New Star Wars Movie Loses Damon Lindelof Before Filming Begins

Less than a week after Damon Lindelof spoke about the pressure and doubts about delivering a great Star Wars film, a new report indicates that the filmmaker along with Justin Britt-Gibson, have exited the Star Wars project. According to Above the Line, while Lindelof and Britt-Gibson have both exited the project, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is still slated to direct and production on the film is reported to start in February 2024 with the film still eyeing a December 2025 release.

According to the report, Lindelof and Britt-Gibson turned in a draft of their script in mid-February, then parted ways with the untitled Star Wars project just a few days later. The report goes onto indicate that Lucasfilm already has a new writer on board, though who that writer is was not noted. Lindelof’s Star Wars movie was first reported last March. No plot details about the project have ever been revealed. Lindelof recently spoke about the pressure of making a great Star Wars film in comments to /Film at SXSW.

“I will just say, that for reasons that I can’t get into on this Sunday morning, on this day, the degree of difficulty is extremely, extremely, extremely high. If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist,” Lindelof said “That’s all I’ll say, because I have the same association with it as you do, which is, it’s the first movie I saw sitting in my dad’s lap, four years old, May of ’77. 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 is just the latest Star Wars related upheaval in recent weeks. Earlier this month it was reported that both Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and an untitled movie produced by Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige were no longer in the works at Lucasfilm, though other films — including the film that Lindeloff was attached to as well as a film from Thor: Love and Thunder filmmaker Taika Waititi — were still in the works at the studio.

What do you think about this new Star Wars movie update? Let us know your thoughts about this latest development in the comment section.