Rumor: The First Stand-Alone 'Star Wars' Film Will Center On Yoda

Over the years there has been no shortage of speculation about what characters might end up being the center of a Star Wars film that focused on the history of one character, rather than the big ensemble. Boba Fett was always a fan-favorite choice, before the prequels took some of the air out of the character's sails. As of a year ago, Joe Johnston still wanted to make a movie oriented around everyone's favorite helmeted bounty hunter.

Robert Rodriguez has expressed his own interest in a Han Solo movie, and there is a grand list of characters that could be explored in films with an individual focus. Now we hear more news that Kathleen Kennedy and LucasFilm are definitely prepping a solo film or two, and that the first will center on Yoda. Could this be what Lawrence Kasdan is writing?

AICN says "The first Stand Alone film is going to center upon YODA. At this stage specifics are sparse, but Kathleen Kennedy is putting together a STAR WARS slate." Harry writes the piece, but doesn't have details other than that exclamation. Will this be Yoda as seen in the original trilogy, or the prequels, or in some other point in his life?

Harry also teases the idea of a Jabba the Hut story — and that would be interesting, as there's a Han Solo-ish film to be made in which Jabba comes to power, perhaps — but there's nothing big to rely on there, either.

We've heard that the scripts by Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan, originally thought to be for additional core Star Wars episodes, could be for spin-off films featuring side characters, and there's a lot of talk about a great deal of consideration being given to expansions of the core Star Wars story.

As Kasdan wrote The Empire Strikes Back, and so was one of the primary creators of Yoda, his script naturally comes to mind as a possible confirmation of this story. But we don't have that piece of the puzzle yet.

There's a lot of room for denial here, and the truth is that we might have to wait another year or two to really start to get a bigger view of the LucasFilm plans. The company knows they've got something big, and is doing a good job of managing interest in Star Wars at this point. We also know that merchandise is always going to be a part of any plans for the Lucas universe, and a Yoda film — complete with a collection of other cute but tough alien characters — could be a bonanza in that department.

That said, Yoda is a supporting character. He shines in small appearances, but the idea of a movie full of Yoda-speak isn't the most appealing. That's the problem with many Star Wars characters. They can be wonderful in their particular roles, which leave audiences wanting more. As soon as the focus collapses to feature just that one person, however, they might not shine so brightly. Han Solo would likely be an exception, and Yoda might, with a very creative script.

We're early in the news cycle on this one, and so don't expect to hear a big confirmation from LucasFilm just yet.

(There was also that rumored Zack Snyder standalone movie that would be a Seven Samurai-inspired Star Wars tale... and I can see Yoda being pretty great as a main character in a film that was loosely based on Kurosawa's classic. LucasFilm and Snyder quickly denied that film, but it's the one idea that really sounds good here. What if young Yoda played the rogueish Toshiro Mifune role, and the film portrayed his own ascent to zen/Jedi mastery?)