Director Taika Waititi has revealed that his upcoming Star Wars venture will not rely on familiar characters and that it will “expand” the universe. To the disappointment of everyone, he does state unequivocally that his Star Wars movies will not feature Chewbacca’s grandmother. Waititi discussed his plans for a galaxy far, far away with Total Film, with the filmmaker teasing his aspirations for bringing something new to the long-running franchise.

"Look, I think for the Star Wars universe to expand, it has to expand. I don't think that I'm any use in the Star Wars universe making a film where everyone's like, 'Oh great, well that's the blueprints to the Millennium Falcon, ah that's Chewbacca's grandmother.' That all stands alone, that's great, though I would like to take something new and create some new characters and just expand the world, otherwise it feels like it's a very small story."

Star Wars projects under the Disney umbrella so far have relied rather heavily on what has come before, with the likes of the sequel trilogy featuring beloved characters Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo, with even small screen outings such as The Mandalorian containing nods to already established characters like Yoda.

While Waititi is clearly not against what Disney has done with Star Wars so far (he appeared as IG-11 in The Mandalorian, after all), Taika Waititi wants to put his stamp on the Star Wars universe, and introduce a host of new characters and expand on the potential inherent in the franchise more than ever before.

Waititi’s vision for Star Wars, though, will retain some familiar, expected elements, with the director saying he is “still writing” before adding, "Because, I could say, 'Oh yeah, we'll write any old thing and set in space and then put Star Wars on the front.' But it wouldn't be a Star Wars film without certain elements and a certain treatment, so I've just got to make sure that it stays within that wheelhouse."

Star Wars Will Eventually Go Back to the Characters Introduced in the Disney Sequel Trilogy

While Waititi plans to move away from the familiar and into the unknown, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy recently revealed that there are plans in place to take audiences back to the world of the Disney sequels. “We’re moving further beyond the existing sequels as we look to our movie space,” she said. “The sequel era] is what we talk a lot about in terms of where we’re going with our movies, and just how far out from that we’ll go. That’s very much the space we’re concentrating on.”

There should be plenty of room to introduce new elements to the wide world of Star Wars, however, as Kennedy has also assured (or perhaps threatened) that the franchise could go on forever. "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,” Kennedy explained. “So it could go on forever, to be perfectly honest. If we have good storytellers, it will go on forever."

Taika Waititi's Star Wars project does not yet have a release date, but Kathleen Kennedy has said that we should expect to see it sometime in 2023.