The Disney era of Star Wars is in full swing, with the sequel trilogy, series including Star Wars Rebels, and standalone films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story already watched by the many Star Wars fans of the world. But, Disney is set to explore even more of the vast Star Wars universe through a slew of films and series that are to be released in the coming years.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is the next to be released – hitting cinemas on May 25, 2018 – with Star Wars Episode IX, the last of J.J. Abrams’ reboot trilogy, currently penciled in for December 20, 2019. While more titles are yet to be announced, there’s no doubt that there is more on the way. But the question is: what will these new films explore, and who will helm them?
Flip the script, explore the dark side
While the prequel trilogy didn’t sit well with some of the original Star Wars fans of the 70s and 80s, they captivated a new generation of Star Wars fans with exciting battles, an intriguing expanded character roster, and the story that forged Darth Vader. Exploring the times before the rise of Darth Vader and Darth Sidious, possibly even Sidious’ rise to sith lord, could prove to be very interesting. An incredible trilogy of films which has been very successful with film fans and has expanded its popularity into other genres, as Star Wars has, is the Planet of the Apes reboot.
Rise, Dawn, and War for the Planet of the Apes flipped the script and focussed on the apes and their rise to prominence, with the humans often portrayed as the enemy. The films are very well made and written and the franchise is something that Star Wars could be inspired by – showing the other side of the story and its origins. The popularity of the Planet of the Apes reboot is so great that it became a popular game. Now, you can play the latest movie-themed casino games online at Betsafe, including Planet of the Apes. Even though Electronic Arts has been distinctly lackluster with its exclusive rights to make Star Wars games, everyone would want to play a game based on a film about Darth Sidious, or even Darth Vader’s time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. So a prequel film, or film series, could prove to be very enjoyable and profitable on all fronts.
In the works and rumored
Many announcements have come to light concerning who will be running future Star Wars projects. Disney already has a few Star Wars series in the works to be released via their streaming service, and one will be written by Jon Favreau (plays Happy Hogan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe).
As for films, even before The Last Jedi – which was criticised by many Star Wars fans – its director, Rian Johnson, was given his own trilogy. David Benioff and DB Weiss, writers of Game of Thrones, have also been given their own film trilogy to write.
But without a storyline or set of characters revealed, Star Wars fans can still have hope for some of their favorite characters getting their own film. One such long-standing rumor is for a Boba Fett anthology, but the most anticipated is for an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie. Portrayed by the late Alec Guinness in the original trilogy and Ewan McGregor in the prequels, Obi-Wan Kenobi has been one of the most pivotal characters throughout the Skywalker storyline.
Rumors have been swirling around an Obi-Wan film, with the focus on Ewan McGregor reprising the character again. From 2017 to 2020, Ewan McGregor has completed or is currently involved with three Disney-owned projects, which include Beauty and the Beast, Christopher Robin, and Sub-Mariner, hinting to him perhaps getting in Disney’s good graces to take on the role.
Whatever the future holds for the Star Wars on the big screen, Disney is sure to explore as much of the precious universe as they possibly can. Aiming to give the Star Wars fanbase as much content as they can handle, you can bet that many more announcements for upcoming movies and series are not far away.
