Laeta Kalogridis, who executive produced Avatar, has been tapped to write a new Star Wars movie based on the beloved 2003 video game Star Wars: Knights of Old Republic — and the kicker is that it’s supposed to serve as the first film in a new trilogy, according to BuzzFeed News.
A representative for Disney/Lucasfilm declined to comment, while representatives for Kalogridis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. I typically like to confirm major news like this on my own, but given the secrecy surrounding Star Wars and the fact that it is coming from a well-respected journalist like Kate Aurthur, who confirmed her info with three separate sources, I’m willing to bet it’s legit.
Kalogridis marks the first female Star Wars writer since Leigh Brackett co-wrote 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back with Lawrence Kasdan. She’s one of the first writers I’d turn to for a project of this size and scope, given her knack for world building and experience working on big-budget projects, both credited and not, so I’m not surprised she got the gig. To anyone surprised that any “she” landed a Star Wars gig given Lucasfilm’s recent track record of hiring only white men to serve as the gatekeepers of a galaxy far, far away, allow me to point you to this Tracking Board article I wrote back in February of 2018 that pointed towards legitimate evidence that Lucasfilm was already developing several top-secret projects with female filmmakers and storytellers of color. According to BuzzFeed, Kalogridis was hired in the spring of 2018. It must be tough to be a studio in this day and age, and suffer certain slings and arrows online in the name of secrecy. But obviously, it’s about damn time. Her credits include Martin Scorsese‘s Shutter Island, Robert Rodriguez‘s Alita: Battle Angel and 2015’s Terminator: Genisys.
Image via BioWare/EA
BuzzFeed goes on to report that “Kalogridis is close to finishing the first script of a potential KOTOR trilogy,” which most Star Wars experts I follow online assume to be a different trilogy than the ones that Rian Johnson and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are separately working on. Either way, the next Star Wars movie to hit theaters will be J.J. Abrams‘ The Rise of Skywalker, which will end the Skywalker saga after nine films. After that, fans will have to wait until 2022 for the first film in Benioff and Weiss’ trilogy, which will bow a new installment every other December, switching each year with James Cameron‘s Avatar sequels. And don’t forget the upcoming Disney+ series The Mandalorian from Jon Favreau, or the Rogue One prequel series that will center around Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). What I’m saying is, there will be plenty of Star Wars content to keep fans engaged in the franchise, which has obviously withstood much longer gaps between entries.
So, who are the Knights of the Old Republic? What’s this movie all about? I have no idea, I just work here! Apparently it’s about the Jedi and the Sith — including a Jedi Knight named Bastila Shan and a Sith Lord named Darth Malak — duking it out 4,000 years prior to the events in the original 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope. Such a film was widely expected to be in the works after Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told MTV News, “Yes, we are developing something to look at,” upon being asked about KOTOR during Star Wars Celebration in April.
It took a joint MTV News-BuzzFeed News effort, but we now have a much clearer idea of what the future of Star Wars may look like. May we all sleep a little easier tonight!
Image via BioWare/EA
Image via BioWare/EA