Andy Weir’s Star Wars Pitch Fixes His Biggest Problem With The Franchise

Published Nov 2, 2026, 5:36 PM EST

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. 

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Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir has a vision for the future of Star Wars.

Weir is a bestselling science-fiction author who, in addition to Project Hail Mary, has written The Martian and Artemis. While he is telling original stories that are not part of an existing franchise, previously, Weir criticized new Star Trek shows, arguing that except for Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, "All the others, they can go . . . those shows are sh*t," while also sharing that his own pitch for the franchise was rejected. Now, he is sharing his take on Star Wars.

In an interview with SlashFilm, Weir shared that his biggest issue with a galaxy far, far away right now is that "Star Wars is more about massive upheaval. One problem that happens is, if you're going to have a story about a monumental war, then when it's over and the good guys win, you want it to stay that way. So it's very unsatisfying if you roll into a new monumental war."

As for how he would fix this, The Martian author had the following pitch: "Think of it like this: We know what happened in World War II, but there are some really good fictional stories that take place during World War II. So if you treat the Galactic Civil War as, 'Okay, that's established canon, those are the things that happened,' but there's still a lot of stories to tell about other people living through those wars. So that's what I would do."

The concept of following members of the Rebellion who are not Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, or Han Solo has been explored in recent years with the critically acclaimed Disney+ series Andor, which follows the titular character and his fight against the Galactic Empire in the five years leading up to Rogue One.

Given his pitch, Weir confirmed that he is, unsurprisingly, a fan of Andor, and believes it could only be made as a television series: "Andor was amazing and really good, and it was a series and [that was the correct choice]. You're going to do a movie, you've got to tell your whole story in like two hours. So it needs to have a lot more — 'Andor' was very intellectual, extremely clever, extraordinarily well-written, very well — I mean, I loved everything about it. But it's not something that you could make into a movie."

Weir is not alone in being critical of there being another galactic war in the Star Wars timeline after Return of the Jedi when Emperor Palpatine is defeated and the second Death Star is destroyed. This has been a criticism of the sequel trilogy films, along with some of the live-action shows focused on Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Imperial Remnant threatening the New Republic and the wider galaxy.

While this has been a new direction for the movies and shows, Star Wars Legends set a precedent for this with Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire book trilogy, which features Thrawn returning from the Unknown Regions five years after Return of the Jedi, as he brings remnants of the Empire together to take on the New Republic. Legends also includes other books and comics set after the original trilogy where large-scale galactic conflicts occur.

As for Weir's story pitch, stories like Andor, Rogue One, and Star Wars Rebels have looked at both the Rebellion and the Empire from perspectives other than Luke, Leia, Han, and only a minimal amount of Darth Vader in the last two. They are among the best-received movies and shows in Star Wars canon since the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012.

Andor, Rogue One, and Star Wars Rebels are all set between the prequel and original trilogies, though, meaning the idea of a movie or show from other perspectives during the height of the Galactic Civil War, after the destruction of the first Death Star, has not been done yet.

Nevertheless, based on the slate of upcoming Star Wars movies and shows, this is not where the franchise is headed in the near future. The 2027 film Starfighter is set after The Rise of Skywalker, Ahsoka season 2 will largely focus on Thrawn against the New Republic, and Maul - Shadow Lord season 2 will be in the earlier part of the Empire's reign and long before the Galactic Civil War starts.