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Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars movie moving ahead UPDATED No, it isn’t…

March 18th, 2023 by Marc Comments

It’s been a dark time for Star Wars on the big screen recently but it seems that is all about to change as a new movie could finally be in the works.

We learned recently that two of the big Star Wars movies projects – Rogue Squadron directed by Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins and Marvel boss Kevin Feige’s project – are now dead at Lucasfim/Disney, It’s not the first time Star Wars has hit bumpy waters with Disney as we previously had Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and Dan Weiss’ movie cancelled and [hopefully] Rian Johnson’s proposed trilogy is now dead in the water too.

However, it seems that Jojo Rabbit’s Taika Waititi is still developing his movie – although after his work in the MCU, particularly Thor: Love and Thunder, we hoping he quits and decides to stick to his own original projects instead – and he’s hoping to star in it too.

This then leaves one lone project in development and, it seems, getting ready to kick off.

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Damon Lindelof has confirmed that his Star Wars project, which he’s writing with Obaid-Chinoy, is still happening and he seems to be getting ready to get to work. Lindelof is the definition of hit-and-miss; he’s one of the creators and writers of Lost and The Hunt, both very positive in my eyes but he’s also worked on the TV Watchmen series, which I loathed, and Star Trek: Into Darkness, so he’s not a sure thing but neither is he a disaster.

But it certainly seems that he’s taking this Star Wars project – which we first reported on some time ago – seriously and handling it with the reverence it deserves. Speaking at SXSW, he said: “The degree of difficulty is extremely, extremely, extremely high. If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist. That’s all I’ll say, because I have the same association with it as you do, which is, it’s the first movie I saw sitting in my dad’s lap, four years old, May of ’77.

“I think it’s possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.’ We’ll just leave it at that point.”

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While nothing is known for sure about the project yet, word is it will take place after the events of The Rise of Skywalker and may feature the sequel trilogy cast and focus on the new Jedi Academy and the continuing battle against the remnants of The First Order. This may be a deal-breaker for some but I liked Rey, Finn and Poe and feel that they deserve to be given a better deal than they got post The Force Awakens.

That all said, it takes a big man to admit it, but I recently did the sequel trilogy again and I put all my dislike for the second and third movies to the back of my mind and I tried to make peace with them and to even perhaps enjoy and, I admit it, they won me over somewhat. But I still want a better show for these characters if they do return.

This all ties into The Mandalorian’s Jon Favreau recently confirming that the stories they’re telling in those shows will lead up to and not contradict anything in the sequel movies. He also confirmed that Disney is planning more stories in that era.

The latest word is that, despite Lindelof’s apparent hesitancy above, his script is done and they’re secretly casting at the moment with the movie expected to his cinemas around Christmas 2025.

That’s what we know so far. But, if there’s any truth to it all, we’d expect to hear more on April 7th when Star Wars Celebration Europe kicks off in London.

I’m cautiously optimistic about all this and am definitely excited to be going to see Star Wars on the big screen once more. But am I alone? Let me know your thoughts, gang.

UPDATE:

In the most Disney Star Wars thing ever, it seems that this project is no longer happening.

Above The Line reports: There has been a disturbance in the force, as screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson have exited the Star Wars project that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy remains slated to direct.

Lindelof and Britt-Gibson turned in a draft of the script in mid-February and parted ways with the project just days later, according to sources. Lucasfilm already has a new writer on board, though ATL was unable to ascertain their identity. Production is slated to start in February 2024 ahead of the film’s planned release date on Dec. 19, 2025

Source: The Direct, Star Wars News Net & Dark Horizons

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….