With Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron sidelined for unknown reasons, Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi's Star Wars movie is believed to be next for Lucasfilm. While the expectation is that it will arrive in theaters next year, 2024 seems more realistic, and that will mean a half-decade gap between big screen Star Wars stories (with the last being The Rise of Skywalker).
Nothing has been revealed about the project, though Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy did recently say the studio is looking to "create a whole new saga" moving forward.
Total Film asked Waititi if that's a sentiment he agrees with during a recent interview about his role in Lightyear, and the filmmaker was quick to say he is indeed looking to do something new with the franchise. "I think for the Star Wars universe to expand, it has to expand," he explains. "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."
In other words, Waititi isn't looking to head down the route of Rogue One or Solo, movies that filled in very specific gaps in this Galaxy Far, Far Away's history (with a lot of familiar faces). The writer and director has spent some time in the world of The Mandalorian both behind and in front of the camera, but we'd bet on his movie taking place in its own, unexplored part of the timeline.
What that will be remains to be seen, but moving away from the Skywalker Saga isn't necessarily a bad thing. Obi-Wan Kenobi has proven that there are still stories to tell during that period, of course, but it would be no bad thing to expand this Galaxy in other ways (similar to how The High Republic era looks set to take us to a time for the Jedi hundreds of years before The Phantom Menace).
Hopefully, some concrete details about this Star Wars movie will be revealed in due course!