It’s no mystery that Star Wars has been kind of a mixed back since 2019, and a lot of fans have been biting their nails for the announced Lucasfilm projects that never seemed to be able to get off the ground.
Now it looks like there has been a shake-up in the Lucasfilm hierarchy.
As some redditors have pointed out (via Star Wars News Net) Derek Hoffman has been appointed as the new VP of Development; he’s replacing Rayne Roberts, who until December 2024 still had the job.
For context, Roberts had helped develop The Acolyte with Leslye Headland, which was eventually cancelled. We don’t know what Hoffman has to bring to the table yet, but has has worked as an executive producer for several of the Fox X-Men films including Days of Future Past as well as FX series like Legion and The Gifted.
Here’s what the official Lucasfilm page had to say about him:
“Since attending Indiana University, Derek Hoffman has worked in the film, video game and comic book industry for the last 24 years. Getting his start with The Donners’ Company as a runner, he quickly moved into an assistant role for director Richard Donner and then to associate producer on the feature film Timeline and co-producer on 16 Blocks. Derek next became a development executive and later vice president for the company where he worked on each film in the X-Men franchise, including as associate producer on X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Derek ultimately spearheaded the franchise’s move into television serving as co-executive producer on the FX series Legion and as executive producer on FOX’s The Gifted.
At Lucasfilm, Derek will help lead the team that develops our stories for adaptation in live action.”
Based on the description, it looks like Hoffman is only going to specifically focus on live-action projects. Some suspect that he could be attached to the trilogy being developed by Simon Kinberg, but it’s possible that he could be dipping his toes on Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau territory with The Mandalorian.
I’m just hoping he gives Skeleton Crew the greenlight for Season 2 soon.
