Star Wars: James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi Film Inspired by Ben-Hur & The Ten Commandments

Star Wars Celebration 2023 brought a slew of big, bold, announcements about the future of the Star Wars Universe. One of the biggest and boldest announcements that came out of Star Wars Celebration was the fact Logan and Indiana Jones 5 director James Mangold is taking on a new Star Wars movie that will explore the beginning of the Jedi Order, opening up an entirely new era of the Star Wars timeline, which is known as “Dawn of the Jedi.” 

Getting the story of how a Galaxy Far, Far, Away and the spiritual entities at work in it, were first tapped into by mortal spiritual warriors who would become the first Jedi – and their counterparts, the Sith. it’s the kind of story that Star Wars fans have speculated about, debated, or even written about for years – but to actually explore it in a major film is a whole different story… 

James Mangold’s Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi Movie Explained

After the Star Wars Celebration panel, reporters got a chance to speak with James Mangold, and ask the most important questions: why this project? And what kind of movie does he hope to make? 

“It’s a chance to tell the entire story of its own, the birth of the Force,” Mangold told Variety. “When I first talked to Kathy Kennedy about it, I just said, ‘I just see this opening to make kind of a ‘Ben-Hur’ or ‘The 10 Commandments’ about the birth of the Force.’ The Force has become a kind of religious legend that spans through all these movies. But where did it come from? How is it found? Who found it? Who was the first Jedi? And that’s what I’m writing right now.”

“The First Jedi” is sure to be charged terminology for the Star Wars fandom, who are still debating the film on the other end of that spectrum: The Last Jedi. However, there is something of a “blank slate” opportunity with Mangold’s film, which will precede anything found in Star Wars canon. That could be a double-edged sword, as this could also be the one film that has the fewest connective threads to any Star Wars lore or design aesthetic that we’ve seen before. 

More to the point: Star Wars has already made its own canon about the origins of the Force – most notably in the Mortis Arc of the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. Needless to say, when looking into the power behind the Force and its origins, things can quickly get surreal and abstract, so hopefully, Mangold has an idea that can help keep things grounded. 

James Mangold Dawn of the Jedi movie is now in development.