When a fandom is graced with news about a new project, the reactions vary from group to group. Marvel fans tend to do little dances in their chairs when a new film trailer drops, Percy Jackson stans continue to rise from their dormancy as the new Disney Plus series releases more information, and fans of any video game series developed by Valve tend to pinch themselves to wake up from their dreams of new content.
But the Star Wars fandom does none of these things. Whenever news of a brand-new feature film or miniseries shuffles its way into a Star Wars-centric newsfeed, fans brace themselves with varying degrees of sincerity, as they’ve recently done after hearing the news of a new film being in development, helmed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy with a script co-written by Damon Lindelof.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, this secret Star Wars project has no shortage of talent behind it, with Lindelof boasting a résumé consisting of Lost and HBO’s Watchmen, while the Academy Award-winning Obaid-Chinoy’s directorial efforts were last on display for two episodes of Ms. Marvel. Elsewhere, Lindelof is partnering with rising scribe Justin Britt-Gibson, who previously worked on Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain and the J.K. Simmons-led sci-fi thriller series The Counterpart.
But, evidently, this isn’t quite enough to keep waves of pessimism from slipping through the keyboards of the r/StarWars masses.
Others were happy to learn that not only will the film be taking place in a post-Skywalker Saga setting, but it will be a separate story from said saga as well. Sadly, even that only won back the trust of a portion of the Star Wars faithful.
To be fair, having reservations about new Star Wars films isn’t entirely unjustified.
Nevertheless, content is content, and with Obaid-Chinoy and Lindelof spearheading the creative efforts, it’s no stretch to expect a particularly refreshing take on George Lucas’ mythos, especially with the known departure from the Skywalker Saga.
Obaid-Chinoy’s secret Star Wars project has a long way to go, in any case; the earliest date slated for a Star Wars feature film, according to Disney’s schedule, is December 2025. Perhaps fans can rest a bit easier since time is firmly on the side of the creative team.