--- title: What's Next for Star Wars After Andor Season 2 description: Andor is a miracle—other Star Wars shows, less so. A slew of movies were announced and canceled. So what is LucasFilm planning to make next? canonical: https://time.com/7276401/star-wars-franchise-andor-upcoming-movies/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-04-22T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:28.892Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Why There Hasn’t Been a Star Wars Movie in 6 Years—And What Comes Next og:description: Andor is a miracle—other Star Wars shows, less so. A slew of movies were announced and canceled. So what is LucasFilm planning to make next? og:url: https://time.com/7276401/star-wars-franchise-andor-upcoming-movies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf55932c83b46a9a8/698a3507d0753393c3e6d2a9/andor-diego-luna.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Andor: Disney+ og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why There Hasn’t Been a Star Wars Movie in 6 Years—And What Comes Next twitter:description: Andor is a miracle—other Star Wars shows, less so. A slew of movies were announced and canceled. So what is LucasFilm planning to make next? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf55932c83b46a9a8/698a3507d0753393c3e6d2a9/andor-diego-luna.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why There Hasn’t Been a _Star Wars_ Movie in 6 Years—And What Comes Next  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Apr 22, 2025 11:00 AM CUT  Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in 'Andor' Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in 'Andor'Des Willie—Lucasfilm  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Apr 22, 2025 11:00 AM CUT The second and reportedly final season of _Andor_, easily the best _Star Wars_ television show or film that LucasFilm has produced in years, is set to premiere on Disney+ on April 22\. But it arrives at a moment of potential transition for the studio. Creator Tony Gilroy recently said he doesn't think the streaming era can support shows like _Andor_. "No one’s ever gonna start a show on this scale again, and shoot it practically, and have the resources and the protection to do something like this," he [told _Empire_](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/news/tony-gilroy-andor-existence-mandalorian-exclusive/ "undefined"). So what does the future of _Star Wars_ television—and film—look like? Eight years after _The Last Jedi_ hit theaters, we haven't gotten a single _Star Wars_ film. Instead, Disney has churned out a glut of television series: The mega-hit _The Mandalorian_, the miraculous _Andor_, and many more shows of varying levels of quality. The _Star Wars_ universe even expanded into the real world with a hotel at Disney World that invited its guests to play Jedi and Sith as they interacted with in-character hotel staff. The closure of that cosplay resort sparked a [multi-hour long viral video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4 "undefined") analyzing why the concept failed. The future of the franchise does seem to hinge on a successful return to the big screen. And many potential _Star Wars_ movies from famous writers like _Game of Thrones'_ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, _Lost'_s Damon Lindelof, and _The Shape of Water'_s Guillermo del Toro have been announced and then scuttled. Meanwhile, President of LucasFilm Kathleen Kennedy is reportedly contemplating stepping down soon. Earlier this year, she [told _Deadline_](https://deadline.com/2025/02/kathleen-kennedy-clarifies-lucasfilm-exit-star-wars-future-1236304421/ "undefined"), "We’ll probably make an announcement \[about my replacement\] months or a year out, and I have every intention of sticking around to help that person be successful." Kennedy does have a couple films on the theatrical calendar. _Iron Man_ director and _Mandalorian_ creator Jon Favreau will helm _The Mandalorian and Grogu_, a spinoff of the hit TV series set to debut next year. And _Deadpool & Wolverine'_s Shawn Levy will soon begin shooting _Star Wars: Starfighter_ starring Ryan Gosling. Here's where LucasFilm stands ahead of _Andor'_s final season. **Read more:** [Andor _Is the Best_ Star Wars _Show Yet. Why Does It Feel Like No One’s Watching?_](https://time.com/6234534/andor-best-star-wars-show/ "undefined") ## The critical success of _Andor_ From a critical perspective, _Andor_ should be a blueprint for success at LucasFilm. In theory, the story could have been a rote _Rogue One_ prequel: The show focuses on one of that film's heroes, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), and his indoctrination into the Rebellion. Instead, its a compelling spy thriller interrogating the reality of a gritty fight against totalitarianism. There are no Jedis, no secrets about Darth Vader's past for Reddit sleuths to hunt down, no adorable creatures to slap on backpacks and lunchboxes. The show resists the temptation, to which so many of its peers have caved,to incessantly reference characters, objects, or plot points from its mother IP. (See: _House of the Dragon_ or _The Rings of Power'_s obsession with flashbacks and Easter eggs.) And while _The Mandalorian_ is structured like a monster-of-the-week series with a new planet or challenge every episode or so, _Andor_ is structured like well-crafted prestige television. Every few episodes, Cassian visits a new planet. Gilroy, who also wrote _Rogue One_, settles into each new location, meticulously builds character arcs there, and delivers an often crushing emotional blow at the end of each character's story. [As I wrote of Season 1](https://time.com/6234534/andor-best-star-wars-show/ "undefined"), Gilroy's use of language is precise, and we’ll often hear the same turn of phrase uttered by both Empire stooges and the rebels, blurring the lines between good and evil. And the show's focus on the daily, deadly, often stifling struggle against fascism strikes particularly hard at this moment: _House of Cards'_ Beau Willimon wrote a harrowing three-episode arc in Season 1 during which Cassian is picked up by authorities for a crime he didn't commit and [arbitrarily sentenced](https://time.com/7277381/us-update-mistakenly-deported-man-el-salvador-prison/ "undefined") to years in a labor camp. If there is a reason why _Andor_ has succeeded creatively where other _Star Wars_ TV shows have failed, credit must go to Gilroy, the writer behind _Michael Clayton_ and the _Bourne_ movies, as well as Willimon, who has become perhaps the most in-demand script polisher in Hollywood thanks to his work on both _Andor_ and [_Severance_](https://time.com/7202896/severance-season-2-ben-stiller-adam-scott-interview/ "undefined"). Gilroy has credited the incredible commercial success of _The Mandalorian_,[ Disney+'s most popular series](https://screenrant.com/star-wars-the-mandalorian-most-watched-disney-plus-original/ "undefined"),with his ability to take creative risks with _Andor_. "The success of _The Mandalorian_ gave us the platform to jump off," he told _Empire_. "No Baby Yoda, no _Andor_. Seriously. Don’t think that we don’t know that." And LucasFilm certainly deserves credit for trusting Gilroy and giving him ample funding even if his contemplative show didn't reach the ratings highs of _The Mandalorian_. They were willing to take the risk because of the potential upside. Why the studio hasn't found a similar collaborative approach with the likes of Lindelof or del Toro remains a mystery. ## Star Wars' struggles to find a footing on the big screen  Rey (Daisy Ridley) in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Jonathan Olley—Lucasfilm Ltd. Before LucasFilm even wrapped the Skywalker saga with 2019's_Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker_, the studio seemed to bestruggling with the cinematic direction of the franchise. Originally Colin Trevorrow was supposed to direct the ninth entry in the _Star Wars_ series, then titled _Star Wars: Duel of the Fates_. But LucasFilm replaced Trevorrow with J.J. Abrams, who had helmed _The Force Awakens_, the first of several director switch-ups for the franchise. _The Lego Movie_ and _21 Jump Street_ directing team Phil Lord and Chris Miller were dismissed from 2018's _Solo: A Star Wars Story_, an origin story for Han Solo, midway through production and replaced by Ron Howard. _Solo_ underperformed at the box office, and the sequels that were seeded in the movie never came to fruition. Disney CEO Bob Iger said at a 2023 conference that the “disappointing” box office returns for _Solo_, “gave us pause...maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive." He added that going forward, "we’re going to make sure when we make one, it’s the right one. So we’re being very careful there." And careful, they have been. _Star Wars_ movies that were announced only to disappear include a Boba Fett film from _A Complete Unknown'_s James Mangold, a Jabba the Hutt movie directed by del Toro, a trilogy from Benioff and Weiss, and a movie from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige. Films from _Thor: Ragnarok'_s Taika Waititi and _Wonder Woman'_s Patty Jenkins appear to be on indefinite hold. That's a lot of big directorial names who have come and gone with nothing to show for it. ## The Disney+ television glut  Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen in The Book of Boba Fett Lucasfilm When Disney+ launched in November of 2019, just before the pandemic, they flooded the streaming service with content derived from the House of Mouse's most popular franchises, Marvel and Star Wars (and, for children, Pixar). A few early shows were huge hits, including _The Mandalorian_ and _WandaVision_, in part because they defied expectations of what paint-by-numbers franchise TV-making might be. Marvel's high-concept _WandaVision_, for instance, spoofed sitcoms through the ages. And _The Mandalorian_ featured a massive twist at the end of the first episode: the introduction of an adorable creature we on the internet collectively dubbed "Baby Yoda." But perhaps in an effort to churn out as much content as possible, the shows that followed often felt like pale imitations of what came before them—series that were less creative, less compelling, more dependent on the viewer having watched hundreds of hours of Marvel or Star Wars content just to keep up with the plots. For Marvel, the simultaneous glut in content and drop in its quality have had an impact on box office for its feature films, which have not performed as well as the studio had hoped post-_Avengers: Endgame_. LucasFilm hasn't suffered the same fate in theaters simply because the studio has not produced any _Star Wars_ movies in six years. But they have continued to flood Disney+ with TV shows, including _Ahsoka_, _The Skeleton Crew_, _The Acolyte_, _Obi-Wan Kenobi_, _The Bad Batch_, and _Boba Fett_. None of these shows have quite captured the zeitgeist like _The Mandalorian_ did or garnered the critical praise of _Andor_. The overall effect on fans, based on social media chatter, has been simultaneous Jedi fatigue on the small screen and a yearning for a larger, sweeping stories in the cinema. ## What's next for Star Wars  Grogu in The Mandalorian LucasFilm Star Wars fans shouldn't despair. Disney's shareholders will pressure the company to eventually get another film set in a galaxy far, far away into movie theaters. Two _Star Wars_ projects currently have a firm release date. _The Mandalorian & Grogu_, a spinoff of the hit TV series starring Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda, is set for May 22, 2026\. And Levy is directing a movie called _Star Wars: Strarfighter_ starring Ryan Gosling, will debut in May 2027\. That second film will star entirely new characters and be set about five years after the events of _The Rise of Skywalker_. Meanwhile, after his Boba Fett movie fell by the wayside, Mangold is now reportedly working on a different _Star Wars_ movie set 25,000 years before _The Phantom Menace_. And Simon Kinberg, who wrote many of the _X-Men_ movies, has signed on to do a trilogy for the franchise. _The Last Jedi'_s Rian Johnson says he may or may not return to the _Star Wars_ universe for a once-announced trilogy after the he finishes writing and directing the _Knives Out_ franchise. Jenkins' _Rogue Squadron_ movie was originally set for 2023 and has been delayed for years. An announced Waititi film similarly seems to be trapped in development purgatory. Still, perhaps one of these movies will see the light of day. LucasFilm also announced a movie—or perhaps even trilogy—based on Rey Skywalker. Initially, the studio hired Lindelof for a Rey project. Lindelof later [said](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a43728671/damon-lindelof-star-wars/ "undefined") (with good humor) that he was "asked to leave the _Star Wars_ universe." LucasFilm then tapped _Locke'_s Steven Knight to replace _The Leftovers_ creator, though Knight, too, left the project, which may now be in limbo. Intriguingly, frequent Lindelof collaborators Carlton Cuse (_Lost_) and Nick Cuse (_The Leftovers_ and _Watchmen_) [are reportedly working](https://www.theinsneider.com/p/new-star-wars-series-carlton-cuse-nick-cuse-kathleen-kennedy-stepping-down-august "undefined") on a _Star Wars_ live-action series. Though a separate project, it's easy to imagine those writers might share Lindelof's sensibility. Amid all these announcements, in 2023, Dave Filoni was named Chief Creative Officer at LucasFilm and charged with planning the future of Star Wars films and shows. Filoni cut his teeth on _Star Wars_ animated series like _The Clone Wars_ before working on _The Mandalorian_ with _Iron Man_ director Jon Favreau. But beyond bringing his biggest TV project to the big screen, details on the other future plans remain scarce. That's a lot up in the air, and fans are hopeful that some of these tentative plans will firm up in the near future. 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