Taika Waititi and James Mangold's long-gestating Star Wars movies have been given updates by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
Let's start with Taika Waititi's project. First announced way back in 2020, then given a "late 2023" release window by Kennedy in an interview with Total Film, there has been precious little to say of late from the Thor: Ragnarok director's trip to a galaxy far, far away.
As Kennedy tells Deadline, there is movement on the feature as a new writer is onboard.
"Well, I keep waiting for Taika, and he is working with another writer now. He’s so busy. I love him. I think if we ever do get a script from Taika, it’s going to be fantastic. I already saw a first act that I loved, but tying him down, it’s tricky."
Taika Waititi, then, is a busy man – and we wouldn't be putting any credits on him jumping over to Star Wars in the immediate future. Still, his initial comments on wanting to properly expand the galaxy in an interview with GamesRadar+ back in 2022 sounded exciting.
"Look, I think for the Star Wars universe to expand, it has to expand," he told us. "I don't think that I'm any use in the Star Wars universe making a film where everyone's like, 'Oh great, well that's the blueprints to the Millennium Falcon, ah that's Chewbacca's grandmother.' That all stands alone, that's great, though I would like to take something new and create some new characters and just expand the world, otherwise it feels like it's a very small story."
Perhaps more promising in the short term is James Mangold's Star Wars movie. First announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023, Dawn of the Jedi – as the name would imply – covers the genesis of the lightsaber-wielding Force users and is set some 25,000 years before the events of the prequel trilogy.
"He got delayed a bit because of [A Complete Unknown] and the awards season," Kennedy explained, while also mentioning that Shawn Levy and Simon Kinberg are also busy "working" on their movies. "You have to accommodate top talent to a certain extent. And quality is so important with what it is we’re trying to do. I like to wait for people that I think are passionate and really good to step into Star Wars."
The future of Star Wars seems bright but also cloudy. A "new saga" from Simon Kinberg is on the way as, too, is The Mandalorian and Grogu and Dave Filoni's 'Mando-verse' movie. Beyond that, there are a batch of exciting filmmakers plugging away in the Star Wars sandbox; we're just still none the wiser as to whether they will actually get made.
For more, check out our guide to upcoming Star Wars movies. Then dive into all the movie release dates you have to look forward to in 2025.
