With all the recent focus on the Disney+ streaming series, it’s easy to forget that there are still actual Star Wars movies in the pipeline too. Rian Johnson’s mooted trilogy seems to have gone away for now, but Taika Waititi has a yet-to-be-named film developing and Patty Jenkins is still working on Rogue Squadron. And now, as reported by Deadline… there is another. As has long been rumoured, Lost and The Leftovers writer/producer Damon Lindelof is now confirmed to be writing a new Star Wars screenplay, and Ms Marvel’s Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is already attached to direct.
Lindelof is thought to be co-writing the top secret film, although we don’t yet know who he’s co-writing with. There’s also no detail yet of what this film will be – but Kathleen Kennedy has suggested that future films will likely stick to the rough era of the sequel trilogy.
It’s interesting, then, that a director should be attached this early in the process, but Deadline’s sources say that Lucasfilm and Lindelof felt it was important to involve a director and gain their creative input right from the beginning. That’s certainly an attempt to head off the "creative differences" that have plagued the theatrical films in recent years: Colin Trevorrow and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller respectively quit The Rise of Skywalker and Solo, creating some negative publicity when they finally reached screens. Lucasfilm will be hoping that, with Obaid-Chinoy aboard this early to steer the project her own way, that particular history will not repeat itself.