Since the Skywalker Saga closed its ninth chapter, Lucasfilm has spent its energy on the edges of the galaxy: streaming series, spinoffs and standalone adventures that rarely touched the family at the center of the franchise. Its next big move is a return to that family name, and the filmmaker it wants to lead it is one Disney already trusts with its most valuable characters. Jon Watts, who steered Tom Holland’s Spider-Man through three films and then co-created “Skeleton Crew” for Disney+, is stepping into the saga that started it all.

As Deadline confirmed, following a first report by Knight Edge Media, Lucasfilm has tapped Watts to direct the first installment of a new Skywalker Saga trilogy. The screenplays come from Simon Kinberg, the writer and producer behind a long run of “X-Men” films, who directed “Dark Phoenix” and co-created the animated series “Star Wars Rebels”. According to Deadline, Kinberg has been developing the trilogy for years, and Daisy Ridley is reportedly being eyed to reprise her role as Rey.

On paper, Watts fits the brief. His Spider-Man films rebuilt a character audiences had already followed through two earlier film series, keeping the hero at a teenage, neighborhood scale while the Marvel universe exploded around him. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” turned that formula into one of the biggest hits of the pandemic era, crossing $1.9 billion worldwide. “Skeleton Crew”, the coming-of-age series about a group of kids lost in the galaxy that he co-created with Christopher Ford, then proved he could work inside Star Wars on its own terms rather than as a visitor from another franchise.

Kinberg’s script, meanwhile, inherits the thorniest legacy in the franchise. The sequel trilogy that began with “The Force Awakens” and continued through “The Last Jedi” was built around Ridley’s Rey, and its closing chapter, “The Rise of Skywalker”, split audiences over how it resolved her story. Any new trilogy carrying the Skywalker banner has to decide what to do with that ending.

The project is not official yet. Deadline notes that it has reportedly not received a greenlight from parent company Disney, and Lucasfilm had no comment. No release window has been announced. The next Star Wars film on the calendar is Shawn Levy’s “Star Wars: Starfighter”, starring Ryan Gosling, which is set for May 28, 2027.

The last time the saga signed off, Rey, revealed as a Palpatine by blood, buried the lightsabers of Luke and Leia on Tatooine and gave her name as Rey Skywalker. If Ridley does return, Watts will be continuing a family story whose heir chose the name instead of inheriting it.