Did you catch that massive piece of Star Wars news that broke while you were enjoying your weekend? Jon Watts, the director of Tom Holland’s first Spider-Man trilogy, is attached to direct a new Star Wars movie. It’s the first in a trilogy written by Simon Kinberg that, apparently, will act as the jumping-off point for the future of the franchise. In other words, Star Wars: Episode X.
Lucasfilm has yet to make this official, but multiple Hollywood trades have confirmed the news, and io9 has independently heard the same. Though, to be fair, until he’s sitting on set behind a camera (and sometimes even after that in the Star Wars universe), anything can happen. But, for now, Jon Watts is directing Episode X.
Anytime Star Wars news breaks, reactions are inevitable, but this particular piece of info really set off a firestorm. Mostly it’s because, in recent months, there has been a huge pushback on Jon Watts as a director. This phenomenon coincided with the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the first Tom Holland solo Spider-Man film not helmed by Watts. Apparently, if you live online, everyone hates those movies now. Which was news to us.
So let’s start there. Yes, Jon Watts’ Spider-Man movies felt different from the record-breaking film we saw in theaters this summer. But that was by design. Many forget that when Spider-Man: Homecoming was released in 2017, Watts and his team were basically tasked with making a new type of Spider-Man movie. No origin story. No swinging around New York City. It had to be more grounded, MCU-centric, and different from the Andrew Garfield movies released just three years prior. Those pillars then continued into the sequels, culminating in No Way Home, which, if memory serves, was rather beloved at the time.
To look at those three movies and think Watts isn’t capable of capturing emotion and wonder on a huge scale seems almost unfathomable. You don’t have to love those movies, but you should certainly respect them. On the other hand, if you look at some of Watts’ work after that, maybe there’s a better argument. Wolfs, for example, his Brad Pitt/George Clooney crime film, should have been great and it was not. It’s small. Flat. Forgettable. It’s not a movie with aspirations similar to Star Wars, but its quality could, potentially, bolster an anti-Watts argument better than Spider-Man.
There’s also the other side of the argument. Unlike most directors coming into the Star Wars universe, people forget that Jon Watts has already made Star Wars. And it was really, really good. He was one of the creators, producers, and directors of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, easily one of the best Star Wars shows ever released. It dropped fans into a new pocket of the universe and provided the kind of childlike wonder some of the new movies and shows were missing. Was it perfect? Of course not. But it absolutely showed that Watts had not only a passion for Star Wars, but a working relationship with and understanding of the franchise. Since its release, he also hasn’t been shy in saying he wants to make more Star Wars.
There’s also the argument that Watts, no matter what you think of him, is a very safe choice. And, coming after the similarly safe Shawn Levy, it’s a growing pattern. Lucasfilm has now, or will soon, hire back-to-back, down-the-middle white men to direct Star Wars movies. Are either Levy or Watts exciting choices? Not really. Are they filmmakers who have shown they can make a solid, big-budget movie that general audiences will embrace? Absolutely. And, more importantly, they’re each people capable of the inevitable backlash.
Choosing to direct a Star Wars movie opens you up to a level of vitriol and backlash that’s basically unprecedented. Rian Johnson is the best example, but even J.J. Abrams himself—thought to be a slam-dunk choice at the time—will have taken almost eight years to release a new movie after The Rise of Skywalker. Star Wars movies carry a level of expectation that’s literally impossible to meet. And that is surely a huge reason why most other filmmakers would probably never even consider making one. You could make the best movie ever, and inevitably you will also be vilified forever. It’s lose-lose. It’s why no one of note really hosts the Oscars anymore. Everyone is just going to criticize you no matter what happens, so why risk it?
Some of the blowback on Watts and this project also stems from the name Simon Kinberg. Kinberg is a polarizing name online, mainly because some of his films (Dark Phoenix as a writer/director, Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four and X-Men: Apocalypse as a writer, etc.) are pretty bad. But he’s also written and produced plenty of projects that are really, really good. Deadpool, Deadpool 2, The Martian, oh, and Star Wars Rebels, which he helped create along with Dave Filoni.
Kinberg has also been attached to, and working on, these Star Wars movies as far back as 2024. So while his name may have been news to some, if you follow Star Wars, it’s something you’ve come to terms with already.
So yes, there is a lot to discuss here with the potential of Jon Watts directing the first film in a new Star Wars trilogy written by Simon Kinberg. We haven’t even discussed whether or not this is the Skywalker Saga, how much Rey will be in it, what it means for that other Rey movie, and more. We’ll have many, many years to discuss all that. And, most likely, many, many months before Watts becomes official. But we couldn’t let the news of a new Star Wars director go by without looking at it from a few different angles, and now, we leave it to you.
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