Nearly five years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker made its way into theaters, Lucasfilm has finally laid out a plan for three very interesting feature films. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy took the stage at Star Wars Celebration 2023 to reveal all that fans of the franchise have to look forward to. From exciting new television shows like Ahsoka to anticipated video games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, there is so much to look forward to in the current year when it comes to stellar Star Wars content, and there are even more stories set in "A Galaxy Far, Far Away" beyond 2023. Kennedy also took a very large amount of time to discuss the future of Star Wars in the world of filmmaking, announcing that new feature films are in active development from acclaimed filmmakers James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

Each film is set to represent the beginning, middle, and end of the Star Wars timeline respectively, and it's great that we have some minor plot details to go along with the projects' announcement. Lucasfilm has gotten into a nasty habit of announcing Star Wars films long before they're ready, and it's made it difficult to get excited about new projects as they keep falling into a state of development hell. Rogue Squadron, Rian Johnson's trilogy, and many more have been either canceled or placed on indefinite hold, and it's likely because Lucasfilm just tried to do way too much in way too short of a time.

However, with the three movies announced, we also have three incredible directors and three decently interesting concepts, all taking place in three separate timelines that make this a plan that's likely to pan out this time.

RELATED: Everything We Learned at Star Wars Celebration

James Mangold's Film May Be the Ultimate Prequel

Liam Neeson, Jake Lloyd, and Ewan McGregor in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Image via Lucasfilm

James Mangold's continued involvement with Lucasfilm is certainly a good sign for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but his vision for his own Star Wars project is already entering uncharted territory for the franchise. When Kennedy took the stage at Star Wars Celebration 2023, she also unveiled a new and improved timeline of the Star Wars franchise, detailing each of the nine major eras of the current canon. Three of these eras take place long before the fabled "Skywalker Saga" and the events of The Phantom Menace. Two of these time periods will likely sound familiar to hardcore Star Wars fans, including the somewhat recently introduced High Republic era and the fan-favorite Old Republic era. However, before either of these times, there is a definitive beginning, and that appears to be the Dawn of the Jedi.

The Dawn of the Jedi is the time period where Mangold's film will take place, potentially taking place eons before Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) rose in the galaxy. As the timeline's title implies, the project could very easily be a definitive origin story for the Jedi Order (and likely the start of the Sith Cult as well). While we still don't have many details on the major plot and characters in the still-untitled project, Mangold would later go on to explain how his film will explore the first-ever force users, saying, "When I first started talking to Kathy [Kennedy] about doing one of these pictures, what occurred to me was thinking about what kind of genre of movie within Star Wars I wanted to do. And I thought about a biblical epic, like a Ten Commandments, about the dawning of the Force. Where did the Force come from, when did we discover it, when did we learn how to use it? It’s a movie that both connects to the worlds we know, but is also far enough away from it that I think there are a lot of opportunities to tell a story freely, also, and not be so incredibly tied in by the knots and different story strands that are already in place. A film exploring the beginnings of the mysterious Force could be exactly what the Star Wars franchise needs, serving as the official start of the galaxy as we know it."

Dave Filoni's Feature Film Will Unite the New Republic

Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 7
Image via Disney+

Ever since The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+, Lucasfilm has been exploring quite a bit of the New Republic era, meaning the time set in between Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The upcoming Ahsoka is also set to explore this era, bringing in both old allies and enemies from Star Wars: Rebels, potentially introducing the famous "Heir to the Empire" storyline. The brainchild behind most of Star Wars' television projects is Dave Filoni, so it makes sense that Filoni's upcoming film will take place in the New Republic era.

Again, plot details are being kept under wraps for now, but the film is expected to be a culmination of everything we've seen from the era so far, potentially acting as a crossover between The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and more. When asked by Collider's own Steve Weintraub asked the Star Wars super fan what he could reveal about the film's story, Filoni had this to say:

"The way I’ve been describing it is, if you grew up when I did you’re aware of the post-Return of the Jedi era that was presented to me. The New Republic is not a new idea. That is not something The Mandalorian created. That’s an old idea, it’s been around a long time. There are just things in Star Wars that we all seem to know if we’ve been around it a long time. There have been a lot of tremendous creatives over the years that have been telling stories in the era that spans the 30 years that now ends with The Force Awakens. But there's a large gap of time there.

Things aren't that great when we begin The Force Awakens. So Jon and I looked at that time period, and when he knew he wanted The Mandalorian in it, one of the things I told him early on was, 'Well, I have this epilogue in Star Wars: Rebels that’s kind of dealing with that time period,' which you've seen at the end with Sabina and Ahsoka going off. So, a lot of those threads start to come together, and then I looked at the bigger body of work that's been done and what's relevant, and a story will emerge out of that."

The Mandalorian storyline is easily one of the most popular parts of Star Wars around right now, so a big event film continuing (or perhaps even ending) this chapter of the series is a brilliant decision.

Rey Skywalker Returns in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's Sequel

Daisy Ridley as Rey with a yellow lightsaber at the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Image via Lucasfilm

Last but certainly not least, Daisy Ridley surprised everyone at Star Wars Celebration when she came on stage to reveal she would be returning as Rey Skywalker. She'll be doing so by starring in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's film, which will also be entering unexplored territory by taking place after the events of Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. The screenplay is actively being worked on by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, and is already confirmed to follow Rey as she works to rebuild the Jedi Order.

The Rise of Skywalker is undoubtedly one of the most polarizing films in the Star Wars franchise, with both fans and those involved with the movie finding it to be an unsatisfying end to the Skywalker Saga. The Rey Skywalker film has the potential to right the wrongs of the final sequel trilogy film, while also introducing an entirely new facet of the Star Wars galaxy that we've never seen before. Not to mention, seeing Rey use her fancy yellow lightsaber and lead a new generation of Jedi is something that sequel trilogy fans have been clamoring to see, so the potential fan service alone is more than enough to make things interesting.

Kathleen Kennedy further elaborated on what audiences can expect to see in Rey's next adventure:

"Well we’re 15 years out from ‘Rise of Skywalker,’ so we’re post-war, post-First Order, and the Jedi are in disarray. There’s a lot of discussion around, ‘Who are the Jedi? What are they doing? What’s the state of the galaxy?’ She’s attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order, based on the books, based on what she promised Luke, so that’s where we’re going."

The New Star Wars Plan Is Great Because It Is an Actual Plan

Boba Fett sits at a table and drinks
Image via Disney+

Prior to the announcement of the three yet-to-be-titled films, Lucasfilm just seemed to be announcing movies just for the sake of announcing movies. All of them seemed to be announced long before they were ready, and having to juggle them all at once led to most of them being neglected and later abandoned entirely. It's a problem that the company will likely continue to face, as the lack of news regarding Taika Waititi's project at Star Wars Celebration may very well indicate.

That being said, now that Lucasfilm has a concrete plan to release three projects with fleshed-out ideas, the likelihood of them being completed and released has already skyrocketed, and the odds of taking another trip to the theater to see a Star Wars movie are as solid as a space rock.