It’s been 10 years since The Walt Disney Company gave George Lucas a few billion dollars and purchased his production company, along with Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and everything that else that came with it. When Disney took over, it began almost immediately to put together massive plans for a brand-new trilogy of Star Wars films, as well as numerous other movies that were going to expand the galaxy far, far away.
We did, in fact, get the new Star Wars trilogy we were promised, as well as a couple standalone movies on top of that, but following Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the plans for Star Wars on the big screen started to go a little nuts. While production delays even hit the new trilogy, so they weren’t unexpected, delays in most cases turned into cancellations. While most of these movies were never even officially announced, there is evidence they were in development, until they were not.
A Boba Fett Movie
In the beginning, in between the three movies comprising the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, we were supposed to get three films that were not directly tied into the Skywalker Saga, but worked to expand the Star Wars universe. Two of those movies actually happened. We got Rogue One and Solo following The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, respectively, but we were expecting a third film after the trilogy concluded, and that movie was supposed to be about Boba Fett.
Problems started early when the original director Josh Trank was reportedly dropped from the project. Perhaps if that hadn’t happened, the movie would have made it to screens, but it seems no future director could be found and this movie ended up languishing in development hell. Eventually, we got The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett on Disney+, so in a way we did eventually get a Boba Fett story, but not in the way it was supposed to happen.
Solo Sequels
One of the reasons given for why we haven’t seen more Star Wars on the big screen is that one of the last movies that we did see, Solo: A Star Wars Story, struggled at the box office. To be fair, Solo struggled long before it arrived in theaters, but the movie certainly didn’t perform the way Lucasfilm was hoping, and the way we can tell that is that there were supposed to be sequels.
When Alden Ehrenreich was cast to play Han Solo, he reportedly signed a deal for not one, but a trilogy of Star Wars movies. Needless to say we haven’t seen those projects, or even one that would allow Ehrenreich's Han Solo to even cameo. Under the circumstances, it’s not that surprising, but when you’re planning to make a couple more movies and then have to audible, you have to try and fill that with something else.
A Mos Eisley Movie
We’ve seen a lot of the planet Tatooine in the various Star Wars series made for Disney+, but at one point, believe it or not, there was literally going to be a movie about the planet itself. More specifically, one about the “retched hive of scum and villainy” that was the Mos Eisley Cantina.
This was yet another project that had been in development that was reportedly shelved by the poor performance of Solo. We were told that a lot of work had been done for a Star Wars spinoff movie on Tatooine before the project was quietly canceled.
Benioff And Weiss' Star Wars Movies
While most of the Star Wars projects that we know about had at least basic ideas for plot and story, but didn’t necessarily have people actively producing them, one of the higher profile Star Wars movie ideas was the other way around. It was quite a big deal when the creators of HBO’s Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, signed on for at least one Star Wars film, if not several of them. It was even bigger deal when they left with those movies unmade.
We still don’t know what these movies would have been about, though Disney was confident enough at one point to officially announce this as the first post-Rise of Skywalker movie. We don’t even know if they knew what these movies were going to be about, though there were rumors of a Knights of the Old Republic connection. Reportedly the pair decided they didn’t want to deal with the potential problems of angry Star Wars fans, which makes sense since they learned what that was like following the final season of Game of Thrones.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Movies
One of the big questions even before the Sequel Trilogy was over was what Star Wars would do when we got there. One of the early rumors in that regard was that Lucasfilm was working on a new trilogy of films, which would be all about the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi in between the first two Star Wars trilogies. Ewan McGregor was asked about these rumors at every turn, but very little was ever confirmed.
In the end, we actually did get the Obi-Wan Kenobi story we were expecting, but we didn’t get it in the way we were expecting. While there absolutely were plans to make Obi-Wan movies, the project was eventually retooled into a Disney+ series. It was a generally well-regarded series, so it makes one wonder if it would have done well on the big screen.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Duel of the Fates
The last one is a different sort of entry because, in the end, we did get Star Wars: Episode IX, but there’s no question now that the movie we got was very different from the movie originally planned. Colin Trevorrow was supposed to write and direct Episode IX, but his script was ultimately rejected by Lucasfilm, and Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams was brought in to direct an entirely new script.
At least one version of Trevorrow’s script did eventually leak, allowing fans to learn how the end of the trilogy could have gone. It would have left the galaxy far, far, away in a very different place. We may have had an end to the Sequel Trilogy, but we didn’t get the one that was initially advertised.
And these are just the movie that we know we’re never going to see. The fate of movie like Patty Jenkins Rogue Squadron, Rian Johnson’s trilogy, and a movie being produced by Marvel’s Kevin Feige are unknown. They have not been officially cancelled, and in the case of Rian Johnson, he has said his Star Wars movies are still very much alive. And other films are reportedly in active development, including one being helmed by Taika Waititi and another from Damon Lindelof that could be set post-Rise of Skywalker.
We will undoubtedly see Star Wars on the big screen again, but what movie or movies we actually get, we may not know until opening night. For now, you can watch the Star Wars movies in order that have come out with your Disney+ subscription.
