‘Star Wars’: Jon Watts to Direct First Film in New Trilogy

Jon Watts has been tapped to direct the first film in a new “Star Wars” trilogy, TheWrap has learned. Best known as being the director behind the first three Tom Holland “Spider-Man” movies, “The “Skeleton Crew” filmmaker will direct from a script written by Simon Kinberg. Lucasfilm previously hired the prolific writer and producer to write and produce a new trilogy of “Star Wars” films. An early report insinuated are that this will actually be chapters 10 – 12 of the Skywalker Saga, continuing the path that most recently concluded with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019. But there are others that insist this is a standalone series, something akin to the trilogies that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and, separately, Rian Johnson, were working on for the company. It is being referred to as a “new saga.” Kinberg is no stranger to “Star Wars.” Following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney, Kinberg was part of a small brain trust that was working on new projects for the studio. He consulted on J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and co-created the animated series “Star Wars: Rebels” with Dave Filoni. Since “The Rise of Skywalker’s” release in 2019, a number of “Star Wars” film projects have been announced but have yet to materialize, including a standalone film from Taika Waititi, a movie centered on Rey (Daisy Ridley) from the latest trilogy and a “Lando” movie from Donald Glover. Lucasfilm declined to comment. Knight Edge Media first reported the news.