Kathleen Kennedy on 'Star Wars' Future, Daisy Ridley and Taika Waititi (original) (raw)

After the “Ahsoka” panel at the Star Wars Celebration in London, Variety spoke with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy about some of the franchise’s future installments.

Kennedy was keen to talk about bringing back Daisy Ridley’s Rey for a new “Star Wars” film, which was announced during an April 7 panel.

“It was a pretty straightforward phone call,” she said. “I started out by just saying, ‘Hey, I think we’re getting near being ready.’ We’ve been talking a lot about what we’re doing in the movie space and I said, ‘I think we’re getting close to being ready. How would you like to go to Celebration?’ That was really the beginning of it. She was out of her mind excited.”

Kennedy also offered an update on Lucasfilm’s collaboration with Rian Johnson, who is potentially working on a new “Star Wars” trilogy.

“Rian and I talk all the time,” she said. “He is unbelievably busy. So we’re not actively involved in anything at the moment because he’s doing another one of the ‘Glass Onion’ movies and then God knows what else. But he really wants to step back into the space. It’s a big commitment of time, so that’s really on him.”

Taika Waititi is also working on a standalone film in the “Star Wars” universe. Kennedy gave an update on that as well.

“Taika is still working away,” she said. “He’s writing the script himself. He doesn’t really want to bring others into that process and I don’t blame him. He has a very, very unique voice. So we want to protect that and that’s what he’s doing. But we’re going to make that one day.”

Kennedy also fielded an inquiry about a potential second season of the series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Some fans have pushed for a follow-up adventure for Ewan McGregor’s iconic Jedi.

“That is not an active development,” she said. “But I never say never, because there’s always the possibility. That show was so well-received and [director] Deborah Chow did such a spectacular job. Ewan McGregor really wants to do another. Everybody’s all hands on deck with what we’re doing right now, as you can see by what we showed everybody [at the Celebration]. We’ll turn our attention to that again maybe down the road.”