Why Simon Kinberg Was Hired By Lucasfilm

When news broke on Thursday that Simon Kinberg — best known for being a writer, producer, director or all of the above on much of the “X-Men” franchise — had been hired by Lucasfilm to write and produce a new “Star Wars” trilogy, it came as a surprise to many executives at Lucasfilm and Disney. The project is considered internally to be in deep development and not nearly ready to be made public.

There was also some surprise within the wider industry that Lucasfilm had turned to Kinberg as the newest steward of “Star Wars” on the big screen. According to multiple industry sources with experience working in the franchise space, Kinberg is seen on one level as a sensible and safe choice. Starting with 2005’s “XXX: State of the Union” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” his films as a screenwriter have grossed more than $3.3 billion worldwide. Beyond the “X-Men” films, he’s also produced “Cinderella,” “The Martian” and Kenneth Branagh’s three Hercule Poirot films, all to ample success. He’s said to understand how to talk to film executives about franchise filmmaking in a way that allays their concerns about creative decisions affecting the costly bottom line for these kinds of projects.

On another level, however, Kinberg is regarded by some as a considerably risky bet. “Dark Phoenix,” his directorial debut in 2019, was the lowest-grossing and the worst-reviewed film in the “X-Men” franchise to that point. Kinberg also produced the final “X-Men” movie, “The New Mutants,” which was delayed so frequently — due to an inauspicious brew of creative concerns and Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox — that the film wound up getting dumped as the first major wide release during the pandemic. Now that “X-Men” is firmly under the auspices of Marvel Studios, Kinberg has labored to recreate his earlier success. His next (and, to date, last) effort as a director, 2022’s spy thriller “The 355” with Jessica Chastain, was a financial disaster, grossing just $18.9 million worldwide.

Lucasfilm, meanwhile, has faced substantial difficulty launching a comprehensive film slate following 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”; to date, only “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” a spin-off of the popular Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” has received an official greenlight. So given Kinberg’s recent track record, what would lead Lucasfilm to enlist him to pilot a new fleet of “Star Wars” movies? 

One major factor, says one source with knowledge of the deal, is Kinberg’s continuing creative relationship with Lucasfilm creative executive Carrie Beck and chief creative officer Dave Filoni, who both worked with Kinberg on the well-regarded 2014-2018 animated series “Star Wars Rebels.” Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy, however, was the one who made the outreach to Kinberg about making a live-action “Star Wars” movie. She’d already brought him into the “Star Wars” fold, once in 2012 as part of a brain trust with screenwriters Michael Arndt and Lawrence Kasdan to map out early ideas for Disney’s first three “Star Wars” movies — work that was largely discarded after 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Kinberg was tapped again in 2018 to write a standalone Boba Fett feature with director James Mangold, but they were never able to submit a full script. The box office failure of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” that year coupled with Disney’s new mandate to create content for its upcoming streaming service caused Kennedy to shift the studio’s “Star Wars” strategy away from standalone movies. The Boba Fett film was canceled just months after Mangold and Kinberg were hired. 

Studio insiders also stress that, while media reports have claimed that Kinberg’s “Star Wars” movies will continue the Skywalker Saga as Episodes X, XI and XII, the films are in their most nascent stage. Kinberg’s efforts are meant to create a new saga, but as is the case with virtually all script development, specific plot details and characters are light years away from taking their final shape, let alone arrive in theaters.

Kinberg is also already committed to helping revive another celebrated sci-fi franchise that has hit a fallow period, signing on to produce what Paramount’s aims will be its next “Star Trek” movie, directed by Joby Harold and written by Seth Grahame-Smith. And Kinberg is producing Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” with Glen Powell, which Paramount has slated for November 2025. Given the abundant time and commitment it takes to mount one “Star Wars” movie, let alone three, whatever Kinberg’s “Star Wars” movies wind up being, they are likely far, far away into the future.