Perhaps the biggest shock out of the Star Wars revival that Disney brought about is that, outside of the main saga, there would be stand-alone Star Wars films. The first of these, Rogue One, is slated for a December 2016 release. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has released some details about these spin-offs.
In a recent interview, Kennedy said that the filmmakers will have a degree of artistic freedom in creating these films.
“The standalone films can be a wide variety of genres inside the Star Wars universe,” Kennedy said. “They are really being designed as standalone movies which is fantastic for the filmmakers we bring in, and the actors we hire, because it’s a different sensibility.”
Kennedy also said that these spinoffs would not create even more spinoffs, and that these movies could take place any in the Star Wars timeline.