Star Wars' New Movie Trilogy Risks Repeating A Disney Era Curse For The 3rd Time, Following A Decade Of False Promises

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Star Wars’ newly reported movie trilogy risks repeating a Disney-era curse for a third time – how many false promises can one studio make before audiences turn on them? Since the divisive release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm has had trouble nailing down Star Wars’ theatrical slate. Many directors and writers have come and gone, with movies announced and subsequently canceled or simply fizzling out, never to be seen again. That all finally started to change at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London, when no less than four new Star Wars movies were officially announced.

Interestingly, though, all of those movies are individual, one-off stories – even the Rey-centric New Jedi Order movie. While The Mandalorian & Grogu and the as-yet-unnamed Mandalorian-era movie will certainly be tied to the overarching New Republic narrative, they aren’t part of an ongoing movie series, and James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi will explore a completely unknown period of the Star Wars timeline. These movies are exciting, but Star Wars was built on trilogies. That’s why Simon Kinberg’s rumored Star Wars trilogy is such an intriguing prospect, and yet, there’s a certain level of apprehension, as well.

This Is The Third Reported New Trilogy

Prior to the financially successful but widely panned release of The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm had big plans. In 2017, Lucasfilm announced a trilogy led by none other than Rian Johnson, who directed the equally divisive second installment of the sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. While Johnson’s trilogy was never outright canceled, it hasn’t gone anywhere, either. Since then, Johnson has worked on hits like Knives Out, Glass Onion, and Poker Face, and there have been no other developments. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has maintained that she would still like to work with Johnson in the future, however.

Then, in early 2018, the studio announced a Star Wars trilogy spearheaded by Game of Thrones’ showrunner duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Famously, of course, the Game of Thrones final season and its finale were strongly criticized, and their star power started to decline. After the pair announced a major deal with Netflix, their arrangement with Lucasfilm was officially called off in October 2019. It’s impossible to say whether this was solely because of their handling of Game of Thrones, but it’s certainly plausible.

Now, it’s recently been revealed that Simon Kinberg, who co-created Star Wars Rebels and worked on major franchises like Fox’s X-Men, will be developing a new Star Wars trilogy. The details about the Kinberg trilogy are meager and even conflicting – some reports say that this trilogy is meant to be Episodes 10-12, while others say that it will present something entirely new – but still. If Simon Kinberg’s movies are officially announced at Star Wars Celebration 2025, which will take place in Japan in April, then there’s a real chance Lucasfilm is serious about developing this idea. There’s just one snag.

Disney Didn't Even Announce This New Star Wars Trilogy

disney every release Star wars original trilogy

Since the sequel trilogy, Disney Star Wars has had a real issue with announcing projects too early. They either languish in development limbo, are canceled because of scheduling issues, or actors being fired – as was the case with the Disney+ show Rangers of the New Republic, which has been absorbed into The Mandalorian and Ahsoka with varying degrees of success – or financial disappointment. Star Wars originally planned to produce a slew of anthology movies under the “A Star Wars Story” umbrella, but after Solo: A Star Wars Story failed to deliver at the box office, that idea was shuttered forever too.

5 Realistic Possibilities For What Star Wars' New Movie Trilogy Could Be About, From Episodes 10-12 To The Old Republic

Simon Kinberg is working on a new Star Wars trilogy... and here are the best options for what these new movies could actually be about!

Almost everyone will agree that Disney should refrain from announcing Star Wars projects until there’s a clear direction and the stories are genuinely in development. That certainly seems to have been the case with the aforementioned Star Wars movies now in the works, but this new trilogy is a different story entirely. The news of Kinberg’s trilogy wasn’t even officially announced by Lucasfilm, it was simply reported in the trades, with multiple anonymous sources confirming wholly different ideas. Disney and Lucasfilm have yet to respond. This news has, undoubtedly, put Star Wars in a precarious situation.

Lucasfilm Need To Tread Carefully To Avoid Disappointing Again

With Star Wars Celebration on the horizon once more, anticipation is reaching an all-time high. If they announced four theatrical releases last time, how will they ever be able to top that? A new Star Wars trilogy would certainly be worthy of a major announcement and its very own main stage panel. However, if, after this most recent (and unconfirmed) announcement, nothing is revealed about Kinberg’s reported trilogy during SWC, audiences will likely feel let down, annoyed, and perhaps even betrayed.

If, after this most recent announcement, nothing is revealed about Kinberg’s reported trilogy during Star Wars Celebration, audiences will likely feel let down, annoyed, and perhaps even betrayed.

Hollywood is a fickle machine. Concepts and scripts come and go all the time. Star Wars, however, has one of the most loyal (and rabid) fanbases in the world – there’s only so many times you can tell them something will happen and then rip it away a few months later without causing panic or backlash. As far as we know, it’s not Lucasfilm or Disney’s fault that the news of Simon Kinberg’s Star Wars trilogy was seemingly leaked early, but they need to proceed with caution.

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Star Wars

Star Wars is a multimedia franchise that started in 1977 by creator George Lucas. After the release of Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope (originally just titled Star Wars), the franchise quickly exploded, spawning multiple sequels, prequels, TV shows, video games, comics, and much more. After Disney acquired the rights to the franchise, they quickly expanded the universe on Disney+, starting with The Mandalorian.