Just as it looked like Lucasfilm might be getting its act together with Star Wars, the curse rears its head once again. New Jedi Order has been parked once more. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars project is on hold.
Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson penned the original script, and then left over “creative differences”, an uncomfortably common occurrence at Lucasfilm. Then Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight was brought on board. He worked for over a year and submitted multiple drafts. Then he exited.
George Nolfi came on board in January, and it seemed like it might finally move forward. Now, a report from scooper Daniel Richtman says:
“The Rey movie is on hold once again, as both the Shawn Levy and James Mangold Star Wars films are moving forward first. The project is not canceled — just temporarily on hold.”
This movie was announced to a fanfare and one of those Star Wars events where the remaining fans who haven’t bailed wave plastic lightsabers in the air, as Kathleen Kennedy announces several Star Wars projects that will simply never happen.
Seriously, has any other studio, and any other studio head, got more of a track record for announcements and unveilings of projects that fail to progress? I genuinely can’t think of anyone else with the same miss rate.
Daisy Ridley’s Rey, now calling herself a Skywalker, was to be the center of a new era in the franchise and would also feature in Simon Kinberg’s in-development stories. Will they even happen? This next phase was said to be set around 15 years after the Rise of Skywalker and follow Rey as she trained a new generation of Jedi.
This is despite the fact that the only creatively successful Star Wars entries in recent times are largely without Jedi. No lessons are learned.
