Since Rajinikanth's birthday in 2019, there have been strong indications of the Superstar actor collaborating with director Lokesh Kanagaraj on a Tamil film. There were also hints of Kamal Haasan's Raaj Kamal Films International (RKFI) producing this team-up, but Haasan chose to make Vikram (2022) with Lokesh instead, paving way to the franchise coup i.e. the Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU). 

Rajinikanth's current line-up has Jailer, Lal Salaam and Thalaivar 170, and buzz is that director Lokesh is meeting Rajini for a potential Thalaivar 171 script discussion this month. Lokesh Kanagaraj is currently busy with Leo starring Vijay in the lead, and if one may recall Jailer director Nelson Dilipkumar was also doing Beast (2022) with Vijay when the his lead star encouraged the filmmaker to try and narrate a script to Rajini. 

As fate would have it Vijay's encouragement lead to Nelson being signed for Jailer with Rajinikanth and Sun Pictures. Only time will tell if Vijay turns out to be a lucky charm for Lokesh's film with Rajini too. Reports also suggest that if all goes well, Anirudh will be composing music for Lokesh Kanagaraj-Rajinikanth movie.