Jeff Sneider is hearing that Daisy Ridley will come back for Simon Kinberg’s new Star Wars trilogy, and her Rey “will be positioned as the Obi-Wan of the new trilogy.” These three films will indeed be referred to as Episodes X, XI, and XII.
What does this mean for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey movie? It’s unclear. The project just lost screenwriter Steven Knight who, I was told, had it up to his neck with all of the notes Lucasfilm was flooding him with during the creative process.
I’m throwing this out there, and it’s a real possibility, but maybe Kinberg is just replacing Knight on the Obaid-Chinoy project, which was also positioned as a trilogy. It also makes me wonder if Kinberg has replaced Obaid-Chinoy as director. Hmmm …
Obaid-Chinoy’s film tackled Rey training a new generation of Jedi warriors, and Sneider’s sources tell him that she’d serve a similar function in Kinberg’s trilogy. I highly doubt that Lucasfilm would greenlight two trilogies revolving around Rey.
Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy has no doubt lost control of the creative process; they’ve had numerous projects in development hell, with none seemingly moving into pre-production. The only one that has been sped up is Jon Favreau’s ‘Mandalorian & Grogu,” which recently completed production. Not including Kinberg’s trilogy, there are seven other ‘Star Wars’ projects currently in development, from directors James Mangold, Obaid-Chimoy, Dave Filoni, Donald Glover, Shawn Levy and Patty Jenkins.
In the meantime, Kinberg won’t be shooting this new Star Wars trilogy anytime soon as he recently signed up to reboot the Star Trek franchise at Paramount. According to Sneider, the script, by Seth Grahame-Smith, is ready and on its way toward a green light, possibly by the end of the year, for a shoot in the first half of 2025. Toby Haynes (“Andor”) is directing the origin story.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.