Lucasfilm has found its director for the next chapter of the Skywalker Saga. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Jon Watts, who made the “Spider-Man” trilogy for Marvel and Sony and co-created “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” will direct the first film in Simon Kinberg’s developing “Star Wars” trilogy.
The news came in stages. Knight Edge Media first reported that Lucasfilm was circling Watts, citing two sources. Insider Daniel Richtman separately said he would direct. THR was the first major trade to confirm.
What the reports add
Knight Edge says Watts is attached only to the first installment for now, and that Lucasfilm hopes to start production as early as next year. It also reports that Daisy Ridley is expected back as Jedi Master Rey, in a smaller role that could grow over later films, and that Lucasfilm is casting relatively unknown actors as the new leads. Whether John Boyega and Oscar Isaac return as Finn and Poe is unknown.
Knight Edge calls Watts’s film “Episode X,” set after 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” Lucasfilm has not announced that title, so the label stays unofficial. The same report says a standalone Rey film, announced at Star Wars Celebration in 2023 with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and a story set 15 years after “Rise of Skywalker,” has been shelved in favor of Kinberg’s project. That earlier film went through writers, with “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight leaving before George Nolfi came aboard.
Why Watts
He is hardly a stranger to the studio. Beyond “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Far From Home” and the nearly $2 billion-grossing “No Way Home,” Watts and Christopher Ford created “Skeleton Crew,” the Disney+ adventure starring Jude Law. Watts directed its premiere and finale. In 2024 he and producer Dianne McGunigle signed a first-look feature deal with Walt Disney Studios through their Freshman Year banner. Watts had once been attached to Marvel’s “Fantastic Four” reboot before leaving, later saying he needed a break from superhero films.
Kinberg’s Lucasfilm history runs deeper. He co-created “Star Wars Rebels” with Dave Filoni and Carrie Beck and consulted on J.J. Abrams’ “The Force Awakens,” and he wrote and directed “Dark Phoenix.” His trilogy was first reported in November 2024, and people quickly disagreed over whether it covered Episodes X through XII or a new saga. Outgoing Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has said Kinberg delivered one version, then reworked the story into a treatment of roughly 70 pages.
Shawn Levy’s “Star Wars: Starfighter,” with Ryan Gosling, arrives May 28, 2027, as a deliberately standalone adventure. Kinberg and Watts have the opposite brief: making the central saga matter again.
