Lucasfilm Will Reportedly Announce A New Star Wars Movie In April And It May Very Well Be The Mysterious Damon Lindelof Project
Charley Gallay. Getty Images."After years of Marvel and Star Wars movies and shows inundating screens big and small, Disney is putting the brakes on the output of some of its biggest franchises and brands following Bob Iger’s Feb. 8 comments that the company needs to be “better at curating” franchise content that’s 'extraordinarily expensive.' Added Iger: 'We want the quality on the screen, but we have to look at what they cost us.'
"[…] After being absent from the big screen since 2019 and having had false starts with Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron, which may never materialize, Disney has ramped up its efforts to return the franchise to theaters. Damon Lindelof led a writers room in July to hash out a story for a feature, and Taika Waititi is still developing his own take on the franchise. Disney is expected to unveil film plans at Star Wars Celebration, set for April in London."
This bodes so well for the future of Star Wars on the big screen. They've really slowed production down on the theatrical side and focused on world building within their Disney+ TV shows.
Given the success of The Mandalorian and Andor in particular, that's been an excellent strategy. Almost by necessity due to COVID for a while there. That said, Star Wars is such a massive, galactic sandbox for talented creatives to play in that it's a logical next step for the franchise to be on the cutting edge of the modern streaming era.
What stands out about the two TV series I mentioned in particular is how meticulously planned each one was. Although the Mando show has faced criticism of "filler" episodes and Andor doesn't feel like Star Wars to some due of its more grounded, grittier storytelling, they've both had raging success.
That's because Lucasfilm allowed a seasoned, technologically savvy filmmaker in Jon Favreau and longtime George Lucas apprentice/Star Wars animation king Dave Filoni team up to plan, execute and deliver a phenomenal experience on The Mandalorian. Then, they gave Tony Gilroy free rein on Andor to build on the tone he established as the co-writer/reshoots director of Rogue One and create a compelling sociopolitical drama set in the Star Wars universe.
AND NOW: Damon Lindelof of Lost, Watchmen and The Leftovers fame among other hits, is getting his shot at Star Wars with a bunch of stellar writers. Lindelof's writers room that dates back to July helped himself and co-screenwriter Justin Britt-Gibson crack the story. It was also reported by THR that two-time Oscar-winning, Hard J Journalist-turned-filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was aboard to direct the new flick.
Here's a brief description of some of Obaid-Chinoy's accomplishments from the International Center for Journalists:
"2017 Knight International Journalism Award Winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a Karachi-based journalist and filmmaker whose reports led to legislative changes in Pakistan. Her documentaries, which have won two Oscars, tackle abuse of women and children. Her ' Frontline' documentary, 'Children of the Taliban,' told of Pakistani boys who were groomed in Taliban-run schools to carry out attacks against civilians.
'Saving Face' focused on acid attacks on women. The film prompted Pakistan's most populous province to process these cases through anti-terrorism courts to ensure speedier justice.
'A Girl in the River' explored an attempted “honor killing” of a young woman who married a man her family had not chosen. The film drew attention to a loophole which allowed these murders to go unpunished. Pakistan’s parliament then passed a law criminalizing honor killings."
How much of a badass can you possibly be? And she's directing a freaking Star Wars movie…!?!? I'm seriously blown away.
That writers room, by the way? Dave Filoni reportedly "may" have been there, which is good enough for me. The sequel trilogy pretty much shut out Favreau and Filoni, as JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson wrestled with disparate tones amid an uneven (but still more enjoyable than most anyone wants to admit) trio of films.
More connective tissue: Lindelof was a Star Trek reboot producer and co-writer (uncredited on the first, credited on Into Darkness), as his familiarity with Abrams stretches back to the Lost days. Lindelof has continued to evolve as a storyteller and I'm sure he learned a lot from whatever conversations he had with Abrams about The Force Awakens and more notably The Rise of Skywalker.
Another cool thing is Lindelof wrote on Cowboys & Aliens, the 2011 sci-fi Western directed by Favreau. That foreshadowed his eventual journey into Star Wars in a roundabout sort of way. Despite that movie's lukewarm reception, there's at least somewhat of a relationship there.
I really feel like because of all these connections and — speaking of lukewarm reception — the how sequel trilogy played out, it'll be this movie that Lucasfilm leads with and announces at Star Wars Celebration in April. These details from October's THR report drives that point home even more:
"Sources say the movie project is intended as a stand-alone but in success could lead to more movies. That plan goes against the grain of earlier Lucasfilm development process’, which saw the company try to come up with new trilogies. Now, the studio seems to focus on stand-alones.
"And sources say that the story would take place after the events of 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, although it would not be a continuation of the Skywalker saga. It could, however, feature some of the characters from the Star Wars trilogy made in the 2010s."
Going with Taika Waititi's take as your first big splash into a new era of theatrical releases seems a little too bold. Don't get me wrong. Dude is a genius. It's just that he doesn't seem as far along in developing his script, and is already such a prolific artist that throwing the weight of Star Wars' future onto his plate seems like an avoidable pitfall. Give Taika a break! Let him bide his time and cultivate a rich standalone story. At least that's my take.
As far as what I hope this Lindelof movie is, I want to see brand-new characters, but also give the sequel trilogy players like Rey, Poe and in particular Finn proper sendoffs or continued narratives. It'd be dope to see Rey grapple with her legacy as a Palpatine and lingering darkness within her, peaking at like 22 years old by saving the galaxy, dealing with the loss of Ben Solo, and training Finn as a Jedi. So much fun potential on where to take Daisy Ridley as Rey to the point where she might need her own films a few years down the line.
All indications are this mystery project featuring Lindelof and a genuinely exotic director in Obaid-Chinoy make me optimistic that cameras will roll by early-to-mid-2024 with a probable December 2025 targeted release date. A long wait but one I believe will be well worth it given who's involved, the alleged direction and time period it's set in, and how much time the writers have had to mine the best ideas and deliver the tightest, best script possible.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok
ICYMI I recently joined Robbie Fox and Clem on My Mom's Basement to discuss Ant-Man. For more Star Wars and superhero movie/TV deep dives, check out the pod and like/subscribe/etc!