The Star Wars franchise is facing another significant change.
Jiaozi's Ne Zha 2 (2025), released during the Chinese New Year season on January 29, 2025, has surged at the box office. The sequel to 2019's Ne Zha, adapted from Xu Zhonglin's “Investiture of the Gods,” has already outpaced Disney and Pixar's Inside Out 2 (2024), claiming the title of highest-grossing animated film.
Ne Zha 2 now boasts a global total of $2.062 billion and is on track to overtake 2015's Star Wars: Episode VII–The Force Awakens in the coming days, securing a historic spot in the all-time top five. It has already become the first animated movie to breach $2 billion.
The Force Awakens, set decades after Star Wars: Episode VI–Return of the Jedi (1983) introduced new faces like Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, while giving space to legacy characters such as Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford).
The movie went on to gross $2.068 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of all time, behind movies like James Cameron's Avatar (2009) and the Russo Brothers' Avengers: Endgame (2019).
The sequel trilogy's subsequent entries, Rian Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII–The Last Jedi (2017) and J. J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode IX–The Rise of Skywalker (2019), both surpassed the $1 billion mark, with $1.332 billion and $1.074 billion, respectively. The sequels struggled to replicate the financial dominance of The Force Awakens, amid ongoing fan division.
With the Star Wars saga's box office dominance waning with each new entry, all eyes are now on Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian and Grogu, set to release on May 22, 2026, to see if it can reignite the franchise's financial momentum.
Star Wars Looks Ahead
In 2012, George Lucas sold his beloved science-fiction universe to The Walt Disney Company for over $4 billion. Disney released the first installment in its new sequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VII–The Force Awakens, marking the franchise's cinematic return.
Six years since Star Wars last graced the big screen, Lucasfilm appears to be setting a course for the future. Following speculation about her retirement, Kathleen Kennedy recently confirmed she won't be stepping down and will “die” making movies. Kennedy quietly revealed that following Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian and Grogu movie next year, Shawn Levy's untitled Star Wars project–reportedly starring Ryan Gosling–will enter production.
Additionally, Kennedy confirmed that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's film, featuring Daisy Ridley's Rey, remains in development. James Mangold's project–the so-called “Dawn of the Jedi”–is also progressing now that the director's work on The Complete Unknown (2024) has ended. Kennedy shared that Simon Kinberg's trilogy has gone to script.
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