Inside Damon Lindelof’s New Movie – The Hollywood Reporter

The secret Star Wars movie project that is being led creatively by Damon Lindelof was thrust into the open Sunday night when it was revealed that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who directed two episodes of Ms. Marvel, was on board as helmer.

The project has been in the works for months, and while Lindelof is getting the Wookiee-sized share of attention, thanks in no small part to a pedigree that includes co-creating TV sensation Lost and shepherding the acclaimed HBO series Watchmen, he is by no means the only person involved in the project.

In fact, if Lost and Watchmen, as well as The Leftovers, another beloved series Lindelof created, have shown anything, it’s that one of the writer’s chief talents is picking gifted collaborators.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Lindelof is writing the new Star Wars script with Justin Britt-Gibson, a young and rising writer who worked as an executive story editor on Guillermo del Toro’s vampire drama, The Strain, and wrote episodes of Starz’s The Counterpart, a series that deals with parallel dimensions and starred J.K. Simmons.

Britt-Gibson, however, comes to the job after a secret (it’s always secret with Star Wars, isn’t it?) writers room that began coming together after this year’s Star Wars Celebration. The room held a two-week session in July and at the table were Patrick Somerville, who worked with Lindelof on Leftovers and then went on to create the buzzy Station Eleven; Rayna McClendon, a consulting producer on Lucasfilm’s own Obi-Wan Kenobi and writer on the company’s upcoming Willow series; and Andy Greenwald, the creator of the 2019 Rosario Dawson crime drama Briarpatch (on which McClendon was a story editor), among a couple of other writers.

Dave Filoni, a protégé of Star Wars creator George Lucas who is involved in many of the shows, may have also been present.

After breaking the story, Lindelof and Britt-Gibson have been clacking away at the keyboards.

Sources say the movie project is intended as a stand-alone but in success could lead to more movies. That plan goes against the grain of earlier Lucasfilm development process’, which saw the company try to come up with new trilogies. Now, the studio seems to focus on stand-alones.

And sources say that the story would take place after the events of 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, although it would not be a continuation of the Skywalker saga. It could, however, feature some of the characters from the Star Wars trilogy made in the 2010s.

Disney released a Star Wars feature a year from 2015-2019, but then-Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged it was too much too fast after the troubled Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) became the first Star Wars film to lose money. Disney pressed pause on its Star Wars theatrical plans following The Rise of Skywalker, with the studio focusing on streaming TV. The Mandalorian helped power Disney+ and became its de facto flagship show when it launched in November 2019, a full year before Marvel Studios began pumping out multiple series a year to complement Lucasfilm’s output. Lucasfilm’s Andor is currently streaming, with The Mandalorian returning for season three in February.

Yet Star Wars‘ big screen moves have been closely watched. A Patty Jenkins Rogue Squadron movie was to open in December 2022, but is now off the calendar and on the back burner.  Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is producing a film to be written by Loki’s Michael Waldron, while Thor: Love and Thunder filmmaker Taika Waititi has been developing his own movie for more than two years, with 1917 writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns writing.

As for when Lindelof’s film could drop, December 2025 is the earliest date Disney has carved out on its calendar for a Star Wars feature.