The future of Star Wars at Lucasfilm is beginning to take shape. The Mandalorian & Grogu is next in May 2026, and that will likely be followed by Shawn Levy’s movie that may or may not star Ryan Gosling. As for Star Wars: New Jedi Order led by the return of Daisy Ridley, that one recently had George Nolfi take over the screenplay from Steven Knight. And now Nolfi is talking about his plans for the film, and the possibility of continuing some of the political themes introduced by George Lucas.
Speaking with Film Stories, Nolfi talked about the politics of Star Wars and incorporating them into the sci-fi soap opera stuff fans love.
“If you think about George Lucas, the six movies that he did, and the universe that he created, it’s actually very steeped in broad notions of politics,” Nolfi said.
He continued, “It’s not talking about today, per se, but there’s the Empire’s Nazism slash Roman Empire. The democracy of the Roman Empire collapsing and becoming an empire and the perennial story of human beings organizing themselves and against chaos, and then the tools that help human societies tamp down on chaos becomes oppression.”
“So that is really very core to what I think George Lucas was trying to talk about. And one of the wonderful things about science fiction and Star Wars – which is more almost science fantasy or space opera – is that you can raise the deepest issues without it feeling like a philosophy class, or a political science class, or something I read in the newspaper today…It can be about real things, deep things.”
While Nolfi has written for the Bourne and Ocean’s franchises, he has largely avoided blockbuster studio movies. He talked about working within that framework for New Jedi Order and working in a collaborative system…
“The way I approach it is, you look at what’s come before you, you look at the broad ideas of what they want to do. Meaning: Lucasfilm, Disney, Sharmeen [Obaid-Chinoy], the director, and then you do what a writer does, and try to try and put beats of a story together. Try and imagine characters, and then you present that with an understanding that it needs to honor, obviously, a long, incredible tradition.”
We’ve seen a lot more of the political aspects of Star Wars recently in the first season of Andor, and again in Skeleton Crew. I find it to be the most fascinating part of what they’re doing with these movies now, and hope Nolfi continues with it. If he can help make this movie as slick, thoughtful, and exciting as The Adjustment Bureau, we’ll be in for a treat.
Nolfi’s most recent film, Elevation, was released last November and you can read our review here.
