A new report at EW on “Star Wars,” ahead of the franchise’s 50th anniversary, says James Mangold’s project has officially been put on hold.
The “Logan” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” director was originally brought onto the franchise for a scrapped Boba Fett movie around a decade ago.
Then, at Star Wars Celebration 2023, Lucasfilm announced that Mangold is would direct a film set many millennia before the prequels and would explore the origins of the Jedi and the Force.
Mangold said at the time it was a “Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments about the birth of the Force” type project exploring questions like who was the first Jedi.
When Kathleen Kennedy exited Lucasfilm back in January, she said Mangold and his writing partner Beau Willimon (“Andor,” “House of Cards”) had written “an incredible script” but “it is definitely breaking the mold”.
At the time the project was on hold and the new update confirms that’s still the case, while Mangold signed an overall deal with Paramount in 2025 that is still very much in play. The recent Skydance acquisition of Warners could reignite interest in his proposed “Swamp Thing” movie at DC Studios.
Interestingly the article also confirms that both the Lando Calrissian movie with Donald Glover, the George Nolfi-penned Rey standalone film, and even Taika Waititi’s film remain ‘in development’.
