Daniels Defend Choice To Direct ‘Star Wars’ Against Accusations Of Being “Sucked Up By The Corporate Machine”

Prior to this year’s Star Wars Celebration event, folks were anticipating quite a bit of TV news, as well as the possibility that Lucasfilm would announce one new film. Well, we definitely got that, but even more, as the studio unveiled details about not one, but three new “Star Wars” films from directors Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Dave Filoni, and James Mangold, respectively.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the biggest announcements to emerge out of Star Wars Celebration was the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey in a new movie that will follow the events of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which concluded the most recent Skywalker trilogy in 2019. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) is directing the still-untitled Rey movie from a script by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”). Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said at the fan convention that Ridley’s new “Star Wars” movie will follow Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order, but the executive teased a bit more about the plot in an interview with IGN: “Star Wars” fans will pick up with Rey well over a decade after “The Rise of Skywalker.”

When most “Star Wars” fans think of Lucasfilm‘s slate of new Disney+ series, big names come to mind: “The Mandalorian,” Tony Gilroy‘s “Andor,” the upcoming “Ahsoka.” But critics love another series that’s more under the radar: “Star Wars: Visions.” The animated anthology series allows anime studios from around the world to reimagine “Star Wars” lore as they see fit in a variety of shorts.

While many fans are still waiting to see Lucasfilm develop live-action projects set during The Old Republic that explores things like the Sith Empire (long before the Rule of Two) and origins of the Jedi Order, there was a bit of a compromise with the publishing side creating The High Republic setting. It takes place between the Skywalker Saga and The Old Republic.

A while back there had been rumblings that Lucasfilm was looking to work with “Logan” director James Mangold on a possible film focused on Boba Fett, and while that ultimately never happened and he ended up tackling “Indiana Jones” for the studio instead with “Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny,” he’s officially joining the “Star Wars” franchise.

Disney+ has unveiled the first teaser trailer for the latest Star Wars spinoff series!

While Lucasfilm was able to give some updates about a range of previously announced “Star Wars” projects at Star Wars Celebration this weekend in London, they’ve now added some new things into the mix as well. READ MORE: Shawn Levy To Direct A ‘Star Wars’ Film After His Work On ‘Deadpool 3’ & ‘Stranger Things’ One of the big feature film announcements made this morning included Dave Filoni being set to make his film debut with a new project set in the Mandoverse.

While a lot of the “Star Wars” television projects have been entry points to bring back established characters from canon to the small-screen or live-action, it’s also been exciting to see Lucasfilm developing a handful of possible original projects with “The Acolyte” and “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” giving room for creatives to develop their own corners of the universe. “Skeleton Crew” had been pitched to Lucasfilm as a take on the beloved Richard Donner-directed 80s adventure film “The Goonies,” but set within the “Star Wars” franchise giving the impression we’ll be seeing the show focus on space pirates that recently got highlighted on this season of “The Mandalorian.” READ MORE: ‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’: David Lowery Directs An Episode Of The Upcoming ‘Star Wars’ Disney+ Series Jude Law (“Captain Marvel“) is leading the project and will be surrounded by a group of young actors, said to be around 10 years old (not all of those characters are expected to be human).

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Dave Filoni and James Mangold are set to direct two new “Star Wars” movies, Disney revealed on Friday. The directors will helm two separate films in the franchise.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” got its first look out of London’s Star Wars Celebration convention. The series, which focuses on a group of kids and is said to evoke classic Amblin films, stars Jude Law, who introduced his young castmates at the Celebration, including Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, and Robert Timothy Smith. The first footage from the series was also shown, including shots of the children on speeders, in school, on spaceships and a tease of a familiar villain from “The Mandalorian.” The clip ended with a first look at Law as a Jedi. The “Star Wars” spinoff was first announced at the 2022 Star Wars Celebration, held in Anaheim, Calif. Details are scarce for the show, other than the following description: “The show takes place during the post–’Return of the Jedi’ reconstruction that follows the fall of the Empire, the same as ‘The Mandalorian,’ but its plot remains a secret. It’s created and executive-produced by director Jon Watts and writer Chris Ford, who made ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ for Marvel. A casting notice was called for four children, around 11 to 12 years old. Inside Lucasfilm, the show is being described as a galactic version of classic Amblin coming-of-age adventure films of the ’80s.”

The “Star Wars” universe has been landing some acclaimed filmmakers for its upcoming series. We already know Daniels, David Lowery, and Jake Schreier are all helming episodes of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.” However, it appears that the acclaimed filmmaker behind films such as “After Yang” and “Columbus,” Kogonada, is set to make his directing debut in a galaxy far, far away in the upcoming series, “Star Wars: The Acolyte.”  READ MORE: ‘Star Wars’: Donald Glover Is “Talking” To Lucasfilm About Playing Lando Calrissian Again In a recent interview with Discussing Film, Jodie Turner-Smith spilled the beans about acclaimed filmmaker Kogonada working on the upcoming series, “Star Wars: The Acolyte.” We already knew that Turner-Smith was going to appear in the series, but apparently, it was Kogonada who convinced her to join ‘The Acolyte.’ The duo previously worked on “After Yang,” and it’s that experience that made saying yes to Kogonada a no-brainer.

While “Solo: A Star Wars Story” isn’t one of the premier films in the franchise, most people can agree that Donald Glover’s performance as a young Lando Calrissian is pretty great. And there have been rumors about more Glover in the galaxy far, far away, but no confirmation that it’ll happen.

Jordan Moreau After directing the medieval fantasy film “The Green Knight” and the upcoming Disney remake “Peter Pan and Wendy,” filmmaker David Lowery is going to a galaxy far, far away. He is one of the directors on board for “Skeleton Crew,” the upcoming “Star Wars” series on Disney+ starring Jude Law, Variety has confirmed. Lowery joins “Skeleton Crew” alongside directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the recent Oscar winners for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” “Skeleton Crew” stars Jude Law and is created by Jon Watts, who directed all three of Tom Holland’s “Spider-Man” movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While “Skeleton Crew” story details are still under wraps, the Disney+ series will take place in the New Republic era, following the events of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” “The Mandalorian” team of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni serve as executive producers.

Last week, news broke that the Daniels, fresh off their victorious Oscars night for “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” would direct some episodes for the upcoming “Star Wars” Disney+ series “Skeleton Crew.” Now that duo is no longer the only A24-affiliated directors on that, ahem, crew. One Take News reports that David Lowery, who’s done three movies with A24, will direct an episode of the series.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director John Boyega has already aired his grievances about Disney’s fumbling of diversity in his “Star Wars” trilogy, notably telling GQ magazine in 2020, “What I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.” “You guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver,” Boyega continued at the time. “But when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all. So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience…’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience. They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.”

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is set to write the screenplay for a new Star Wars film, according to reports.As reported by Variety, original screenwriters Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Justin Britt-Gibson have departed the project, with Knight on board as a replacement.The untitled film, which is expected to be among Lucasfilm’s first Star Wars films since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel).More information about the project is expected to be announced at Star Wars Celebration in London on April 7-10.Along with Peaky Blinders, Knight is known for writing and directing 2013 films Locke starring Tom Hardy and Hummingbird with Jason Statham.

Everything Everywhere All At Once directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have clarified their involvement in an upcoming Star Wars spin-off series.The directing duo, also known as the Daniels, addressed concerns that they had been “sucked up the ‘corporate machine’” following reports of their involvement in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.In an Instagram Story, Kwan explained they were only hired as guest directors on one episode of the Disney+ series, which is created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford.“Lol, all of the people @ing us about getting sucked up by the ‘corporate machine’ can chill,” Kwan wrote. “These headlines are always misleading.

This week it was revealed that Lucasfilm had lost writers screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson, as the pair left last month after working on the script for the latest “Star Wars” film, with two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel“) attached to direct.

Keanu Reeves is remembering his co-star fondly.

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have directed an episode on the upcoming Disney+ Star Wars series Skeleton Crew.