Mangold to helm story set deep in franchise’s past, telling the tale of the first Jedi, while Filoni will cover the escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic in a cinematic event that will weave together stories from the Disney+ original series.
The Star Wars Celebration event kicked off its opening day in London with an insane amount of announcements, including updates for multiple Disney+ original series, as well as surprise reveals for two upcoming films.
James Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) will serve as director of an all-new, untitled Star Wars film that will take audiences deep into the past, telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.
“It’s a chance to tell the entire story of its own, the birth of the force,” Mangold told Variety. “When I first talked to Kathy Kennedy about it, I just said, ‘I just see this opening to make kind of a Ben-Hur or The 10 Commandments about the birth of the force.’ The force has become a kind of religious legend that spans through all these movies. But where did it come from? How is it found? Who found it? Who was the first Jedi? And that’s what I’m writing right now.”
Expanding upon Star Wars storytelling in the present, Dave Filoni will direct his own film following the escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic. Alongside producer Jon Favreau, they will weave together many of the open threads from Disney+ original series such as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka, in one cinematic event.
When asked by Variety what brings all the Star Wars stories together, Filoni replied, “On a base level, I would just say the coming conflict, the growing idea that the empire wasn’t as defeated as a lot of people want to believe and that the remnant is out there. We saw that from the very beginning with The Mandalorian and how Giancarlo’s [Esposito] character Gideon was plotting. There are always people that are willing to undermine something that the Republic is trying to build and put back on its feet.”
“He continued, “There has been this, for fans, idea that there was a new Republic and a remnant Empire and the conflict persisted after Return of the Jedi, even though the heroes won and were more in control. What did that control look like? And since Force Awakens is 30 years on out from Return of the Jedi, we have room then to tell another story. That’s what I’m coalescing into this time period.”
It looks as though Lucasfilm and Disney have effectively covered the past, present, and future of the Star Wars universe, ensuring fans are spoon-fed tons of galactic content for years to come.
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