“Star Wars” secrecy lives on. While the ever-popular franchise is currently enjoying a robust run of new and returning television series, its movie component is still chugging along after the completion of the sequel trilogy in 2019 with J.J. Abrams’ “The Rise of Skywalker.” But while there are currently a pair of new “Star Wars” films on the calendar, we still know very little about them.
One thing we do know: One of them will be directed and co-written by Oscar winner Taika Waititi, who takes on the challenge of a standalone “Star Wars” feature film with fellow screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns, which was announced way back in 2020. So, what is about? Wilson-Cairns is staying mum.
The Oscar-nominated screenwriter is currently promoting her true-life Netflix drama “The Good Nurse,” but has a number of other projects in the works, including Waititi’s long-gestating “Star Wars” feature. But she can’t say, well, anything about it.
“I cannot tell you anything, I’m so sorry,” she said during a recent interview with IndieWire. “I don’t know much. I’m working away in a bunch of projects and I find out what I find out, and I believe if I tell anyone, they’ll come to my house and kill me, and maybe my dog as well, which, I love my dog. He’s got to live!”
While the film was initially announced for a 2023 release, it will likely now arrive in theaters on December 19, 2025 (the next staked-out date on Disney’s official release calendar for an “Untitled Star Wars” film; there’s also one slated for December 17, 2027). As Waititi recently told Total Film about his and Wilson-Cairns’ yet-to-be-titled movie, the film will introduce new characters and sever ties with the core crew of Princess Leia, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
“Look, I think for the ‘Star Wars’ universe to expand, it has to expand,” Waititi told the outlet in June. “I don’t think that I’m any use in the ‘Star Wars’ universe making a film where everyone’s like, ‘Oh great, well that’s the blueprints to the Millennium Falcon, ah that’s Chewbacca’s grandmother.’ … That all stands alone, that’s great, though I would like to take something new and create some new characters and just expand the world, otherwise it feels like it’s a very small story.”
“Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back”
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
Understandably, the normally quite chatty Scottish screenwriter can’t say much about what that film might look like, but she’s happy to talk about her own relationship with the wider series, including its key first trilogy. Asked how she came to “Star Wars” as a viewer — this writer noted that she came to the franchise “rather late” in her movie-watching life — Wilson-Cairns had her own origin story to share.
“Well, I came to ‘Star Wars’ rather badly,” she said. “I walked into the living room and my older brother Steven was watching [‘The Empire Strikes Back’], ‘I am your father,’ and I was like, ‘What’s that?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, this guy is his dad. He didn’t know and they’re fighting,’ and I was like, ‘Ah.’ So it was, shall I say, terribly ruined for me. I would’ve been maybe nine or 10 at the time.”
By the time she got to film school at London’s National Film and Television School, Wilson-Cairns thought she was pretty up to speed on the franchise, but that soon changed. Turns out, those “Star Wars” films have stayed lodged in our cultural memory for a good reason.
“I suppose when I went to film school, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not really that bothered,’ and then I saw it in the big screen in Glasgow,” the writer said. “I watched it with the crowds and I mean, they’re pretty great. It’s very hard to not enjoy them. They’re pure cinema. So yes, I came to it badly and then I came to it later, but better. … It’s weird to come to that stuff late when it’s such a part of our heritage, but as long as you come to it, right?”
“The Good Nurse” is now in select theaters, and will be available on Netflix’s streaming platform on Wednesday, October 26.
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