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A Secret Writers Room, a Rising Scribe and a Post-‘Skywalker’ Timeline: A Look Inside Damon Lindelof’s ’Star Wars’ Movie (Exclusive)
Justin Britt-Gibson is penning the script with Lindelof, with the film potentially bringing back some characters from the 2010s films.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
The secret Star Wars movie project that is being led creatively by Damon Lindelof was thrust into the open Sunday night when it was revealed that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who directed two episodes of Ms. Marvel, was on board as helmer.
The project has been in the works for months and while Lindelof is getting the Wookiee-sized share of attention, thanks in no small part to a pedigree that includes co-creating TV sensation Lost and shepherding the acclaimed HBO series Watchmen, he is by no means the only person involved in the project.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Lindelof is writing the new Star Wars script with Justin Britt-Gibson, a young and rising writer who worked as an executive story editor on Guillermo del Toro’s vampire series, The Strain, and wrote episodes of Starz’s The Counterpart, a series that deals with parallel dimensions and starred J.K. Simmons.
Britt-Gibson, however, comes to the job after a secret (it’s always secret with Star Wars, isn’t it?) writers room that began coming together after this year’s Star Wars Celebration. 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 producing on Lucasfilm’s own Obi-Wan Kenobi and writer on the company’s upcoming Willow series; Andy Greenwald, the creator of the 2019 Rosario Dawson crime drama Briarpatch(and 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.
Sources say the movie project is intended as a standalone but in success could lead to more movies. That plan goes against the grain of earlier Lucasfilm development process which saw the company try to come up with new trilogies. Now the studio seems to focus on standalone projects.
And sources say that the story would take place after the events of 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, although it would not be a continuation of the Skywalker saga. It could, however, feature some of characters from the Star Wars trilogy made in the 2010s.
As for when Lindelof’s film could drop, December 2025 is the earliest date Disney has carved out on its calendar for a Star Wars feature.