After being announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023, Lucasfilm’s Daisy Ridley-led New Jedi Order era film seemed to quickly gather momentum, at one point being the favorite to launch the studio’s plans to bring its galaxy far, far away back to theaters. Set to “tell the story of rebuilding the New Jedi Order and the powers that rise to tear it down,” the Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy-directed project was reportedly far enough along that Lucasfilm considered a 2025 release. Things changed quickly, however, as creative teams came and went and by November 2024, the film’s release was delayed indefinitely despite reports that the studio believes Ridley is its “most valuable cinematic asset.” Now a new report indicates that the project may be facing another delay.
According to insider Daniel Richtman, Ridley’s film has been bumped down the queue again “as both the Shawn Levy and James Mangold Star Wars films are moving forward first.“
Levy’s film, Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling, was announced at Star Wars Japan in April and is expected to begin production this Fall ahead of a 2027 release. In many ways, Starfighter seems to be on the path Lucasfilm once hoped the New Jedi Order film would follow.
Mangold’s film, like the Ridley-led project, was announced at SWCE ’23 and will also take place in an all-new era of stories, set 25,000 years before the “present day” era of The New Republic. The film, referred to by fans as the “Jedi Prime” project, will tell “the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.”
As it stands now, The Mandalorian and Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter are the only two films with set release dates, hitting theaters on May 22, 2026 and May 28, 2027, respectively.
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