How much Star Wars is too much Star Wars? Disney and Lucasfilm don’t think we’ve reached critical mass yet. On top of the many Star Wars shows already available on Disney Plus — and the five Star Wars movies released post-Disney acquisition so far— many more projects are in development, with a renewed focus on getting stories from a galaxy far, far away in cinemas again.
This doesn’t mean Star Wars’ TV efforts are winding down anytime soon. Skeleton Crew just dropped and we’re eagerly awaiting Andor season 2, Ahsoka season 2, and the recently-announced Star Wars: Visions’ Volume 3. But now we’re finally getting some movies to bulk out the Star Wars timeline too.
Other Star Wars movie projects are rumored to be in development, but we’re sticking to the officially announced ones here. Heck, there’s a chance some of these movies won’t even see the light of day, but they are all officially on the books for now.
The Star Wars universe is also expanding across video games and written works. There are plenty of upcoming Star Wars games worth being excited about, but maybe you ought to check out the best Star Wars games of all time first.
The Mandalorian & Grogu
- Release date: May 22, 2026
- Director: Jon Favreau
Possible deepfaked Luke Skywalker cameo aside, the next Star Wars movie won’t deal with Jedi or Sith. After The Mandalorian’s season 3 finale wrapped up all the major story arcs from the two previous seasons, rumors swirled that Din Djarin and Grogu were jumping to cinemas next instead of getting a fourth season. As it turns out, those rumors were right, with Jon Favreau making his return to the big screen to direct The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Little is known about the plot at this point (unless you can find that leaked in-progress first look), but we know Din Djarin is essentially working for the New Republic now, after he and Bo-Katan Kryze took down Moff Gideon and reclaimed Mandalore. His next adventure will see him tracking down dangerous Imperial war criminals, likely tying into the post-Ahsoka season 1 scenario which saw Grand Admiral Thrawn returning to the known galaxy alongside ancient Nightsisters. Dave Filoni’s event movie will focus on that conflict and wrap up the New Republic-era storytelling efforts, so we’re expecting The Mandalorian & Grogu to be lighter in galaxy-wide stakes and tone.
Dave Filoni’s New Republic-era movie
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Dave Filoni
Animation veteran turned Star Wars maestro Dave Filoni, now also Executive VP and Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm, has been directly involved in the development of all the Mandalorian-adjacent Star Wars shows. Currently, he’s writing and preparing to shoot Ahsoka’s second season after cracking The Mandalorian & Grogu’s script alongside Jon Favreau, but those roads lead to an even larger big-screen project.
The announcement came during Star Wars Celebration 2023, where three new movies were unveiled by Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. Ahsoka is perhaps the central piece to these plans, as it reintroduced Grand Admiral Thrawn as the main threat of this era and brought several Star Wars Rebels characters into live-action. If we couple those heroes and villains with The Mandalorian’s biggest players (and perhaps even some legacy faces), a pretty explosive and fanservice-y Star Wars movie could be coming our way.
Rey Skywalker-centric sequel movie
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
All fingers are pointing to Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker being the key to Star Wars’ on-screen future, at least when it comes to the actual post-Rise of Skywalker future. Despite the mixed reception of the sequel trilogy, we can all agree that Ridley’s Rey Skywalker deserves to grow beyond the confines of the Skywalker Saga as she tries to rebuild the Jedi Order once again. We could even see John Boyega’s much-deserved return.
This was another movie announced during 2023’s Star Wars Celebration, with Oscar-winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attached to direct. On top of other rumored scribes, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight had been working on a draft for the script but departed the project earlier this year. Between that and the toxicity surrounding the sequel movies, Disney may have since gotten cold feet about the project but, for now, it’s still officially in the works.
Simon Kinberg’s new trilogy
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Unknown
One of 2024’s biggest Hollywood surprises was to hear that Lucasfilm, on top of all its standalone movies in development, was moving ahead with plans for a new Star Wars trilogy. The architect? Rebels co-creator, writer, and producer Simon Kinberg. He’s a prolific writer, though many of his writing and producing efforts elsewhere have been hit-and-miss. The Martian was a clear winner, but he also has Fox’s recent X-Men movies to answer for, including the dreadful Dark Phoenix adaptation which he also directed.
On the bright side, giving one writer control of a trilogy of movies should help give it a cohesive story arc, so it looks like Disney has learned some lessons from the sequel trilogy. Kinberg could even serve as director, on top of writing and producing, for one or more of these movies. Details are murky on whether the Rey Skywalker movie we mentioned earlier will be the start of this trilogy, or its own project. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Shawn Levy’s mystery movie
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Shawn Levy
Shawn Levy recently landed the biggest win of his prolific career with Deadpool & Wolverine, so it makes sense that Lucasfilm would be courting him for the galaxy far, far away. Right now, he’s got plenty of projects lined up, but a script for his Star Wars movie is already in the works with longtime collaborator Jonathan Tropper attached. Unsurprisingly, the director’s lips are sealed when it comes to sharing even the tiniest bit about his pitch, but he’s fully committed to the project while being aware that many others have failed to get their movies to the big screen.
Rumors about his movie involving Rey Skywalker in some capacity have been floating around for a while, with recent reports from the trades giving them some credibility, but the truth is we don’t really know what he and Tropper are cooking. For all we know, the powers that be at Lucasfilm could be developing several post-sequel-trilogy projects in parallel to see which ones hold the most promise — throwing big doo-doo at the wall to see what sticks, if you will.
James Mangold’s ‘Jedi origins’ movie
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: James Mangold
It’s safe to say that the fifth Indiana Jones movie was divisive, but Disney and Lucasfilm clearly enjoyed working with James Mangold on the project as he’s been given the keys to Star Wars to work on a prequel. His movie, also announced during Celebration 2023, has been described as a “biblical epic” by the filmmaker himself. How far back are we going? Roughly 25,000 years if the plans don’t change. That is a lot, yes, even before the Old Republic days.
The pitch is simple: “Where did the Force come from, when did we discover it, when did we learn how to use it?” Sure, Dark Horse Comics’ Dawn of the Jedi series already explored such ideas, but the current canon’s past is a blank slate, so expect all-new concepts to be brought to the table.
This project sounds like the most daring one that’s currently in the works, while also being the most likely to enter production soon. It looks like recruiting veteran Andor scribe Beau Willimon to co-write the fresh script was a move in the right direction.
Donald Glover’s Lando movie
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Unknown
Originally announced as a limited series for Disney Plus with Dear White People’s Justin Simien attached, this spinoff project went silent for a while, then returned to life when it was revealed that young Lando Calrissian actor Donald Glover and his brother Stephen were reworking it as a movie.
More than one year later, all signs point to the project still being alive, just not a priority one for Lucasfilm at the moment. Donald Glover is a very busy artist. It’s likely to be on the lighter side of Star Wars, and we’re excited to see where it goes, but it faces a daunting question; What stories are there left to tell for Lando?
Taika Waititi’s movie
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Taika Waititi
There was a time when Taika Waititi was Hollywood’s hottest director. After Thor: Ragnarok, one of the best Marvel movies of all time, the filmmaker was swarmed with offers to direct huge blockbusters. Beyond the divisive fourth Thor entry, he’s been focusing on smaller projects and helping develop many TV shows. His next movie, Klara and the Sun, is now in post-production, but what’s next for him? Well, we’re wondering about that Star Wars movie of his that was announced in 2020.
Waititi delivered a fantastic piece of Star Wars in The Mandalorian’s season 1 finale (and also played assassin droid IG-11), yet many cinephiles and Star Wars fans have started to wonder whether he’s the right pick to craft an entire movie after his last two flicks felt so-so at best. While it’s still in development according to THR’s recent report and Waititi commented in 2023 that he’d “really like to get right,” we think this is one of the few that might slip into development hell, especially as we’ve heard nothing about potential plot details or even the setting.
Rogue Squadron
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Patty Jenkins
Patty Jenkins is another filmmaker that seemed to be everywhere a few years ago, but has since hit a few bumps in the road. In late 2020, Disney and Lucasfilm were very committed to getting Star Wars back to cinemas by December 2023, and those plans even included a behind-the-scenes teaser for a Rogue Squadron movie that still hasn’t happened.
It could be dead in the water, but both THR and other sources have recently stated the studio still wants to make it, even if it’s been moved to the back burner. As for the era, rumors pointed to it being a post-episode IX story instead of yet another tale set during the reign of the Empire.
Earlier this year, Jenkins confirmed she was back actively working on Rogue Squadron after shifting her attention towards Wonder Woman 3 and Cleopatra, two projects which have since gone silent (though Cleopatra might still get made with someone else). She’s stated in the past she “always wanted to make a fighter pilot movie,” and after Top Gun: Maverick’s massive success in 2022, Disney and Lucasfilm would be silly not to continue to iterate on a script until the movie is ready to go, whether it’s with Jenkins or another lead.
Rian Johnson’s trilogy
- Release date: Unknown
- Director: Rian Johnson
Ahead of The Last Jedi’s release in December 2017, Lucasfilm announced that Rian Johnson would put together an entirely new trilogy after the second installment of the sequels. We all know what happened among fans later, but the reality is that The Last Jedi was (and still is) celebrated by most critics and earned over $1.3 billion worldwide with its theatrical release alone.
Even many of those who profoundly hated The Last Jedi as the eighth episode of the Skywalker Saga have to admit that Johnson could come up with a pretty interesting story that isn’t beholden to a pre-existing series, while those who celebrated the movie continue to feel that nothing made under Disney has quite matched those creative swings (besides maybe Andor). While Kathleen Kennedy admitted in 2023 that the trilogy was indefinitely on hold due to the writer-director’s Knives Out commitments, it seems that all parties involved still want to get together again… at some point.
