In the world of cinema and television, there are certain franchises that it is hard to believe will ever stop. One of those is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has dramatically continued to expand and break box office records, seemingly ensuring that the superhero genre will never fall out of favor again. The other is Star Wars, which this week celebrated its 45th anniversary with a very special Star Wars Celebration that ushered in some teases about what is coming next for the space-based franchise, which according to Kathleen Kennedy could “go on forever.”
Star Wars Celebration delivered a number of treats, including the first trailer for Rogue One spin-off prequel series Andor, new details about the return of The Mandalorian, and other announcements. However while speaking to Variety at the event, Lucasfilm president Kennedy was more than happy to confirm that there is a lot more to come from Star Wars in the near, and distant, future. She said:
"We're continuing to expand on Mandalorian. Ahsoka is the next iteration of that. And then what Jon Watts is doing with his show. It gives us different places on the timeline to look at, because there is this persistent story of Star Wars. That's what we're building on. So rather than thinking that we're just going to go do a one-off story, we're constantly thinking about what does this really mean inside the long saga and mythology that George Lucas created. So it could go on forever, to be perfectly honest. If we have good storytellers, it will go on forever."
Star Wars Movies Are Going to Be the Future of the Franchise, But Not Rogue Squadron
Recently, Kathleen Kennedy explained what the plan is for the Star Wars franchise in the future. While there will be a continuation of the TV series' that have been proving very successful on Disney+, there is a plan to get Star Wars back into cinemas as was the plan a few years ago before movies like Solo: A Star Wars Story was not as well received as expected. The one movie that was on the horizon is Rogue Squadron, but that movie doesn’t seem to fit with the current plan and has been “pushed to one side” for now. That is something Kennedy discussed while talking about Star Wars’ future. She previously said:
"We have a road map [for Star Wars feature films]. I would say that Taika [Waititi's] story fits more specifically into that. Rogue Squadron…we kind of pushed off to the side for the moment. Patty is developing the script further. Then we will talk about how that connects to the central spine that we're working on. There's a couple of [filmmakers] that we've been in conversation with over quite a long period of time that I'm hoping will come in and make the overall commitment that Jon [Favreau] and Dave [Filoni] have made. That's ideally what I would love to see happen in the feature space."