Deadline.com has confirmed that screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson have left Lucasfilm’s upcoming Star Wars film slated to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Details as to the film’s plot are still under wraps, though we understand that Obaid-Chinoy remains at the helm, with further details on the project to be unveiled at next month’s Star Wars Celebration in London. Sources suggest that the film is still in a solid position to be one of the first out of the gate for the franchise — if not the first — on the heels of 2019’s Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. Disney has, in the interim, prioritized building out the Star Wars universe on the TV side, with hit shows like The Mandalorian.
While the specific reasoning behind the departure of Lindelof and Britt-Gibson hasn’t been disclosed, the former hinted at the possibility in an interview with SlashFilm earlier this month.
“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 [the film] can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist,” shared Lindelof. “That’s all I’ll say, because I have the same association with [Star Wars] 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.”
News of the Star Wars scribes’ departure was first reported by Above the Line.
A Star Wars film still remains on the schedule for December 2025 and presently we have no idea what that film is likely to be. It could either be the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy directed film or the Taika Waititi film. Here’s hoping we get some Star Wars film news at Celebration Europe 2023 next month.
