In April 2023, then-Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy took to the stage at Star Wars Celebration in London. She announced a few new Star Wars movies, including a story about the First Jedi from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold.
It was revealed that the Star Wars movie, rumoured to be called Dawn of the Jedi, is set roughly 25,000 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, but few updates have been shared since.
Mangold has since shared some measured enthusiasm for it in interviews, but this feels an awful lot like yet another movie announced by Kennedy that will never materialise.
The filmmaker co-wrote the movie with Andor's Beau Willimon, though he's since moved on to the upcoming Game of Thrones movie.
During her exit interview from Lucasfilm, Kennedy said, "Jim Mangold and Beau Willimon wrote an incredible script, but it is definitely breaking the mold and it’s on hold. It’s not just my decision, especially when I’ve got a foot out the door. Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk."
Now, Jeff Sneider has weighed in on The Hot Mic (via SFFGazette.com) to share word from a source who says that the movie is "dead." He added, "I can’t say that conclusively, but it doesn’t sound good. I think Mangold is focused on that Timothée Chalamet heist movie is what I think. I think Swamp Thing could be after that."
There's been similar chatter elsewhere on social media this week, with all signs pointing to new Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni deciding to pull the plug on this potentially controversial prequel. After all, we all saw how poorly received The Acolyte's attempt to flesh out this Galaxy's past was.
Instead, it seems Filoni has his eye on the future, telling stories that expand this Galaxy beyond 2019's divisive Skywalker Saga finale, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
In 2023, Mangold explained what drew him to tell a story set thousands of years before any other Star Wars movie or TV show, strongly hinting that he intended to take a much different approach to the franchise...which obviously didn't work out so well with Indiana Jones.
"When I talked to some of the Star Wars clerics that keep track of all of these timelines, I was like 'So when would this happen.' And they were like '25,000 years before Episode I,' and I was like 'Oh, I was looking for some distance, but that’s distance.' I’ll do it, I might find Charlton Heston in an abandoned subway station but I’ll do it."
"The reality for me is that that feeling of space, no pun intended, was something that I felt was really important not to get away from fan service or the intricacies of what George had set up and dreamed of," he continued, "but to just have the space to tell a story and not be instantly encumbered with the bases you have to hit."
What do you hope to see from the Star Wars franchise in theaters moving forward?