Last night on The Hot Mic podcast, I passed along a rumor that Dave Filoni was going to direct a Star Wars movie, and that news was confirmed on Friday morning at Star Wars Celebration, where Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy also announced new films from James Mangold and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
I’ve written about the latter before — it’s the one that Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson were writing before being replaced by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). Lucasfilm announced that it will take place after the events of the most recent Star Wars film, 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, and that Daisy Ridley will reprise her role as Rey, who will be training the next generation of Jedi.
Some have expressed skepticism regarding Obaid-Chinoy, who is poised to become the first woman and the first person of color to direct a Star Wars movie. Known for directing two episodes of Ms. Marvel for Disney+, her critics overlook the fact that she has won two Oscars for her documentary shorts Saving Face and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, which is no easy feat.
Filoni’s film will focus on the New Republic and serve as a culmination of the interconnected stories that Lucasfilm has been busy telling on Disney+ such as The Mandalorian, Andor, Ahsoka, and The Book of Boba Fett, among others. Filoni serves as showrunner on The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.
Mangold’s movie, however, came as a major surprise, and it will follow the dawn of the Jedi and the birth of the Force tens of thousands of years before the events of Star Wars. Mangold reportedly envisions an epic in the vein of Ben-Hur and The 10 Commandments. Of course, Mangold is also developing a Swamp Thing movie at DC Studios, so it remains unclear which will go first.
On the TV side, Lucasfilm showed off trailers for Ahsoka, which will arrive this August, and the Amandla Stenberg-led thriller The Acolyte, plus footage from Season 2 of Andor, which will return in August 2024, and Skeleton Crew, an Amblin-esque series starring Jude Law that has enlisted top directors such as Jon Watts, David Lowery, Lee Isaac Chung, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jake Schreier, and reigning Oscar winners Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
Expect Obaid-Chinoy’s project to be the next Star Wars movie released in theaters at some point in December 2025, and stay tuned to ATL for more casting updates.
