While “Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens” continued to be celebrated by fans, the trade press and the public, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, the rest of the sequel trilogy was not so well received despite its financial success: The controversial “Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi” was mercilessly torn, at least in certain corners of the internet, and the production problems were evident in “Star Wars 9: The Rise of Skywalker”, which was very half-baked to many.
Still, Disney and Lucasfilm stick to the sequels and are currently working on a kind of prequel to the return of the emperor in “Star Wars 9” in “The Mandalorian”. Also Far from being de-canoned, as some have claimed, Star Wars 8 continues to play a role – according to Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy’s new statement about “Star Wars 10”.
Kennedy spoke in the latest issue of Film Magazine namely about Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s recently officially announced “Star Wars” movie, which will bring back Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker (and possibly John Boyega as Finn as well) and set a few years after “The Rise of Skywalker”.
“Star Wars 10” builds on “Star Wars 8”.
“We’re going way back in time, we’re looking at the present, and now we’re going 15 years after ‘The Rise of Skywalker,'” Kennedy said. (through ) about the currently three planned feature films. Speaking of the third film, she continues: “The First Order has fallen, the Jedi are in chaos – you wonder how many still exist – and Rey builds a new Jedi Order from the text she received and Luke gave her.“
This refers to the ancient Jedi texts Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) keeps in “Star Wars 8” in an ancient tree on the planet Ahch-To, where he retired.
That Luke gave the books and scrolls to Rey is not entirely correct: In fact, Luke doesn’t care much about the lyrics and even tries to destroy them during the movie, aided by the Force Ghost of Yoda. However, Rey previously brought the books aboard the Millennium Falcon and then uses them in “Star Wars 9” to find the planet Exegol and the Emperor, which Yoda may have guessed and Luke eventually accepted.
Will Mark Hamill return as a Force Ghost?
However, given Kennedy’s statements, it does not seem impossible that Luke Skywalker will also return as a power spirit in “Star Wars 10”. Because the whole thing with the Jedi, the texts, the old and new orders, and Luke’s attitude towards them hasn’t really been told yet. However, this does not mean that Mark Hamill will return.
So it means waiting for now – and maybe a long time. Star Wars 10 could hit theaters in December 2025, but that’s not certain yet.