James Mangold is riding high on the critical and box office success of his Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. But he’s about to enter an entirely new universe of expectations, as his next film is possibly the Star Wars prequel Dawn of the Jedi. Mangold, who recently directed Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is eager to do “something original” in a galaxy far far away and not rely too much on established canon.
Set 25,000 years before The Skywalker Saga, Dawn of the Jedi will explore the origins of the Force and the Jedi Order. For Mangold, the film’s setting is a big part of the appeal because it’s so far away from the current stories being told…
“To me, the really important aspects are the freedom to make something new. [Screenwriter Beau Willimon] and I, in relation to Star Wars, have been working on a script, and we’ll see what happens,” he told MovieWeb.
Mangold continued, “The Star Wars movie would be taking place 25,000 years before any known Star Wars movies take place. It’s an area and a playground that I’ve always [wanted to explore] and that I was inspired by as a teenager. I’m not that interested in being handcuffed by so much lore at this point that it’s almost immovable, and you can’t please anybody.”
Dawn of the Jedi doesn’t have an official release date yet, so it’s too soon to know if it’ll be next for Mangold. He also has a Swamp Thing movie in the works for James Gunn’s DC Studios, and maybe that’ll come first.
