Star Wars is working on a new trilogy – and here are the most realistic possibilities for what it could be about. Simon Kinberg (Star Wars Rebels, Deadpool, The Martian) is working on a new trilogy for the Star Wars franchise. Little is known about it at this stage; frankly, sources seem to disagree over whether this is Episodes 10-12, or whether it’s something brand new. There have often been complaints that Lucasfilm announce things before they’re ready, but to be fair, this time the studio don’t seem to have planned the news to get out just yet.
These new reports emerge at a time when the future of Star Wars is becoming quite exciting again. Daisy Ridley has teased that her “New Jedi Order” movie is “evolving,” an ambiguous comment that has left many wondering if there’ll be news soon; there have been reports that James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi will begin production next year. It’s likely there will be more concrete information at Star Wars Celebration next year. Until then, though, we can only speculate about the various Star Wars trilogies that could realistically be in the works… and here are the most likely possibilities.
5 Star Wars Episodes 10-12
A brand new story… but it should really star Rey
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The first reports suggested these upcoming Star Wars movies would officially be Episodes 10-12. That raised a lot of eyebrows, given these were also revealed to star characters who hadn’t been on the big screen before – and they would operate alongside Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey movie. It’s hard to imagine the Skywalker Saga continuing without Rey in a starring role, not least because the Star Wars sequel trilogy ended with her claiming the name “Skywalker” in honor of her mentors.
The mere mention of a new Star Wars trilogy does, of course, immediately make viewers think of Episodes 10-12. George Lucas’ original plans for Episodes 10-12 are long-gone; he planned them back when he intended Luke Skywalker to become the Emperor and Luke’s sister to be a completely different character (explaining the now-wince-worthy Luke and Leia kiss in The Empire Strikes Back). But that doesn’t mean it is impossible for an original story to create a brand new tale.
4 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
There’s only one idea that could leave the fanbase delighted
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BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic games are the stuff of legend (literally, given Star Wars officially classes them as Legends rather than canon). Back in 2023, Lucasfilm officially announced a new incarnation of the Star Wars timeline that neatly divided it into the following sections:
Era Dawn of the Jedi The Old Republic The High Republic Fall of the Jedi Reign of the Empire Age of Rebellion The New Republic Rise of the First Order New Jedi Order
What is telling, though, is that Lucasfilm didn’t announce a single project taking place in the Knights of the Old Republic era. James Mangold is making a movie exploring the Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: The High Republic is a transmedia initiative exploring that part of the timeline, and the future is already being explored in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s movie. In canon, though, The Old Republic is empty. That’s naturally led to intense speculation that Lucasfilm intend to explore the KOTOR era.
A faithful Darth Revan, star of KOTOR , is an instant way to score massive points with a divided and divisive fanbase
Here’s a simple truth: a faithful Darth Revan, star of KOTOR, is an instant way to score massive points with a divided and divisive fanbase. Characters from KOTOR have already been alluded to in canon (Palpatine’s Sith legions were named after Sith Lords from the past, including Darth Revan), so the potential is clearly there. Of all the ideas on this list, this really does seem the wisest.
3 The Future Of The Jedi
Could Star Wars take a tip from Legends?
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There is, however, another exciting possibility – one that Disney could take from Legends as well. In 2006, Dark Horse Comics introduced readers to Star Wars: Legacy – an exciting vision of the future of the Star Wars galaxy, one rooted in George Lucas tradition but beautifully reimagined. This was an age where the Sith rose from the shadows and snuffed out the light of the Jedi, with the last Skywalker – Cade – standing against them. It was a thrilling opportunity to reinvent familiar tropes and concepts.
Curiously, this wasn’t the first time Lucasfilm had toyed with revealing the future of the Star Wars galaxy. One original idea for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was centered on a distant future in which the Jedi and the Sith had formed an uneasy truce, and were ruled by a single Council; there, the last Skywalker would find himself framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and all the evidence would point to a member of the Council… with the surname Solo. As with Legacy, this was an idea that riffed on the familiar while also doing something new.
It’s possible Lucasfilm could take exactly the same approach with the new Star Wars trilogy. Rather than set it in an established part of the timeline, it could instead introduce viewers to a whole new era – one where the rules operated slightly differently. What made Star Wars: Legacy such a success was the fact it opened up so many story opportunities. Many Star Wars Expanded Universe tales began charting the course from the “present” to the Legacy era, and it proved to be a compelling tale.
Here’s the catch, though; Lucasfilm wouldn’t be able to adapt Star Wars: Legacy. That was a logical extrapolation of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but the canon has taken a completely different direction. In Legends, for example, there was effectively a Skywalker dynasty – simply because Luke’s New Jedi Order didn’t follow the same rules as the prequels. In contrast, Daisy Ridley herself has hinted she expected Rey to follow those rules about relationships, so she will be the last Skywalker. The absence of Skywalkers means the future has to look very different.
2 Star Wars Could Return To The Dark Times
Darth Vader’s return
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The last few years have delighted viewers with the return of both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to the iconic roles of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ TV show was originally envisioned as a trilogy, one that explored Obi-Wan’s reconnection with the Force, but it evolved into something very different. Lucasfilm could still explore that part of the timeline, however, by focusing in on Darth Vader himself – perhaps with his quest to hunt down Order 66 survivors. This would need to be handled with care, but it would surely be a hit.
There was a time when the Star Wars prequel trilogy was derided. Those days are long gone, though; nowadays, the return of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen was greeted with almost-universal delight by the fanbase. Both McGregor and Christensen have made it clear they’re eager to keep coming back to Star Wars, meaning the possibility of a Dark Times adventure starring Darth Vader himself can’t be ruled out. While the character’s end-point is known, Star Wars has always known that doesn’t matter in terms of dramatic impact; the end-point of the entire prequel trilogy was a foregone conclusion.
Darth Vader doesn’t really have room for a massive emotional arc.
The difficulty here, though, is ensuring the stories have emotional stakes. The scrapped Obi-Wan Kenobi trilogy would have told the tale of how Obi-Wan evolved as a character from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith through to A New Hope. Darth Vader doesn’t really have room for a massive emotional arc, so this would need very careful writing indeed.
1 Something Brand New… & Unexpected
The possibilities are endless
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We know a lot about the Star Wars timeline, but it’s possible the franchise could be going where it has never gone before. The first possibility lies in the Unknown Regions, a vast sector of unexplored space. As Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn: Ascendancy – Chaos Rising explains:
“The Chaos hadn’t always been that way, or so the legends went. Once, at the dawn of space travel, it had been no more difficult to move between any of the stars than it was now to travel in the Ascendancy. But then, millennia ago, a series of chained supernova explosions throughout the region had sent huge masses tumbling at high speeds between the stars, some of them demolishing asteroids or whole worlds, others sparking more supernovas with their near-lightspeed impacts. The movement of all these masses, coupled with regions of heavy electromagnetic flux, resulted in the constantly changing hyperlanes that made any voyage longer than a couple of star systems difficult and dangerous.”
This part of the Star Wars galaxy is commonly associated with the blue-skinned Chiss (think of Grand Admiral Thrawn), but there are actually countless inhabitants. Simon Kinberg could tell any story he wanted in the Unknown Regions, and he could create any new Force cults he wanted. The opportunities are literally limitless.
But there are even more possibilities after the end of Ahsoka season 1. This took the franchise further afield than even George Lucas had imagined, with Ahsoka traveling to the planet Peridea in a distant galaxy. The recently-published Star Wars Bestiary Vol. 1 hinted that Peridea became public knowledge after Ahsoka’s journey there, so it’s possible future stories could be set in this new galaxy. If so, Star Wars really could head in some unexpected new directions.