This past winter, rumors began to swirl that Jon Watts, who recently served as the director for the MCU-set Spider-Man trilogy, was being lined up to direct a developing Star Wars streaming series. Recently, the pieces started to fall in place when Watts and Marvel Studios parted ways on the Fantastic Four project that Watts had been set to helm. Now, Vanity Fair has revealed that Watts has indeed been brought on board for the Star Wars project, but in a much bigger role than originally expected.
Watts has reunited with Chris Ford, the writer of Spider-Man: Homecoming, to create an original Star Wars streaming series for Disney Plus. The project, code named “Grammar Rodeo”, will be set in The New Republic era, which means it’ll be taking place around the same time as Lucasfilm’s biggest streaming success to date, The Mandalorian. Earlier rumors suggested it might be set during a much earlier time known as The High Repbulic.
The series will reportedly revolve around a very young main cast, with Lucasfilm casting several teen and pre-teen actors. According to Vanity Fair, the series will be a “galactic version of classic Amblin coming-of age-adventure films of the ’80s”, meaning such films as E.T., The Goonies and perhaps even Back to the Future could serve as inspiration for the project. Watts has a great track record working with young actors, so he seems a perfect fit for Lucasfilm’s plans.
Production on the series is rumored to kick off next month, so it’s likely we’ll learn much more about the project soon, perhaps even at Star Wars Celebration, which runs from May 26th-29th.
Source: Vanity Fair
