In the last year, we’ve had five Star Wars projects scrapped, it’s really quite something.
Movies from Benioff/Weiss, Kevin Feige, Patty Jenkins and, probably, Rian Johnson have been nixed by LucasFilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy.
Now we have Damon Lindelof and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s movie, which was supposed to shoot this year, no longer going forward, via Above the Line.
Lindelof and Britt-Gibson turned in a draft of the script in mid-February and parted ways with the project just days later, according to sources. Lucasfilm already has a new writer on board, though ATL was unable to ascertain their identity. Production is slated to start in February 2024 ahead of the film’s planned release date on Dec. 19, 2025.
What’s left? Shawn Levy supposedly still has a project in development, ditto Taika Waititi. That’s about it. We wouldn’t be surprised if any or both of these get canned as well.
Disney seems tuned to develop Star Wars content for streaming purposes, especially with the successes of “The Mandalorian” and “Andor.”
As mentioned, a planned trilogy from "The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson, originally announced in 2017, has been put in the backburner, but Johnson recently said he still hopes to make it.
My advice to Disney is simple: DON’T RE-HIRE JOHNSON. Not because he’s a bad filmmaker, he’s actually a pretty good one. No, it stems more from the fact that a majority of Star Wars diehards just plainly do not like him for what he did with ‘The Last Jedi.’
There are plenty of fans who are still upset with how the last trilogy turned out, this has put a major dent on the entire franchise. Star Wars lost many diehards who vowed never to return — they would rather rewatch Lucas’ prequels on repeat.