Star Wars’ Most Exciting New Movie May Not Happen At All

In the wake of Rise of Skywalker, new Star Wars movies are like mythical creatures. Disney keeps hinting that we’ll see them, and they’re talked about with an air of reverence, but year after year passes and there’s still little evidence for their existence.

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were supposed to launch a trilogy of films, but they left the project in 2019. Patty Jenkins was attached to Rogue Squadron and even filmed an announcement video, but her movie was backburnered and then shelved. Even Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige was slated to develop his own film with Loki showrunner Michael Waldron as the screenwriter, but that was axed too.

Still, there have been glimmers of hope. A new movie written and directed by Taika Waititi is still alive, and we’ll hopefully learn more about it at the annual Star Wars Celebration in April. A movie co-written by Lost and Watchmen showrunner Damon Lindelof and directed by Ms. Marvel director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is also supposed to appear over the horizon, but that may have changed.

According to Above the Line, Lindelof and his co-writer Justin-Britt Gibson have left the project, though Obaid-Chinoy is still set to direct. Sources claim they turned in a script draft in mid-February, but left only days later, and Lucasfilm has already tapped a new writer.

There’s no indication that the movie itself is in danger, but the loss of Damon Lindelof is massive. His involvement was a major selling point, and with him out the door, there’s no telling how many of his ideas — if any — will make it into the final project.

Though he’s no longer working in the Star Wars universe, Lindelof isn’t slowing down. While at SXSW promoting his upcoming Peacock series, Mrs. Davis, he gave a quote to Slashfilm about his Star Wars movie that reads differently now that he’s left the project.

"I will just say, that for reasons that I can't get into on this Sunday morning, on this day, the degree of difficulty is extremely, extremely, extremely high. If it can't be great, it shouldn't exist. That's all I'll say, because I have the same association with it as you do, which is, it's the first movie I saw sitting in my dad's lap, four years old, May of '77. I think it's possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, 'Maybe I shouldn't be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.' We'll just leave it at that point."

It looks like he decided he could just keep eating, and now Star Wars will need to find another chef.