James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi will avoid being handcuffed by Star Wars lore

By Dan Girolamo Published January 9, 2025

James Mangold is taking the phrase, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” quite literally. Mangold’s Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi will be a prequel movie set thousands of years before the Skywalker Saga.

Mangold, who will direct Dawn of the Jedi, is excited to tell a new story with his co-writer, Beau Willimon.

“To me, the really important aspects are the freedom to make something new,” Mangold told MovieWeb in a recent interview. “Beau and I, in relation to Star Wars, have been working on a script, and we’ll see what happens.”

Many of the recent Star Wars movies ran into problems incorporating legacy characters and franchise mythology. Mangold wants to rely on Star Wars “lore” as little as possible in his prequel set in the distant past.

“The Star Wars movie would be taking place 25,000 years before any known Star Wars movies take place,” Mangold said. “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.”

Lucasfilm first announced Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi at 2023’s Star Wars Celebration Europe IV. Two other films revealed at the celebration were a Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy-directed feature starring Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker and a movie from Lucasfilm’s Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni. All three films are undated. The Rey Skywalker film was slated for December 2026, but Disney removed it from its release calendar and replaced it with Ice Age 6.

The next Star Wars movie will be Jon Favreau’s , in theaters on May 22, 2026.