‘Star Wars’ Anthology Films Will Explore Different Genres, Not All of Them Are Prequels

In case you’d forgotten because you’ve been so preoccupied by The Force Awakens (and who can blame you), there are other Star Wars films on the horizon — an entire series of spinoffs working under the Star Wars Story banner, including Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One and Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s young Han Solo film. We don’t know too much about the plans for this new series of films, but Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has opened the door a bit to explain where they’re headed.

In a very interesting chat with Slashfilm, Kennedy spoke a bit about the Star Wars Story game plan, explaining how the series of spinoffs will expand the existing universe by allowing the exploration of more specific genres. Rogue One, for instance, is a heist film, though Kennedy says the comparisons to Marvel’s approach end there:

It is definitely in the genre thinking but Star Wars is very different than Marvel in that they basically build their stories around characters, and then they seed those characters in different stories. Star Wars, you know, is a place, it’s a universe, so those stories are constructed a little differently than Marvel.

Kennedy reiterated her previous description of the central Star Wars franchise as a continuation of the Skywalker family saga, which lends credence to speculation that either Daisy Ridley’s Rey or John Boyega’s Finn are related to Luke and Leia.

Meanwhile, the Star Wars Story films will explore new and familiar characters with stories connected to the main universe, though Kennedy cautions that they are not being developed as separate franchise-starters — so even though we’ll probably love Felicity Jones’ character in Rogue One, we shouldn’t expect further adventures with her.

As Slashfilm points out, Kennedy had an intriguing answer when asked about the connections between the spinoffs and the main franchise, since both of the announced films happen to be prequels:

No, no. It just so happens to be Rogue One is the precursor to New Hope and yes, this Han Solo idea but I would not argue that we are setting up any kind of prequel notion with these standalone movies. I think that’s so far just coincidence. And to be perfectly honest, we have changed the order of those at the last minute, so that’s not the intention at all.

When she says they “changed the order of those at the last minute,” she seems to be referring to the spinoff that Josh Trank was previously attached to direct. When Trank dropped out, the Han Solo movie was moved up. It was heavily rumored that Trank’s project centered on Boba Fett, and while some speculated that it would be a prequel film, Kennedy’s subtle wording above indicates that it could very well actually be a sequel that takes place after Return of the Jedi.

Boba Fett was knocked into the Sarlacc pit in that film, where he was assumed dead — it would take a long, long time for someone to die in that pit, but they inevitably do so during the digestion process, which takes thousands of years. It’s possible, however, that Boba’s armor protected him from the toxic mechanisms of the Sarlacc. As the old horror movie trope goes, no one is actually dead unless we see them die on screen.

The Force Awakens hits theaters on December 18. Rogue One arrives on December 16, 2016.

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