Dark Phoenix Director Purportedly Attached To Write New Star Wars Movie

Dark Phoenix director and all-around X-Men mainstay Simon Kinberg is currently writing an untitled Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm.

That’s the news coming out of Deadline (h/t ComicBook.com), after the outlet alluded to the fact that Kinberg has been tasked with drafting up a script for a future Star Wars film, though whether it involves a core saga movie – and therefore a part of Rian Johnson or David Benioff/D.B. Weiss’ respective trilogies – or an Anthology pic remains to be seen.

Of course, this is by no means the first time that Simon Kinberg has dabbled in Lucasfilm’s far-away galaxy. In his many years as a Hollywood producer, Kinberg helped create the hit animated series Rebels, and was originally brought in to expand the Star Wars universe – alongside Lawrence Kasdan (Solo: A Star Wars Story), no less – in 2012, when it was announced that he would help produce and write new projects for a post-George Lucas franchise.

So think of this as more of a timely affirmation than an out-and-out scoop, as it’s likely the case that Lucasfilm already has the ball rolling on numerous Star Wars projects for 2020 and beyond.

Because let’s face it, the franchise is arguably stronger now than it’s ever been, thanks in large part to Disney’s one-film-per-year quota that can be traced back to the release of The Force Awakens in 2015. Since then, we’ve had one excellent spinoff (read: Rogue One) and a blockbuster sequel that proved much more divisive than initially anticipated. Next up? The release of Solo: A Star Wars Story on May 25th.

As for Simon Kinberg, he’s currently gearing up for X-Men: Dark Phoniex (AKA his directorial debut) to hit theaters in November, and while the director has long been attached to a reboot of Logan’s Run, it seems Kinberg is ready to punch that golden ticket to Star Wars.