Disney has greenlit a new Star Wars trilogy that will continue the Skywalker Saga, according to reporting from The Hollywood Reporter, with Jon Watts — the director behind three Tom Holland Spider-Man films — attached to helm the first installment. The trilogy is being written by Simon Kinberg, who has been developing the project since late 2024.
The Hollywood Reporter describes the project as “the next chapter in what is referred to as the Skywalker Saga, the stories featuring the multi-generations of the Luke Skywalker family.” Rey Skywalker, the Jedi played by Daisy Ridley in the 2015–2019 trilogy, would appear in some capacity in the new films.
Breitbart’s John Nolte, writing about the announcement, was blunt in his assessment, arguing that “absolutely no one is interested in the further adventures” of the character and deriding the studio as a “desperate Disney Grooming Syndicate” that continues to return to a “doornail-dead” franchise. Nolte predicted the project would be titled Episode X, Episode XI, and Episode XII.
The Numbers Behind the Decision
Nolte’s central argument is that the new trilogy amounts to a panic move driven by recent box office performance. He points to this summer’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, which he says cost roughly $250 million between production and promotion and ultimately took in $346 million worldwide — a figure he calls disastrous by Star Wars standards.
He also cites next May’s Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling, which carries a reported production budget of $245 million. Adding at least $100 million for promotion, Nolte estimates the film needs to reach around $700 million to break even. Whether it will get there, he writes, remains to be seen.
That context, in Nolte’s reading, explains why Disney is returning to the Skywalker well: the studio may believe nostalgia for the original saga is the only reliable path forward, similar to how Marvel has brought back original Avengers cast members to shore up its own brand.
Mixed Track Records
The creative team behind the new trilogy has a mixed resumé. Watts directed three commercially successful Spider-Man movies, which Nolte acknowledges as a point in the project’s favor. Kinberg’s writing credits, however, include This Means War (2012), Fantastic Four (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Dark Phoenix (2019), and The 355 (2022) — a run Nolte characterizes as “all of them lousy” except for X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).
Disney has not announced casting beyond the suggestion that Ridley may appear. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the studio has been referring to the project internally as a Skywalker Saga continuation, though it describes the trilogy’s specific story as a “mystery.”
A Broader Franchise Strategy
The announcement comes amid a broader reassessment of how Disney handles its legacy properties. Nolte draws a parallel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Robert Downey Jr. is reportedly set to earn $100 million for returning as Dr. Doom across two films — Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars — while Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans will reportedly earn around $40 million each.
That kind of spending, Nolte suggests, raises the question of whether Disney might try to lure back original Star Wars stars like Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, even though their characters were killed off in earlier films. “Do you really think Ford and Hamill can turn down that kind of payday?” he asks.
For now, the new trilogy remains in early development. No release dates have been announced, and it is unclear how the story will connect to the previous films or whether other legacy characters will appear. What is clear is that Disney is betting that the Skywalker name still carries enough weight to bring audiences back to theaters — a bet that, based on recent returns, is anything but guaranteed.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/09/28/nolte-disney-greenlights-skywalker-star-wars-trilogy-that-no-one-wants/