Remember when Lucasfilm threw out the Expanded Universe, which comprised decades of non-canonical but rich stories told through novelizations, comics, and video games? Apparently, that was a terrible decision. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy admitted that it was difficult to make a Star Wars movie now because there isn’t any source material to guide them. “We don’t have comic books. We don’t have 800-page novels.”
We don’t have anything other than passionate storytellers who get together and talk about what the next iteration might be. We go through a really normal development process that everybody else does. You start by talking to filmmakers who you think exhibit the sensibilities that you’re looking for. And I would argue that the list is very small — people who really do have the sensibilities about these kind of movies, and then the experience and the ability to handle how enormous a job these movies are.