The future of the Star Wars film slate is in a difficult place. While the saga has found great critical success recently on Disney+ with the original series Andor and The Mandalorian, it’s been far too many years since audiences got to see a new Star Wars film on the big screen. Despite the record-breaking success of The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Last Jedi, Solo unfortunately underperformed at the box office, even though the film itself was much better than it was given credit for. The same could not be said for The Rise of Skywalker, a terrible film that failed to bring the “Skywalker Saga” to a meaningful conclusion. Nearly all of the films suffered from production delays, reshoots, and rewrites.

However, subsequent Star Wars projects have struggled to move past the development phase. New Star Wars films from Rian Johnson, Josh Trank, J.D. Dillard, Patty Jenkins, Colin Trevorrow, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Taika Waititi, and Damon Lindelof have all been put on hold or canceled. It’s clear that the saga is struggling to determine where it should go next, and a veteran filmmaker could be able to steer the ship in the right direction. Andrew Stanton is an incredibly talented, creative filmmaker who would be perfect to tell the next chapter in the galaxy far, far away.

A Track Record of Success

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Stanton’s name may not be as well-known as directors like Waititi or Jenkins, but he’s one of the most accomplished and critically acclaimed artists in his field. Stanton is a long-time collaborator with Pixar. After co-directing the studio’s early film, A Bug’s Life, and gaining insight on how the game-changing animation worked, Stanton went on to direct both Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Both films earned him Academy Award wins for Best Animated Feature, as well as subsequent nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Despite Pixar’s incredible quantity of great films, Finding Nemo and Wall-E are considered to be among the best; they both have the same visual spectacle, creativity, humor, and emotional elements that would benefit a Star Wars film.

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Stanton would go on to direct the live-action science fiction film John Carter, a project that had been in development for a long time and was based on classic sci-fi source material. While the film underperformed at the box office, it has deservedly earned a cult fanbase, and it remains a wondrous achievement in visual storytelling; it’s sadly the cast that sometimes a great sci-fi movie is in an initial financial blunder, such as Blade Runner or The Thing. John Carter certainly has the rich science fiction worldbuilding and mythology of a Star Wars film.

Stanton followed up John Carter with the sequel Finding Dory; despite not receiving quite as much praise as its predecessor, Finding Dory was still a solid entry within the Pixar canon. In recent years, Stanton has worked on several acclaimed television shows, including Stranger Things, Better Call Saul, Legion, Tales From The Loop, and For All Mankind.

The Benefits of Having a Veteran Filmmaker

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

While it’s understandable that studios want to sometimes hand their blockbuster films to up-and-coming talent, younger directors may not have the same experience working on massive productions that require a deep knowledge of visual effects and series mythology. In these cases, having a veteran filmmaker with a deep wealth of experience can be beneficial. It’s often the case where studios hire younger directors who have only a few small films on their resume, and they get overwhelmed by the elaborate nature of the production. Both Trevorrow and Trank were hired for Jurassic World and Fant4stic, respectively, after only one small feature; both films ended up being creative disappointments.

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It can be especially helpful to have a director who knows how to work with a large creative team and knows how to incorporate last minute changes and react to production delays; both Pixar and Lucasfilm plan their upcoming films in writer’s rooms in order to adjust to their other scheduled releases. It makes sense that the two studios are so often linked together, as Pixar was originally owned by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

Stanton is unquestionably one of the most important figures in the history of Pixar; in addition to the films that he’s directed, Stanton has served as a consultant and co-writer on Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, Up, all four Toy Story films, and several shorts and video games. His work on John Carter may not have yielded much financial success, but it certainly gave him experience merging digital and practical visual effects work. John Carter is among the most expensive films ever made, a list that contains several recent Star Wars films.

His Work on Star Wars and Relationship With Disney

Lucasfilm

Disney is notoriously a studio that demands a lot from its filmmakers, and in recent years has had many production delays and controversies. Marvel Studios has been in a period of adjustment after the negative reception to Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and several films such as Blade and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness lost their initial directors. With more content being sent directly to Disney+ and skipping a theatrical release entirely, the studio will unquestionably want to retain the highest level of quality for their theatrical slate. Stanton has already proven that he can work with Disney, and has yet to make a bad film with the studio.

Additionally, Stanton was involved in writing the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ miniseries; not only did this give him knowledge of what the Star Wars writing rooms and productions feel like, but it proved that he could tell interesting stories set in the galaxy far, far away. While Obi-Wan Kenobi was a divisive miniseries, Stanton co-wrote the final two installments “Part V” and “”Part VI,” which were generally considered to be among the more acclaimed installments. The final two chapters in the series offered an exciting conclusion to Obi-Wan’s (Ewan McGregor) arc where he chose not to kill Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen), fearing that he would also be drawn to the dark side like his former apprentice.