Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg’s Plan For Star Wars Involves Spin-Off Movies

Disney takes the "Marvel approach" to their new space franchise.

By Rudie Obias | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Last week, Disney and Lucasfilm announced that they had hired screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg to write new scripts for the Star Wars franchise. It was assumed that the pair would be either writing Episode VIII and Episode IX, either together or separately. Well, it’s now being reported that the pair may be writing Star Wars spinoff movies instead.

According to THR, the pair is developing “scripts (that) could turn into official Episodes in the main Skywalker storyline, or they could form the basis for spinoffs focusing on side characters.” If you remember, Disney CEO Robert Iger said that the goal for Lucasfilm was to release a Star Wars movie “every two to three years,” which means the onscreen Star Wars universe will have to expand to accommodate that much new content.

As part of their deal with Disney and Lucasfilm, Kasdan and Kinberg will also have producer’s credit on the films they will develop and write for the Star Wars franchise. Disney seems to be targeting a Marvel-style model for their newly acquired Star Wars franchise. The spinoff movies could intersect or lead up to an Episode film, just as Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor led up to Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. So, a Boba Fett or a bounty hunter movie could lead up to Episode VII. Let’s just hope it isn’t an excuse to make more Ewok movies in the near future.

If this is the case, will Toy Story 3‘s Michael Arndt write the entire Star Wars sequel trilogy, or is he only on board for Episode VII? Arndt has already written a 40- to 50-page treatment of the entire sequel trilogy, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he does end up writing the whole thing.

It’s also good to see that Disney is referring to the Star Wars episodes as “the main Skywalker storyline.” As cool as it is to have an expansive universe like Star Wars, it’s good to keep it centralized and grounded with the Skywalker family. After all, the Star Wars saga could easily be renamed the Skywalker Saga.

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