In the time since The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars has survived mostly through television offerings. The Mandalorian, starring Pedro Pascal, has kept the fandom going strong, and Andor is currently airing its first season on Disney Plus. The tepid (at best) response to The Rise of Skywalker appears to have convinced Disney to cool off on theatrical releases for a while, and a new Star Wars movie has yet to be officially scheduled on Disney’s release slate.
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The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Lindelof’s Star Wars project, which will be helmed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, is finally becoming more concrete. The script is reportedly being written in conjunction with Damon Lindelof by Justin Britt-Gibson, a writer who worked on Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain and The Counterpart, which starred J.K. Simmons. THR states that the writing team came together after Star Wars Celebration with a secret writers’ room consisting of Lindelof, Britt-Gibson, Patrick Somerville, Rayna McClendon, and Andy Greenwald. The film will reportedly be a standalone project, with the possibility of sequels if it does well. And though the film will not focus on the Skywalker saga, it is possible that the film will catch up with some characters from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, like Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), post-The Rise of Skywalker.
The film appears to be a shift in Disney’s Star Wars strategy. Previously, the company had tried to conceptualize their Star Wars projects in trilogies. With the contentious nature of the sequel trilogy, however, that appears to have been scrapped. The failure of Solo at the box office also seems to have made Disney wary of standalone projects set on recasting, pre-existing characters, which explains their extensive use of de-aging technology to bring previously established characters to life as of late.
The project is shrouded in mystery, as is characteristic of a Lindelof juncture. But the secrecy may also serve another purpose: the studio has announced several Star Wars projects in the past, but several of these stories have not materialized. Reportedly, Disney has told Lucasfilm to stop announcing Star Wars projects so early. Disney may want to avoid the scrutiny of their cancelled projects by keeping future Star Wars projects under wraps until the projects get closer to a finished product.
The Star Wars saga is now available on Disney Plus.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
