Lucasfilm has turned to Spider-Man director Jon Watts for the opening film of a new Star Wars trilogy, even as a string of earlier announced projects still sit unfinished years after Rise of Skywalker.

TheWrap reported that Watts will direct the first installment from a script by Simon Kinberg, the prolific writer-producer Lucasfilm previously hired to write and produce a fresh trilogy of Star Wars films.

Lucasfilm declined to comment. Knight Edge Media first carried the news.

Watts is best known for directing the first three Tom Holland Spider-Man movies and for work on the Star Wars series Skeleton Crew. Kinberg’s ties to the franchise run deeper. After Disney acquired Lucasfilm, he sat in a small brain trust shaping new projects, consulted on J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens, and co-created the animated series Star Wars: Rebels with Dave Filoni.

Years of announced films that never arrived

The Skywalker Saga’s theatrical path most recently wrapped with The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. Since then, Lucasfilm has announced multiple Star Wars movies that have yet to materialize.

Those include a standalone from Taika Waititi, a Rey-centered film tied to Daisy Ridley, and a Lando movie linked to Donald Glover. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were working on a trilogy for the company. So was Rian Johnson. None of those have reached the screen.

An early report floated the idea that the new Kinberg trilogy might cover chapters 10 through 12 of the Skywalker Saga. Other accounts have pushed back on that framing. TheWrap’s account does not settle the question.

Another swing at a stalled franchise pipeline

What the reporting does make plain is the pattern. Lucasfilm keeps hiring big names, floating big titles, and leaving fans waiting while the theatrical slate stays thin. Watts now becomes the latest director handed the first chapter of Kinberg’s planned trilogy.

No start date, release target, cast, or production calendar has been made public. No one at Lucasfilm has been named as the executive who locked in Watts. The studio’s only on-record move in the coverage is the decision not to comment.

For a brand built on mythology and momentum, the gap between announcement and delivery has become the story. Watts and Kinberg are the new names on the call sheet. The unfinished projects still sit on the shelf beside them.

Hollywood can greenlight legends all day. Shipping them is the part Disney’s Star Wars machine keeps failing to finish.