Jon Watts Reportedly Directing the First Film in Simon Kinberg's Star Wars Trilogy: What Rey, Finn and the Villain Need

Jon Watts is reportedly directing the first film in Simon Kinberg's new Star Wars trilogy. I'm not sure if we're in a fever dream with Star Wars or this is actually real. The news broke yesterday, and it raises a lot of questions.

There were a lot of immediate reactions. Plenty of people said, in effect, another Star Wars movie has been announced, call me when there's a trailer, which is fair enough. Others asked why Watts and Kinberg, and why this would be part of the Skywalker saga at all. If we're moving forward after The Rise of Skywalker, what are we moving toward? Is Rey finally going to build something? Is Finn going to get the story he was promised? Can Star Wars come up with an enemy that isn't just the Empire wearing a different helmet? And how do you do a Skywalker saga when the Palpatines killed all the Skywalkers? Han's gone. Leia's gone. Luke's gone. Kylo's gone. There's nobody left unless it's Luke's secret love child, because Rey is not a Skywalker. I'm going to go over all of it and see if we can actually figure this out.

The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap report Jon Watts is attached, but nothing else is confirmed

I want to be clear on the news. The Hollywood Reporter says Watts is attached to direct the next film, with Kinberg writing the trilogy. The Wrap also reported it. Lucasfilm declined to comment to The Wrap. There is still disagreement in the reporting over whether these films are literally Episodes 10 through 12, or whether this is the beginning of a separate saga.

We do not have any confirmed plot, cast or titles. So when I get into Rey, Finn and the villain, those are the possibilities I think the filmmakers should be looking at, not announcements. That said, if Daisy Ridley is confirmed to be back and the story happens after The Rise of Skywalker, I don't think you can really separate it from being anything other than Episode 10, or Episode X.

Daisy Ridley's separate Rey movie may or may not be this film

There's one other wrinkle. Lucasfilm announced a separate movie with Daisy Ridley returning as Rey, set after The Rise of Skywalker, in which she would build a new Jedi Order. That was announced with a different director attached a long, long time ago. Lucasfilm later listed that film and Kinberg's trilogy as projects in development.

We don't know how those projects fit together, whether plans have changed, or whether that movie is now this movie and part of the trilogy. So be careful with anyone telling you that this Watts movie is definitely the Rey movie. But if this trilogy does take us into the same era, which is looking like it's going to, then raise the bar for her. As I put it, "give her a job more interesting than standing in a temple handing out lightsabers."

I've argued this in the past: I don't think Daisy Ridley is a bad actor at all. As a matter of fact, I think she's good. I think she suffered from bad writing and from people who completely lost the plot and didn't know what to do. I know opinion on Ridley as Rey is very subjective, and plenty of people find her performance boring. But for me, she just got handed a lot of bad writing. That's my opinion, and I want to give it upfront.

Rey needs a genuine problem to solve, not another Jedi school on repeat

Rey ended the last trilogy with a name, a lightsaber and the entire legacy of the Jedi sitting on her shoulders. What she didn't get was an answer to the hard part: what does rebuilding actually look like? Luke tried to restore the order, and it collapsed. He failed miserably. Before him, the old Jedi Order had a ton of blind spots. If Rey just opens another school, follows the same rules, and we wait for a student to turn evil, we're going to be watching the same thing for the fourth time.

I want Rey to have a genuine problem to solve. What that problem is, I have no idea. But she knows what it feels like to be alone, to be frightened of where you come from, and to wonder whether your future has already been decided for you. Maybe that should shape the kind of Jedi she creates. Maybe she welcomes people the old order would have turned away. Maybe she refuses to cut students off from their families.

Maybe those choices bring her into conflict with people who think she's making the Jedi too vulnerable. Somehow you have to give her an arc. She has convictions, but she could also be wrong. That way Daisy Ridley would have something to play beyond wise Jedi master entering the scene.

Finn deserves more than earning a robe in Rey's Jedi school

Then there's Finn. If John Boyega returns, which I personally highly doubt because I've seen his interviews and he is not about it, he can't just be the guy running alongside Rey yelling her name. Finn was taken as a child and trained by the First Order. His first defining act was refusing to kill for them. There's an entire movie in what happens after that: what he does with his freedom, and whether he can help other former stormtroopers. It would be a cool arc if he actually went and rescued them.

Yes, I would explore Finn's connection to the Force. Lucasfilm has described him as Force sensitive in material set after The Rise of Skywalker. But being Force sensitive doesn't automatically mean his best story is sitting at a desk in Rey's Jedi school while he earns a robe and a lightsaber. I would want him and Rey working together as equals, with different experiences and different ideas about what the new Jedi should do. Rey understands the Force. Finn understands what it takes for an ordinary person to break away from a system that's controlling them.

Picture Finn traveling to worlds where former stormtroopers were abandoned. Some are trying to go home. Some don't really have a home, and don't know what home is. Some are being recruited into the next violent movement because nobody else will take them in. Finn could become the person who reaches them before any army does. Then when he chooses to train with Rey, or chooses a different way to use the Force, that choice means something because it grows out of his story. There are so many ways you could go. Or you could make him bad; we could do that too.

I think maybe a more interesting enemy is a power vacuum, not a secret Imperial fleet

The other big question, if we're staying in the Skywalker saga, is who they're fighting. Nobody has announced an enemy. My request would be: don't reveal a secret Imperial fleet in the third act. We've done it. I don't need Palpatine's backup backup backup plan.

I think a more interesting threat might be a power vacuum that the sequels left behind. The First Order falls, but that doesn't mean every system suddenly agrees on who should lead. Maybe some worlds would welcome the Jedi back. Others might remember the galactic wars that have repeatedly involved Jedi, Sith and Skywalkers deciding everybody's fate, and they don't like the Jedi.

The villain could have a point worth arguing. I kind of want a villain like a Thanos type or a Doctor Doom, where they genuinely think they're right and doing good. Rey might be trying to build a better order, but should anybody trust her?

Jon Watts and Simon Kinberg: I wouldn't call the trilogy saved or doomed yet

As for Jon Watts, I don't know. He directed the Spider-Man trilogy, and we know he worked on Skeleton Crew in the Star Wars universe. He does know how to follow younger characters through a huge world and keep the story moving. There are a lot of people hating on this and saying it's a terrible decision. Maybe I could be glass half full here. Maybe he could be what Rey and Finn need to introduce them to a new generation. I'm shielding my head as I say that.

My concern is whether Lucasfilm gives the movie a distinct identity. A fast, fun, safe introduction that keeps teasing the real story in the next movie would make me very angry. Then there's Kinberg, which is an interesting choice. He co-created Star Wars Rebels, so he's helped tell a story about found family and resistance in this universe. He also has a mixed big screen track record. In my words, "I wouldn't declare the trilogy saved or doomed based on either one of these names personally yet." I want to see the story they choose, and whether they can actually commit to three films.

Why staying in the Skywalker era bothers me

So is it a good idea? I really don't know. I don't like the fact that we're staying in the Skywalker saga, and I really don't like that we're going to get three more with Rey leading it. That's not because I don't like Rey or Daisy Ridley. "They just can't let go. They cannot get out of this era."

We have Starfighter, which I think is set five years after The Rise of Skywalker. I know they were saying before that it wasn't going to be tied to anything, but I don't believe that at all now. If this is the way we're going, I think it's going to be tied into this somehow.

The reporting gives us a director and a writer, and no answers to any other questions. If this is the next chapter of Star Wars, I want to know what Rey believes the Jedi can actually become, and I want Finn standing there with his own answer if he's going to be there, though honestly I don't think he will be.

Should Star Wars really be staying in the Skywalker saga for another trilogy, or is it time to move on from this era?