Future Star Wars Movies Won’t Be Beholden To Legacy Characters, According To Rogue One’s Gary Whitta

Two years ago, Star Wars: The Force Awakens shouldered the burden of simultaneously reviving a dormant series with most, if not all of the existing characters we know and love along with introducing a fresh wave of budding franchise mascots such as Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac) and of course, BB-8.

And though J.J. Abrams’ sequel hewed too close to A New Hope for some, The Force Awakens stands as an exciting benchmark for Disney’s future Star Wars movies, and now that Rogue One carved out an unexplored corner of the timeline rather brilliantly, our attention will soon be drawn toward the release of Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Booked in for a release in December of this year, all signs point to a trailer reveal at Star Wars Celebration next month, and though we still have Episode IX and the Han Solo anthology movies to look forward to – directed by Colin Trevorrow and Phil Lord and Chris Miller, respectively – fans have been left wondering what the future of the Star Wars universe looks like beyond 2019. It’s still a mystery, but Coming Soon caught up with Gary Whitta (Rogue One) to discuss all things Star Wars, and it was here that screenwriter stressed that future movies won’t necessarily be beholden to legacy characters like Darth Vader et al.

I really like the fact that we tried to do something different. The next spin-off is ‘Han Solo,’ that’s another familiar character, but I think increasingly you’re going to see… One of the thing things we really want to do at Lucasfilm is create a universe and not keep relying on old legacy characters. We’ve got Rey and Finn and Kylo Ren, they’ve already introduced a new generation of characters. Whatever kind of Star Wars films they’re making 10 or 20 years from now, I don’t think they’re going to be relying on the same legacy story elements as we have in the past.

Truth be told, the idea that Disney’s Star Wars universe will eventually put some distance between those iconic mascots and its current roster of characters (see: Rey, Finn, Poe) is almost inevitable. It’s been a relatively smooth transition so far, no thanks to the nostalgia coursing through the veins of The Force Awakens, but it’ll be interesting to see how Rian Johnson takes that one step further on December 15th, 2017.