You know how, in between all the necessary cross-promotional opportunities, all the Marvel films at least try to be different genres? Winter Soldier was a ‘70s conspiracy thriller; Ant-Man a heist film; Spider-Man, apparently, a John Hughes film. According to Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, that same process will generally hold true for the Star Wars stand-alone films. While the new Star Wars sequels, like the prequels, will focus on the extended Skywalker clan, Kennedy told Slashfilm, “the standalone films can be a wide variety of genres inside the Star Wars universe.â€Â Rogue One, then, she says hedgingly, could be seen as Star Wars’ own heist film, just like the Han Solo origin story will probably be a rip-roaring space adventure, and the rumored Boba Fett film was apparently set to be a Western. Â
But don’t say the M-word around her! “Star Wars is very different than Marvel in that [Marvel] basically builds their stories around characters, and then they seed those characters in different stories,†Kennedy argues. “Star Wars, you know, is a place, it’s a universe, so those stories are constructed a little differently than Marvel.†Also, she says that the stand-alone nature of each film will let directors put their own stamp on the material, which has not always been the case with Disney’s other money-printing franchise. Hey, maybe they really will be able to get Ava DuVernay to direct a Star Wars film — it sounds like it really would be able to be an Ava DuVernay film.