Key Takeaways
- Star Wars is shifting focus to ambitious film projects alongside streaming shows on Disney+.
- James Mangold’s film “Dawn of the Jedi,” set 25,000 years in the past, may be the franchise’s next big hit.
- Fans will get to explore the origins of the Jedi Order with hopes of a fresh, successful take on the Star Wars universe.
The Star Wars franchise has been on Disney+ life support for years, and the coming return to the silver screen is set to play host to the most ambitious project ever planned for the iconic IP. Better yet, it might be coming sooner than some fans expected.
Star Wars got its start in theaters but has since become a massive multimedia franchise with a big presence in multiple mediums across the board. Most notably, the recent push at the Disney-led outfit has been on the streaming end with projects like The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and more. Now that it’s become clear that the Star Wars Prequel era needs to be left alone and the future of the franchise is tied up in the Disney+ shows and their planned theatrical companions, there’s now motivation to go further back in the timeline with new projects, and a mandate to head back to the big screen.
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While the High Republic rollout hasn’t been particularly culturally relevant, and The Acolyte’s cancelation seemed to be a bad sign for those sorts of projects, there’s hope still for the franchise to actually net a win there, and it might happen sooner than expected. According to well-known insider source Daniel Richtman, the planned James Mangold film Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi could be just what the IP needs and fans have been clamoring for. This report not only confirms that Mangold’s film is still in the works but also gives the unexpected news that it could potentially be going into production as early as next year. This is quite the endorsement, as several projects have fallen by the wayside over the last few years, and the planned return of Daisy Ridley in her capacity as the sequel trilogy’s Rey Palpatine was recently put on indefinite hold.
Set 25,000 years in the past relative to the bulk of the franchise’s films and shows, Mangold’s film will explore the Jedi at the earliest possible time in Star Wars history that it’s possible to: the very beginning. In addition to Mangold, Star Wars: Andor scribe Beau Willimon has also been tapped to step into the writer’s room. This combination of creatives could be the key to making good on one promise that The Acolyte failed to grant, as Willimon’s experience writing a grounded Star Wars story and Mangold’s vision for a fledgling Jedi Order could give fans the best of both worlds: a critically impactful film with the full Force of Star Wars’s mysticism and fantasy appeal.
While there’s a pervasive narrative in some sectors of the fandom that the Jedi just aren’t that interesting in Star Wars, the idea of an origin of sorts for the modern franchise could be the sort of novel take that could work out great. This idea is why The Acolyte’s subversive approach was greenlit, and the actual lack of support for that idea is why the approach failed. Star Wars fans seem to still be, for the most part, fans of the Jedi Order and their role as galactic peacekeepers. Sure, there is some space for nuance, and there will always be individuals who fall short of the ideals of the Order, but these should be departures from the norm in the eras leading up to and going past the Clone Wars. If there actually is a period where the Jedi can be portrayed as flawed, reckless, and misguided without fan blowback, then the era that Dawn of the Jedi is set in is it.
The franchise is in dire need of a theatrical win that fans and critics can get behind with more than just the box office revenue. Dawn of the Jedi could be one of the best Star Wars films ever if it can live up to even half of its potential, with the original trilogy being the only part of the franchise with an entirely stellar record. Furthermore, it would be a massive boon for the Disney-led franchise after years of living off of streaming shows on Disney+. While some of those shows can and have been well-received by fans, the Star Wars universe is a film franchise at its core worlds, and it has a chance to get back to that in a big way when this project goes into production next year.
Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi is currently set to start production as early as 2025, with no word on a release window.
Star Wars
Star Wars is a multimedia franchise originally created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd with the 1977 motion picture. The science fiction franchise follows the adventures of characters (both humanoid and alien) in outer space including those who can wield a mystical power known as the Force. Since the release of the original trilogy of movies, the franchise has expanded to include multiple films and branched out to other media like comics, video games, tv shows, theme park attractions, and more. The IP and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney in 2012.
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Source: Daniel Richtman/Patreon