Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has officially crossed the billion-dollar mark at the box office via Deadline, seemingly putting the film into the path of profits despite the perception the movie was looking to become a disaster for the studio.
Certainly, this isn’t on par with the last two main Saga installments but hardly a failure either.
The new Saga trilogy has earned over $4.4 billion globally and the five Star Wars films released have made a total of $5.8 billion, which is impressive considering that Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t meet box office expectations and the five films still averaged out to over a billion a pop.
While there had been a trade report claiming that Lucasfilm would announce their plans for Star Wars 2022, the next theatrical release set for December 16th, 2022. That has yet to materialize and there is a chance the studio won’t announce plans until Star Wars Celebration.
Recent rumblings suggest the film could take place hundreds of years in the past between the Skywalker Saga and The Old Republic in a period being referred to as The High Republic. The era was only recently officially called that in an issue of The Rise of Kylo Ren, a Marvel Comics tie-in to the recent trilogy of the Skywalker Saga.
There was also a report last year from BuzzFeed that science fiction screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Alita: Battle Angel, Shutter Island, Altered Carbon, Ghost In The Shell) had been working on a script for a film (possibly trilogy) taking place during the Old Republic, which is much much further in the past than the High Republic (predates both Yoda and the rule of two leading to a Sith Empire).
What is looking certain is that Star Wars 2022 won’t be coming from either Rian Johnson (trades have suggested this won’t be his film) or Kevin Feige (alluded to by Kathleen Kennedy this won’t be ready any time soon), there had been nudges that this project is something else.
Season 2 of The Mandalorian is seemingly being shot as we speak as it is set to begin airing next fall on Disney +.
Their Kenobi and Cassian Andor shows are set to begin production this summer as well, likely heading to Disney+ in the fall/summer of 2021.
Considering the wildly positive reactions to The Mandalorian and even the recent Respawn narrative video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the future of Star Wars seems to be heading in the right direction.
SOURCE: DEADLINE
