'Star Wars Rebels' Co-Creator Simon Kinberg To Write, Produce Franchise’s Next Film Trilogy
So many single films may or may not be coming, but it seems the franchise is ready for its first non-Skywalker trilogy
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: One man has his hands in both Star Trek and Star Wars films at the same time. What’s different now? He’s been in the Star Wars family for quite a while. Simon Kinberg, who co-created the Star Wars Rebels animated series with Dave Filoni and Carrie Beck, and was last heard in talks to produce a Star Trek movie directed by Toby Haynes, is now set to write and produce Star Wars’s next film trilogy with studio chief Kathleen Kennedy.
When first reported by Deadline, it was bewilderingly said to be a new trilogy in the Skywalker Saga. However Lucasfilm basically quashed that within hours. It must be emphasized that this trilogy is in very early development, so early that it is way too soon to know when it’ll go into production. Kinberg is also a producer on Paramount and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man remake, which recently went into production with Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Katy O’Brian and Michael Cera.
Since completing its last trilogy with The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm has put numerous individual films into development, including Filoni’s Mandoverse closer, James Mangold’s about the Dawn of the Jedi, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s that continues the story of Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker, introduced in the sequel trilogy, Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian-starrer that began as a series, and Patty Jenkins’s Rogue Squadron which has defied death, as they figure out their film future. None of them have been able to secure either the December 18, 2026, and December 17, 2027 dates Disney has flagged for the franchise. It’s a development period that has seen The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson’s reported trilogy not progress while films from director Marvel producer Kevin Feige, and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss outright die.
However, it’s also a period where Star Wars has managed to break through on live action television series, which began with The Mandalorian as a Disney+ launch title a month before The Rise of Skywalker. The Mandalorian spawned spinoffs The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka, while the footprint grew with other series including Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew, which premieres in December. It is The Mandalorian’s story that will break through to the big screen and break the franchise’s film drought. The film, titled The Mandalorian and Grogu is directed by Jon Favreau will be released on May 26, 2026.
In addition to co-creating Rebels with Beck and Filoni, Kinberg received Thanks credits on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One as a consultant. He’s best known for his work with the X-Men films starting with writing X-Men: The Last Stand. He produced X-Men: First Class before writing and producing its follow-ups Days of Future Past, Apocalypse and his directorial debut Dark Phoenix. The relationship continued into this year as an executive producer on this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine, as he was a producer on the previous Deadpool films. Being part of the then-Fox Marvel system meant also producing Logan and The New Mutants, and executive producing both of Fox’s X-Men television series of the concurrent decade, The Gifted and Legion, and one of three writers on the 2015 Fantastic Four. Outside of those franchises, Kinberg wrote Jumper, Sherlock Holmes, and This Means War, and produced Elysium, Cinderella, Chappie, The Martian, and Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot films.
