Jon Watts Reportedly Tapped for New ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy by Simon Kinberg
The 'Spider-Man' and 'Skeleton Crew' director is reportedly set for the first film of a new trilogy. Lucasfilm hasn't confirmed it, and reports split on whether it's Episode X.
- Jon Watts, who directed Tom Holland’s three Spider-Man movies and co-created Skeleton Crew, is reportedly set to direct the first film in a new Star Wars trilogy.
- The trilogy is being written by Simon Kinberg. Lucasfilm declined to comment and hasn’t announced a director, a title or a date.
- Reports disagree on whether it continues the Skywalker saga as Episodes X to XII or starts a new story.
A Star Wars director, maybe. Jon Watts has been tapped to direct the first movie in a new Star Wars trilogy written by Simon Kinberg, TheWrap reported this weekend, after the entertainment site Knight Edge Media first reported that Lucasfilm was circling him.
Lucasfilm declined to comment. Until the studio announces it, the job is reported, not confirmed. Here’s what is on the record, who Watts is and where the trilogy fits in a franchise that has struggled to get new movies made.
Is Jon Watts directing a ‘Star Wars’ movie?
According to that report, yes: the first film of the trilogy, from Kinberg’s script. Lucasfilm had earlier hired Kinberg to write and produce the three films. No cast, title or release date has been announced.
Watts isn’t new to the galaxy. He co-created Star Wars: Skeleton Crew with Christopher Ford, the Disney+ series about four kids lost in space with a pirate played by Jude Law, which premiered in December 2024 and drew in part on The Goonies.
He also directed Spider-Man: Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home, the last of which made more than $1.9 billion worldwide, and the 2024 George Clooney and Brad Pitt comedy Wolfs.
Is it ‘Star Wars: Episode X’?
Nobody official has said. The Skywalker saga is the nine numbered films, from A New Hope in 1977 to The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. An early report suggested Kinberg’s trilogy picks up as Episodes X, XI and XII; others describe it as a standalone “new saga.”
Kinberg knows the territory. After Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, he was part of the small group that shaped the new films, consulted on The Force Awakens and co-created the animated series Star Wars Rebels with Dave Filoni. He also wrote and produced much of the X-Men film series.
What ‘Star Wars’ movies are coming next?
One is dated. Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling, opens May 28, 2027, and is set after The Rise of Skywalker. It follows The Mandalorian and Grogu, released May 22, which made $345.8 million worldwide, the lowest total for a live-action Star Wars movie.
Plenty of announced projects never got made: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s trilogy, a Taika Waititi film, a Rey movie with Daisy Ridley and a Lando movie with Donald Glover among them. Rian Johnson’s trilogy also hasn’t come together. That’s the backdrop for a new trilogy with a reported director but no date.
The show that got Watts the reported job is below.
More movies: here’s every new Netflix movie in October, and George Lucas’ museum in Los Angeles is open. For more on the Star Wars fandom, here’s how The Love Hypothesis started as Reylo fan fiction. More in Movies & TV.
— Bruno Monteiro
Sources: TheWrap, “‘Star Wars’: Jon Watts to Direct First Film in New Trilogy” by Umberto Gonzalez (Sept. 26, 2026); Knight Edge Media (Sept. 26, 2026); StarWars.com on Skeleton Crew and Star Wars: Starfighter; Variety and The Hollywood Reporter on The Mandalorian and Grogu box office (May-June 2026).
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