Kathleen Kennedy says Lucasfilm is ‘vital’ to stop escaping the Skywalker saga and stop reworking legacy characters

Kathleen Kennedy says that after receiving a denial Solo: The Star Wars StoryLucasfilm is focused on expanding the world of George Lucas beyond the Skywalker Saga, and doesn’t want to tell new stories with cult characters played by new actors.

in a new interview vanity fairLucasfilm’s president spoke about the lessons the studio has learned over the past decade away from exploring the galaxy. This includes lessons to be learned from comments from fans and critics alike, including Olden Ehrenreich’s decision to play the young Han Solo after Harrison Ford created the character and played him in many films.

As “one of the first ideas that came up when the company was sold,” he said, Kennedy agreed. Only Screenwriter Larry Cassdan (whom he “had known all along”) and both “sincerely believed at the time that it was a good idea”.

But the decision to do a descent story for one of the franchise’s most beloved characters ended the “learning moment,” and the one that finally saw Donald Glover as young Lando Calrisian taking the lion’s share. Only-Praise focused on the movie.

“Some people talked about how maybe Only It should be a TV show. but do Only “As a TV show without Harrison Ford, in the role of Han Solo, it’s the same thought,” Kennedy said. “Perhaps I should have understood this sooner. we would never do that Indiana Jones Without Harrison Ford. After finishing the fifth movie, I can say that there hasn’t been a day that I wasn’t on set that I wasn’t, “Yeah, East It’s Indiana Jones.”

Kennedy went on to say that the studio has now taken that approach with all the classic characters from the Skywalker Saga. “We also can’t do anything with Luke Skywalker other than Mark Hamill,” he said at another point in the interview. “We are not going to leave suddenly, we are trying to do so.”

This is the basis for how the studio views the building. war of the galaxies The world was “vital” to the franchise’s development, he says. And that will affect whether or not fans will see more chapters that focus squarely on the Skywalker Saga.

“Just staying on George’s story construction, I think it would be a mistake to figure that out,” he explained. “It’s our job to separate now, but still have a connection to the mythology created by Giorgi. It won’t stop. But we’re past the Skywalker Saga. That’s what’s missing now, a lot of time, discussion and reflection.”

Kennedy also revealed that this shift in perspective on how to grow the franchise created by Lucas has already been implemented, signaling the studio’s decision to make Disney+. Obi van Kenobi A series that tells the story of director Deborah Chow with a unique vision.

“About the beauty Obi van Kenobi it’s evan [McGregor] I desperately wanted to. “He was very involved in the whole process and we are excited and the reason for doing this is because the real Obi-Wan wanted to tell this story,” he said. “We were delighted that Evan McGregor wanted to come back and Hayden Christensen wanted to come back. As fans, everyone within the company thought, “Let’s see if we can make this work.”