will not unite the fanbase, but started the year going to Sundance with a small movie that didn’t get distribution until months later, and finishes it as the star (and I’d bet producer) of the next Star Wars film; Hayden Christensen, who made an even more triumphant return in Ahsoka than he did in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and has decided that he wants to give Hollywood another try; and Ray Stevenson, for warming our hearts and ripping them apart all at the same time. And Eman Esfandi and Ariana Greenblatt are 2023’s winners in my heart.
Also, I reserve the right to revisit this in a couple of years and depending on how things go with all of those film announcements, throw Kathleen Kennedy as a major contender. I mean, Dave Filoni may get all the credit for Ahsoka, but it was Kennedy who gave him the freedom to make a live-action sequel series to an animated Disney XD project, and then (probably even before Ahsoka came out) decided to make him CCO. If the Daisy Ridley-starring film is a giant success, that was also Kennedy’s call, as was picking James Mangold.
If we’re discussing winners, though, we might as well give some losers, though I won’t expand on this as much. Here are some possible ideas: Jon Favreau, who has taken a backseat to Dave Filoni as the architect of the new Star Wars and whose name often comes up next to the phrase “needs to get a writers’ room”; Bryce Dallas Howard, whose episode of The Mandalorian season 3 was a huge disappointment and who, after being praised as a revelation in live-action Star Wars TV directing, is almost forgotten now (though she’s coming back for Skeleton Crew); and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who, despite being the director of the next Star Wars movie, is barely recognized and hasn’t discussed it publicly beyond one TikTok video — and she was not on strike for six months.
Are you ready for a 2024 that will likely subvert all of our expectations for Star Wars? I can’t wait to see what the new year brings.
A Thank You To All Star Wars News Net Readers
2023 was a loaded year for our site, with a lot of new beginnings for us. We welcomed many new writers, and they are a huge part of why the site is the way it is now. We relaunched our YouTube channel with weekly livestreams in which members of the staff get together to discuss the latest in Star Wars. We also had some internal changes, with new editors and my own promotion to co-editor-in-chief at the site. And I launched this weekly series of articles where I give my thoughts on it all. The point? To connect with you, the reader, even more. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you, and we are very aware of that.
As Tyler put it in Friday’s live stream, in 2023 Star Wars News Net published 1,079 articles (including this one), 14 book reviews, 126 comic reviews, 32 TV episode reviews plus all of Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 in one sitting, and 40 articles over the 4 days of Star Wars Celebration. And the highlight of my year? Seeing one of the people in line ahead of me at the Lucasfilm Showcase panel (which I didn’t get into) updating Grant’s piece covering the live updates on the panel before it started.
Thank you all for making Star Wars News Net such a special place!
What did you think of this New Year’s Eve edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away”? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions down below in the comment section. You can also send them, or reach out with any information tips, directly via our Contact page.
Happy New Year!
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.
