Dear Kevin Feige...

Empire’s Force fanatic James Dyer writes an open letter to the Marvel chief, now moving into the Star Wars world

DEAR KEVIN, I was very excited to hear that, after captaining the good ship Marvel for 23 movies, you’re adding a second, Star Destroyershaped vessel to your fleet. Now, I know what you’re going to say: “It’s just one movie, I’m not starting up a whole SWCU.” But indulge me for a moment while I tell you why you should.

I love The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, both for very different reasons, and I’ll likely do backflips over The Rise Of Skywalker as well. But no-one can accuse those films of having a singular vision. J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson were given creative freedom to explore their own stories, which is admirable, but as we ricochet between those storytellers, key plot points emerging, being snatched away and then thrust back to the fore, it’s hard not to feel a little disorientated by the narrative whiplash.

What Star Wars needs now is what the MCU has showcased so effortlessly: a single, overarching narrative, planned in advance and executed with pinpoint precision so that all the dominoes fall in sequence. Four-dimensional dejarik, if you will, played against the ornery Wookiee that is the Star Wars canon. If Rian Johnson’s new trilogy and David Benioff

& D.B. Weiss’ stories could be coordinated and woven together with other original films (including the one you’ve already announced), and even Disney + shows such as The Mandalorian and Obi-wan, then the next phase of Star Wars could really be something strong enough to pull the ears off a gundark.

What, exactly, the story will be, I’ll leave to you — it’s been reported that you already have an idea (and an actor) in mind. But I’d love to see you bring the same level of emotional gut-punches and apocalyptic shocks that you managed to bring to the last two Avengers movies. Or perhaps you’re the man to finally bring the long-anticipated Knights Of The Old Republic adaptation to the screen. Failing that, you can at least tie everything together and make Patton Oswalt’s Skywalker/thanos crossover fantasy from Parks And Recreation a reality.

Regards, James. PS Thrilled you worked out all the Spider-man stuff. Brunch soon?