New Star Wars Movie Moving Forward With Damon Lindelof and Ms. Marvel Director

Damon Lindelof is going from The Island to the Star Wars galaxy. Lindelof, who showran LOST and co-created the hit ABC series with two-time Star Wars filmmaker J.J. Abrams, is reportedly developing a new movie for Lucasfilm to be directed by Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as her follow-up to Marvel Studios and Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. Lindelof — whose feature credits include Prometheus and the Abrams-directed Star Trek Into Darkness — will co-write the new Star Wars movie with an as-yet-unrevealed writing partner for Disney’s Lucasfilm. Deadline first reported the news.

According to Deadline, Lindelof’s Star Wars movie is far off but is reported to “have the most momentum” out of other projects in the works at the studio, including Star Wars spin-offs from Wonder Woman filmmaker Patty Jenkins and Thor director Taika Waititi. 

In LOST fashion, plot details remain a secret. Since his time on the sci-fi drama series that ran for six seasons on ABC, Lindelof co-created The Leftovers and created the Watchmen series for HBO. Along with his work on Abrams’ Star Trek reboot, Lindelof’s screenwriting credits include Jon Favreau’s 2011 sci-fi action flop Cowboys & Aliens, Brad Pitt zombie movie World War Z, and Disney’s George Clooney sci-fi flick Tomorrowland.

Obaid-Chinoy most recently helmed two episodes of Ms. Marvel for Disney+. The two-time Oscar-winning Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker is best known for her documentaries, 2012’s Saving Face and 2016’s A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. Last month, Obaid-Chinoy was reported to be attached to direct Brilliance, her narrative feature directorial debut, for producers Will Smith and Paramount Pictures.

“At some point, but certainly not in the immediate future, I feel like I would love to do something in the Star Wars universe,” Lindelof said in a March interview. “Maybe a decade from now when I would no longer be blamed for ruining it. That would be a hoot.”

Lucasfilm has two untitled Star Wars movies on the calendar for December 19th, 2025, and December 17th, 2027. Since the release of Abrams’ Skywalker Saga finale Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019, Lucasfilm has shifted its Star Wars focus to television with live-action Disney+ series The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor.

Star Wars‘ return to theaters has been “in movement all along,” Lucasfilm president and producer Kathleen Kennedy told Total Film earlier this year. “As we leave the [Skywalker] saga, we have all this great, exciting work happening on the television side that informs so much about where we’re going. We want to be very intentional about that.”

Kennedy added: “We have great talent that we’re working with — people who care so deeply about what the next iteration of Star Wars is and about getting people back into movie theaters, so we can really come out with a bang. That’s important to us.”