Jon Watts the director of Marvel’s Tom Holland starring (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Spider-Man trilogy is making his way back to the Star Wars franchise directing the first in a new franchise series of films being written by Simon Kinberg, as multiple reports from within the entertainment industry. This makes this a huge step forward for Lucasfilm as they prepare their new era of future movies.
Since Watts is connected to the Star Wars franchise already, this may have been an incentive for him to remain involved. He served as one of the creators for the Disney+ series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew with Christopher Ford, bringing a new little-guy adventure to the New Republic period. The series debuted in 2024 and featured Jude Law and many talented young actors.
Having graduated from Skeleton Crew to a Star Wars film, Watts has now taken the leap to bring the franchise to the big screen. Besides Star Wars, Watts is well known for his three recent Spider-Man movies, which starred Tom Holland as Peter Parker: Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home.
The new film is intended to be the first of trilogy in development by writer and producer Simon Kinberg. Previously Lucasfilm saw Kinberg for writing and producing a new set of Star Wars movies.
Kinberg is familiar with the kind of storylines linked to these big franchise films. His previous work encompasses the X-Men film universe, and co-creating the Star Wars animated series, Star Wars Rebels, with Dave Filoni. Really he has re-joined the Star Wars universe continues the links between the current trilogy and the franchise altogether.
There had been varied reports on exactly where the new trilogy would fit into the Star Wars status quo. There have been reports of the project spanning the saga of the Skywalkers, but there also have been descriptions of the project marking the start of a new chapter in Star Wars history. There has been no official statement from Lucasfilm on the Watts-directed picture referring to a particular episode number.
The Watts project is the first of the various Star Wars films planned as Lucasfilm works to rebuild its theatrical slate. The next confirmed Lucasfilm theatrical release has been Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy and featuring Ryan Gosling. Lucasfilm has announced that Starfighter is an original, self-contained story and it will arrive in theaters on 28 May 2027.
That has meant that there is as yet no theatrical release date lined up for the Watts project. There has been speculation about it going ahead based on the production schedule but Lucasfilm has not put out a time frame.
Watts brings to the project a lot of experience managing large studio franchises. His Spider-Man trilogy integrated the superhero genre with teen coming of age drama, and became among the most recognizable Marvel franchises today.
His prior Star Wars television appearances might also familiarize him with the characters, tone, and universe development of the saga. Skeleton Crew let Watts examine a different part of the universe, centering on youth and a narrative of quest.