Here we go again.
With Lucasfilm still struggling to bring Star Wars back to the big screen, the untitled movie we're expecting to arrive in theaters in 2025 just lost its writers. An official announcement is expected to be made during Star Wars Celebration next month, but Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson have reportedly exited the project.
According to Above The Line, they decided to walk away in mid-February after delivering the first draft of the movie's screenplay.
Ms. Marvel director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy remains attached and it's thought a new writer or writers were already circling the project when Lindelof and Britt-Gibson made their departure. It's not uncommon for screenplays to change hands, of course, and it might have always been the plan for this duo to simply lay the foundation with their story.
Still, it's a little troubling that a studio which, in recent years, has been besieged by creative differences with filmmakers just lost a writer as high-profile as the Lost, Star Trek, and Watchmen scribe.
On the plus side, production reportedly remains on track, with shooting expected to begin next February. That gives Lucasfilm an entire year to get the story where they want it, though it's interesting that this news follows recent comments from Lindelof which saw him cast doubt on his mystery Star Wars movie.
"I will just say that for reasons that I can’t get into on this Sunday morning, on this day, the degree of difficulty [to make a Star Wars project] is extremely, extremely, extremely high," he explained.
"If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist...I think it’s possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.’ We’ll just leave it at that point."
This untitled Star Wars movie is currently set to be released in theaters on December 19, 2025. Another is expected to follow in 2027, though we recently learned that it's unlikely to be Rogue Squadron or whatever Kevin Feige had planned.