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If the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taught us anything, it’s that having a single unifying voice like Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige overseeing the entire operation can be very helpful. Since its acquisition by Disney in 2012, the Star Wars franchise hasn’t had a person with such a direct hand in the series — until now. On Monday, Lucasfilm announced that it had named Michelle Rejwan the senior vice president of live action development and production at the studio.
Prior to her new role within Lucasfilm, Rejwan worked as a producer on two of the films in the most recent Star Wars trilogy. Rejwan first started producing with director J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot back in 2011 with Super 8, which she worked on as an associate producer. Rejwan continued to work with Abrams as a co-producer for Star Trek Into Darkness. She first joined the most recent Star Wars trilogy along with Abrams as a co-producer on The Force Awakens, and is currently working as a producer on The Rise of Skywalker.
Rejwan’s new role within the company will involve overseeing “all theatrical and direct-to-consumer live-action content” for the Star Wars production company. She will also be working with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy to “shape and implement the creative strategy for Star Wars.”
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“I’ve been incredibly impressed with her creative skills and her ability to manage the complexity surrounding these massive projects,” Kennedy said in Lucasfilm’s announcement.
The next scheduled Star Wars project will be The Mandalorian, a streaming series following a bounty hunter that is scheduled to launch alongside the Disney Plus streaming service in November. This will be Star Wars’ first real foray into storytelling in a live-action episodic series, as well as its first arrival to Disney Plus. The Rise of Skywalker, which is set to premiere on Dec. 20, will be the final film in the nine-movie Skywalker story. After that, the Star Wars series is set to enter uncharted, and mostly unannounced, territory.
We know a Cassian Andor live-action series is on its way to Disney Plus, though we don’t know much about it. Rejwan will have plenty of time to oversee the next slate of Star Wars films, which are being developed by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and aren’t set to debut until December 2022. There is also a trilogy set to be directed by The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson; however, Lucasfilm hasn’t announced specifics about that series yet.
