Widely believed to be the troubled Star Wars: New Jedi Order film, Disney and Lucasfilm has yanked a film from its schedule.
It’s not uncommon in Hollywood for rival studios to be developing similar films at the same time, with one usually getting to market first and vanquishing the other to the shadow realm for projects that never came to be. It also happens sometimes that a studio is developing two competing takes of the same project, but rarely does such an occurrence play out in the public domain as the Rey Star Wars saga currently is with Lucasfilm.
Given the current state of the franchise Lucasfilm supporters aren’t always easy to find, and even with a fanbase as fractured as Star Wars, frustrations with the studio’s handling of the series is pretty much universal. However, to give Lucasfilm its due, it can’t be easy developing projects when every single nugget of news leaks to the world and is examined and dissected in the full glare of public scrutiny.
That’s the situation that the next ‘proper’ Star Wars film is facing. Sure we have The Mandalorian & Grogu coming next year, but that’s a film that has been plucked entirely from Lucasfilm’s most successful TV series and simply transplanted onto the big screen, neatly circumnavigating all of the huge issues that the saga seems to have developed when it comes to theatrical projects over the last decade.
The Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy directed film unofficially called New Jedi Order is the project that has suffered the most from each stage of its development being made public. The film would see Daisy Ridley returning as Rey.
However, several respected writers – including Damon Lindelof and Steven Knight – have now departed the project without success. Another Rey project is reportedly in the works at Lucasfilm under the stewardship of Simon Kinberg and perhaps most tellingly, Disney has now pulled its 2026 Star Wars film – largely believed to be the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy film – from the release schedule.
Some Hollywood insiders have been claiming for months now that this project is dead and that Lucasfilm simply won’t publicly admit it so as to not have to acknowledge another developmental failure, especially one that was so proudly trumpeted when the film was anounced.
This is the clearest indication yet that this is indeed the case, although it’s always possible that the project has just been delayed. We’re not likely to find out officially anytime soon, but this is a clear indication that New Jedi Order (or whatever the project’s real title may have been) is further away from production than ever.
