Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige might be the most powerful producer in Hollywood these days; although he’s literally never picked up a directing or a writing credit on any of the dozens of films that carry his name, Feige is widely recognized as the architect and mastermind of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise of films, easily the most financially successful movie-making experiment of our current generation. It’s not wholly surprising, then, to learn that his parent company might be interested in putting his talents toward one of its other massive properties, especially one that a) Feige is an avowed, passionate, on-the-record fan of, and b) has picked up a modest reputation for flagging at the box office of late.
Or, to put it more bluntly: Kevin Feige is making a Star War.
This is per The Hollywood Reporter, which revealed tonight that Feige has been in conversations with his opposite number over at Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, about putting together a Star Wars film of his very own. Details about this are being kept under the most ridiculously stringent of wraps, obviously—Disney really doesn’t want anyone focused on anything but J.J. Abrams, December 20, and those Skywalkers that keep on rising—but a spokesperson for the company did confirm that a project is being worked on, noting that, “it made sense for these two extraordinary producers to work on a Star Wars film together.” A “top source” at Disney was also quick to deny that Feige dipping his toes into a new playground meant that there was any thought of him moving in to replace Kennedy, herself the architect of the blindingly-successful-by-any-standard-but-the-MCU’s Disney Star Wars properties, at the top of the Lucasfilm hierarchy.
Post-Rise-Of-Skywalker, the future of the Star Wars movie universe feels a bit like a Rorschach test; formless blobs everywhere, with a vague sense of having disappointed someone important. Rian Johnson is taking another crack at the franchise, for one thing, while Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are on the hook for at least one movie, too. That’s to say nothing of TV projects like The Mandalorian, from Feige’s old franchise-launching pal Jon Favreau, and that Obi-Wan show Ewan McGregor just signed back on for. Injecting a bit of Feige’s organizational talents and ambitions doesn’t feel like a bad thing at all for a franchise suddenly at loose ends, even if we have to assume we’ll now have to factor post-credits scenes into our Star Wars bladder budget plans.