LUCASFILM PREVIEW

Want to get up to speed on all things Star Wars, Indy and Willow? TF's whip-smart roundup from the Star Wars Celebration brings those famously distant galaxies right to your doorstep.

- RICHARD EDWARDS, NICK SETCHFIELD, JACK SHEPHERD

The galaxy far, far away is changing. Where Star Wars was once a bastion of the big screen, George Lucas' creation now primarily lives on the streaming service Disney+. In fact, on stage at Star Wars Celebration, taking place in Anaheim's convention centre, there wasn't a single mention of the franchise's cinematic history, and only hints regarding its big-screen future.

As we leave the [Skywalker] Saga, we have all this great, exciting work happening on the television side that informs so much about where we're going, says President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy. Just moments before, Kennedy had presented a colossal panel featuring Mando, Andor, Ahsoka, and John Williams playing the Indiana Jones theme, but not a single nod to the movies.

Total Film meets Kennedy in a quiet press room, just metres away from thousands of fans dressed in cosplay, all of whom cheered as Ewan McGregor announced a surprise Obi-Wan Kenobi premiere to take place that night.

We have great talent that we're working with people who care so deeply about what the next iteration of Star Wars is, she continues. That's important to us.

Kennedy confirms that, following production delays to Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron, Taika Waititi's long-awaited - as yet untitled - film will be the next Star Wars project to blast into cinemas. And yet she won't reveal a release date. Officially, there's a movie set for 22 December 2023, though Kennedy says there's nothing currently locked in. We need to create a whole new saga. That takes a lot, she points out. There's a lot of conversation around that.

Jon Favreau, who serves as an executive producer on The Mandalorian, sees the movies as being in a very different space to the small screen. The directors are very much in charge of the movies, he says. Cinema occupies a different space. Movies are like an opera, TV is like a book.