‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Director Jon Watts to Direct ‘Star Wars: Episode X’

When ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘ arrived in theaters, it was sold as a grand finale, concluding the original nine-chapter “Skywalker Saga” in 2019. Yet the idea of a ‘Star Wars: Episode X’ has never quite gone away. It has lingered in the rumor mill for years, like a Force ghost that refuses to fade.

The first real spark came when Lucasfilm began developing a new trilogy with Simon Kinberg set to write and produce the three films. At the time, Lucasfilm disputed the notion, first suggested by Deadline in their initial report, that Kinberg’s movies would continue the story that George Lucas began, and the project’s true identity has stayed murky ever since.

That murkiness just cleared up considerably. The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Jon Watts has signed with Lucasfilm to direct the first installment of the new trilogy written by Kinberg, which is expected to be Episode X. Deadline then confirmed the news, noting that after 8 years and countless entries in the expanding onscreen universe, the franchise is revisiting the Skywalker family.

The announcement spread like wildfire across social media; Variety also reported Watts as attached to helm the next chapter of the franchise, making this one of the most concrete updates the big-screen side of the galaxy has seen in a long while.

Watts is no stranger to this world. He co-created the Disney+ show ‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’ with Christopher Ford and directed both the series premiere and the finale. That series followed 4 kids on an adventure during the era of the New Republic and premiered in December 2024.

Before that, he built his blockbuster credentials in the MCU, where his Spider-Man trilogy grossed over $3.9 billion from 2017 to 2021. In 2024, Watts and his producer Dianne McGunigle also signed a first-look deal with Walt Disney Studios through their company, Freshman Year.

The biggest question is who will anchor the story, and early reports point to a familiar hero. Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker is expected to appear in some capacity across the new trilogy. Kinberg also brings Lucasfilm history of his own, having co-created ‘Star Wars Rebels’ alongside Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm’s new president, and Carrie Beck.

Still, fans shouldn’t mark their calendars just yet. The project has not been greenlit by Disney, though it is reportedly the furthest along of Lucasfilm’s films following ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’. That film, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling, is in post-production and lands in May 2027, the franchise’s 50th anniversary.

For now, there is no timeline for the project moving further into development, nor a timeframe for a theatrical release. Caution is warranted, too, since films from Patty Jenkins, Kevin Feige, Rian Johnson, and David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were all announced over the years but never came to fruition.

Online reactions have been mixed, with plenty of replies zeroing in on the writer rather than the director. One widely seen response simply paired Watts’ name with Kinberg’s ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ credit and an exasperated sigh. That skepticism has roots, as Kinberg’s directorial debut on ‘Dark Phoenix’ failed to revive faith in Fox’s X-Men series, and ‘The 355’ was similarly a critical and commercial failure.

Watts carries a few question marks of his own after his last feature. Apple announced a sequel to ‘Wolfs’ and then quietly scrapped it, with Watts publicly saying he no longer trusted the studio as a creative partner. Even so, a proven hitmaker who already knows Lucasfilm from the inside is a notable swing, and some reports suggest he could be considered for the trilogy’s other two installments down the line.

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