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On Friday, Kathleen Kennedy announced three brand new Star Wars movies at the Lucasfilm Studio Showcase during Star Wars Celebration. The directors behind the three movies, James Mangold (Logan), Dave Filoni (Ahsoka) and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel) all walked out to thunderous applause and gave brief details on their individual Star Wars movies. One of the most exciting reveals came from Obaid-Chinoy, who revealed her movie was set fifteen years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, and would see a familiar face constructing a new Jedi Academy, as she announced the return of Rey Skywalker and Daisy Ridley made her way to the stage, and had the biggest reaction of the afternoon.
Fans have known about the Obaid-Chinoy project for around a year at this point, though not officially. Over a year ago, it was reported that Lost’s Damon Lindelof was writing a Star Wars movie, and in the months that followed, momentum and confidence regarding the project swelled. Obaid-Chinoy came on board as the director, a co-writer in Justin Britt-Gibson (Into the Badlands) was brought on, a writers room was constructed, with Dave Filoni also being added into the mix. As the months went by, it was believed that the project was set to release in December 2025, a release date Lucasfilm had reserved for multiple years. However, in recent weeks, Lindelof and his co-writer departed the project mere days after turning in a draft of the script, and were swiftly replaced with the Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight. Which brings us to Star Wars Celebration, where the film was officially announced, but to the surprise of many, it did not come attached with a release date, which left some wondering, where in development is this Jedi Academy movie, and the Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy, was happy to answer that question from Yahoo!.
“We’ve been working on that film for a few years and all of that feeds into our overall storytelling. So we’ve just got to a point now where we’ve got a wonderful writer in Steven Knight, and we’re probably going to see a script in the next month and a half that we’ve been working on for quite a while. So we’re getting close.”
So there you have it, a new draft, this time from Steven Knight, will be turned in by Mid-May, and it seems that the studio is on track with the development with the movie, if they’re targeting the 2025 release date they’ve been holding for a few years. However, it is worth mentioning that a writers strike could begin in May, with a vote happening on the strike taking place in just a couple of weeks. Personally, I don’t know if Knight is part of the Writers Guild of America, but if he is, that could stop development so an unknown amount of time.
Either way, it seems that the Jedi Academy movie is without question the furthest in development, and it seems that the new project from James Mangold, a movie that’ll detail the origins of the first Jedi, and the discovery of the Force, is the furthest away from release. However, one thing all these newly announced movies will share is an opening crawl, something that Kathleen Kennedy confirmed to Entertainment Weekly, telling the outlet that “the crawl is coming back” for all future movies. This means despite Mangold’s film being the earliest Star Wars story ever told, the film will receive an opening crawl, as will Dave Filoni’s movie, which acts as the crossover event of the multiple live-action series he’s produced in recent years which includes The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew and The Book of Boba Fett, as we see the battle between the New Republic, and the Grand Admiral Thrawn led Imperial Remnant.
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