It’s now been a week since the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story. The spinoff prequel received relatively negative reviews and underperformed at the box office. Many have wondered if Kathleen Kennedy would step down as head of Lucasfilm. Others have been more positive, admitting that Solo is “fine” and that not every Star Wars movie needs to be perfect.
We’re optimistic that there are more great Star Wars movies and TV series on the way to be excited about. Some are, of course, more anticipated than others. Some, whether officially announced, rumored, or even heavily suggested, should be higher up on Lucasfilm’s priority than others. Admittedly, though, the best-sounding ideas could be bad, and vice versa.
On what little we know about any of these potential projects (and only one certainty at the moment), here’s my personal ranking of the Star Wars we have to look forward to.
13. The David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Movies
As much as we love Game of Thrones, the show’s creators seem a bit questionable for the Star Wars franchise right now. I’m all for multiple Star Wars movies potentially taking the guys off their planned HBO series about a world where the Confederacy won the US Civil War, but just the fact that they were into that idea makes them problematic for the future of Star Wars diversity. Also, unlike the other writer of a Wolverine movie recently hired for a Star Wars project, Benioff’s work with that X-Men character (on the script for X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is an embarrassment. We don’t really know much about these guys’ plans, but at least they’re unrelated to anything else, which presumably means more originality than Solo.
12. Yoda Prequel
This is one of those Star Wars spinoffs that’s been in the mix since the days when they were expected to be branded Star Wars Anthology films. Yoda would seem to be an easy character to do at any point in his very long life since there’s no physical actor involved. But we’ve seen enough of young Yoda bouncing around, and personally I prefer him as a puppet. And old and cranky and barely mobile. Frank Oz, who voices the character, teased the likelihood of Yoda: A Star Wars Story back in December, but it was a very jokey update involving Yoda as a showgirl. Neither that nor anything else Yoda focused will probably ever happen.
11. Resistance
I’m going to be perfectly honest and say that it’s going to take me a lot to watch Resistance, the next Star Wars animated series from Dave Filioni, just as the odds were never good for me and The Clone Wars or Rebels. I just don’t really watch animated TV programming if I don’t have to. I’m personally uncomfortable with animated series that are not specifically oriented for children for some reason. But I am plenty curious about the show, which will be set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. I’ll definitely at least be following the story if there’s a reason for canonical awareness.
10. Obi-Wan Kenobi Prequel
One of the long-teased spinoff prequels in the works at Lucasfilm is a standalone movie or trilogy focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Fans won’t be into it, though, unless Ewan McGregor reprises the title role. Recently there was a rumored plot sounding like a Tatooine-set Yojimbo, which would be pretty cool but, like Solo, very unnecessary. We’ve seen plenty of Kenobi between Revenge of the Sith and the first Star Wars (A New Hope) in various media. One thing is for certain: we don’t need a live-action redo of his final duel with Darth Maul, regardless of whether or not fans (and Ray Park) are really asking for it now. We just saw that in animated form a year ago.
9. Boba Fett Prequel
On the one hand, no we don’t need a Boba Fett movie at all. We’ve already seen his origins. And we barely even saw much of him to begin with in the original trilogy. Sell more action figures instead, since that’s all anyone cared about in the first place. Josh Trank’s firing from the initial attempt a few years back was a good thing for Star Wars and Boba Fett… Oh, but on the other hand, James Mangold is now taking the helm of this film focused on the iconic bounty hunter. That’s pretty great, even if like with Wolverine it takes him two tries to get a really great film with the character. Take it forward, post Sarlacc, and make it another Western with Boba Fett remaining mostly silent, and I’m down.
8. Jon Favreau’s Live-Action TV Series
As much as I fear not having enough time for any Star Wars TV series, I can’t help but be somewhat interested in this one. I’d at least give it a shot, like I did with the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. show. With Jon Favreau on board, I like to pretend it’ll just be Swingers in space, but involving the “jizz” music scene instead of swing. They need to spend a lot of money on this to make it worthwhile, slightly greater quality than the Battlestar Galactica reboot, but a less convoluted (basically not too political) plot. All we know so far is that it’s also set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. So we can have a Salacious Crumb cameo maybe?
7. The Hutt Spinoff
Guillermo del Toro just won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture, which puts him on Ron Howard’s level of Academy-based prestige. Of course, he has more style and fan support than Howard, so that’s where the comparison should end. Del Toro directing a Star Wars movie would be something people actually care about, positively that is. And he already has an idea that he pitched to Lucasfilm if they call on him: he wants to do a gangster movie about the Hutts in the vein of Scarface and The Godfather. Now that we may never see a Solo sequel, perhaps he could squeeze a Han Solo cameo in there, but it wouldn’t even necessarily involve Jabba or Tatooine. The Hutts were crime bosses for centuries.
6. Solo Sequel
Given the disappointing box office of Solo, we’re not likely to get more young Han Solo’s adventures. That’s a shame because Alden Ehrenreich could continue to grow into the role as he makes it his own, more Donald Glover as Lando would be super if he didn’t get his own movie, and frankly I’d be fine seeing Han’s introduction to Jabba the Hutt and Greedo. But never mind the prequel backstory fodder, I’m more curious now about what would be purely sequel material. What happens to Qi’ra next? That’s one answer Lucasfilm has to answer in some form.
5. Lando Spinoff
If we’re not getting a Solo sequel, then give us the Lando Calrissian movie we all wished for at the end of that movie. Yes, I’m curious how he winds up the administrator of Cloud City. I’m interested in seeing Lobot, as Solo co-writer Jonathan Kasdan agrees is essential. But the prequel stuff is frustrating everyone, so Lando: A Star Wars Story should just be considered a spinoff, not an origin story. Yes, it’d be better if it took place before Solo and had Lando in the Millennium Falcon and still joined by L3-37 as his co-pilot, but regardless just give us more of him doing whatever — playing sabacc, buying capes, showing us he’s truly pansexual.
4. Unknown Brad Bird Movie
Brad Bird was offered Episode 7 back in the day, but he chose to do Tomorrowland instead. Kathleen Kennedy has apparently extended an offer to the director to make a Star Wars movie if he has an idea for one. He hasn’t come up with anything yet. Maybe he never will. But he sure could direct the hell out of something if anyone else has a good idea for him to work with. Maybe he should do an animated feature, more like his Iron Giant or Pixar efforts than The Clone Wars. Actually, I might be down with a Yoda prequel if it’s animated and written and directed by Bird.
3. Princess Leia Prequel
There are no plans for a Leia movie as far as I know. Lucasfilm has probably considered it, but apparently some people think it’d be a bad idea after Carrie Fisher’s death. I’m not sure why that would be. We got young Obi-Wan after Alec Guinness died. Plus a young Leia prequel would have to be her teen years since Fisher was only 20 when she made Star Wars. Nobody could deny that Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown would be perfect for the role (and she wants it), and Jimmy Smits could return as her adopted father, Bail Organa, again.
2. The Rian Johnson Trilogy
Yes, I’m a huge fan of The Last Jedi and Rian Johnson in general. But my excitement for his assigned trilogy of movies isn’t just as a supporter of the filmmaker’s work. I also love the promise that this group of movies will be more original, not tied down to any characters or narratives we’ve seen before. No origin stories or spinoffs. The very opposite of what we got with Rogue One and Solo. There may be a necessity for some familiarity in settings or kinds of stories, but right now it’s so up in the air, and I do trust Johnson to come up with something good.
1. Star Wars: Episode IX
How could I not be most excited for the next certain Star Wars sequel, the one that concludes not just the latest trilogy but the entire “Skywalker Saga”? J.J. Abrams is back for the finale, and he did a pretty good job on The Force Awakens. Will he try to retcon the Rey’s parents issue? Whatever. How will he deal with the death of Carrie Fisher is the bigger question. And what more is there to the Saga after the fairly conclusive statements and deaths of The Last Jedi? More Rey, which is always great. Otherwise, we really have no idea what to expect for once. Well, maybe some Return of the Jedi parallels.
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