After this year’s Star Wars Celebration event went by without Lucasfilm announcing a new movie, but instead, a slew of streaming shows for Disney+, fans began to wonder what exactly is happening with the franchise’s theatrical releases. Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron falling off the schedule only exacerbated those concerns as Taika Waititi‘s announced Star Wars film seemed less and less concrete.
However, the situation seemingly turned on a dime this week following a surprise report that Watchmen and Lost creator Damon Lindelof was working on a new film with Ms. Marvel director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Despite outside appearances, Lucasfilm has been hard at work on getting a new Star Wars film into theaters, and it reportedly put together a “secret writers’ room” after Celebration to get the ball rolling.
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.
Also in the mix is Justin Britt-Gibson, a “young and rising writer” who worked on Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain and The Counterpart for Starz. Britt-Gibson is reportedly writing the script with Lindelof after the secret writers’ room concocted a story that could involve characters from the Sequel Trilogy, but it “would not be a continuation of the Skywalker Saga.” However, that would work.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
