Gary Whitta says future Star Wars movies won’t rely on legacy characters

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

It was certainly very exciting when it was announced that STAR WARS would be returning, but I found myself more intrigued by the reveal that in between the releases of the Skywalker saga films, we'd be getting standalone movies exploring the rest of the STAR WARS galaxy. At the time we had no idea what those standalone movies would look like or what sort of stories they'd tell, but the possibilities were almost endless. The STAR WARS galaxy is a big place full of many interesting stories and characters scattered across time, but when details of the first spin-off's began to emerge, it felt as though Disney was playing it safe by dealing with characters and events which directly related to the main saga.

Gary Whitta, who co-wrote the story of ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, recently spoke with Coming Soon and was asked about the future of STAR WARS movies and when they might move beyond the legacy characters created by George Lucas.

I think you’ve already seen us get 90% of the way there with “Rogue One.” Yes you see Leia, yes you see the Death Star and Vader, because those are elements of that story and they belong there, you can’t tell that story without those characters. But for the most part, 90% of that story is completely new characters. Completely new planets and places you’ve never seen before. It’s a Star Wars movie with no Jedi! You don’t see a lightsaber once until Vader pops it out at the end. It doesn’t have any spirituality or mysticism… a little bit through Donnie’s character, but it’s very different DNA to the Star Wars films that have come before it. 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.

Whitta added that although he was "speaking purely as a fan" and has "no idea what their plans are for the franchise," it makes sense to him that Lucasfilm/Disney wouldn't want "to keep telling the same story over and over again. You want to tell new stories." As we know, the next STAR WARS standalone film will tell the origin of Han Solo, but other rumoured spin-off's have focused on characters like Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda; all characters I'd be into seeing more of, but I'd much rather be introduced to something new. To be fair, with only two new STAR WARS films under our belts, this whole experience is really only just getting started.

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY will be released on Blu-ray/DVD on April 4, 2017.

What type of STAR WARS film would you like to see which doesn't rely on legacy characters or key events?