Five upcoming Star Wars movies look increasingly at risk following the studio shakeup at Lucasfilm. In mid-January, Kathleen Kennedy stepped down as president after 14 years running the company, closing the era that produced the sequel trilogy, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Mandalorian. Dave Filoni, the longtime animation chief behind Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Ahsoka, replaced her as president and chief creative officer, while veteran executive Lynwen Brennan stepped up as co-president to run the business side.
The new leadership inherited a giant brand and a thin theatrical schedule. With The Mandalorian and Grogu now out of theaters, Lucasfilm’s only confirmed big-screen plans are a 50th anniversary rerelease of the original 1977 film, Star Wars: A New Hope, on February 19, 2027, and Star Wars: Starfighter, the Ryan Gosling adventure from Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy, on May 28, 2027. The studio also has a long record of announcing movies that never got made. Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss saw their project evaporate, and a planned trilogy from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson never moved forward either.
Kennedy addressed that backlog head-on in her exit interview, and the picture she painted was bleak. Several announced films are on hold or waiting on decisions from the incoming regime, while a planned trilogy from X-Men producer Simon Kinberg, which she said would take the franchise deep into the 2030s, appears next in line. Between her comments and the reporting around the transition, these five movies now face the most serious doubts about ever reaching theaters.
Star Wars Movies Now in Danger at Lucasfilm
Dave Filoni’s MandoVerse Crossover Movie
Filoni’s own film once looked like the safest bet of the bunch. Lucasfilm announced it in 2023 at Star Wars Celebration Europe in London as his live-action feature directing debut, a New Republic era event movie meant to close out the interconnected stories of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the other Disney+ series.
The crossover then quietly slipped down the priority list. Reporting around Kennedy’s departure confirmed the film moved behind series creator Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, which took the franchise’s return trip to theaters instead. Filoni’s promotion cuts both ways here. He now holds the power to greenlight his own movie, and far less time to make it. Running Lucasfilm comes on top of a writing load that already includes every episode of Ahsoka Season 2, recently delayed to early 2027, plus a second season of his animated Darth Maul series. Filoni has maintained that the film remains part of his plans, but the film looks increasingly unlikely as the day goes by.
The movie's commercial viability is at an all-time low. The Mandalorian and Grogu opened to $98 million across the four-day Memorial Day holiday, the softest start of Disney’s Star Wars era, then fell 70% in its second weekend. Its run closed with $344.8 million worldwide against a $165 million budget, below Solo: A Star Wars Story’s $392.9 million, making it the lowest-grossing live-action film in franchise history. This crossover film demands that audiences heading into theaters keep track of half a dozen Disney+ storylines despite the poor reception of The Mandalorian and Grogu. The film is a much harder sell today than it was when Lucasfilm first revealed it.
James Mangold’s Jedi Prime
Mangold stood on that same Celebration stage in 2023 with the boldest pitch of the group, a film set roughly 25,000 years before the Skywalker saga about the first Jedi and the discovery of the Force. The Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director co-wrote the script with Andor writer Beau Willimon, and the project went by the working title Dawn of the Jedi until producer Simon Emanuel referred to it as Jedi Prime in a 2024 interview.
Kennedy delivered the bad news for this film on her way out the door. Asked where the film stood, she praised the screenplay while admitting, "it is definitely breaking the mold and it’s on hold." She then pushed Mangold’s movie toward the back of the queue alongside a pitch from filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, noting that studios across Hollywood have grown deeply cautious about risk.
Three years after its announcement, the film has no cast and no production start in sight. Mangold faces no shortage of other offers either. He directed the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown while the Star Wars project idled, and every month the hold-up continues makes it harder to keep a filmmaker of his stature waiting.
Daisy Ridley’s New Jedi Order Movie
Daisy Ridley’s return as Rey drew some of the loudest cheers at that 2023 event. The untitled film, widely known as New Jedi Order, follows Rey roughly 15 years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as she rebuilds the Jedi Order, with Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attached to direct her first narrative feature.
The script for the film never quite settled, with many great writers taking a shot at cracking it. Watchmen creator Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson turned in the first draft before Lucasfilm parted ways with the pair over creative differences. Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight took over, then departed in October 2024, and The Bourne Ultimatum writer George Nolfi became the third to try his luck in January 2025. Along the way, Disney pulled an untitled Star Wars film off its December 2026 calendar slot, and Ridley admitted in early 2025 that she had no idea when cameras would roll.
The shakeup only deepens the uncertainty. Industry scooper Daniel Richtman reported last summer that Lucasfilm shelved the movie for the foreseeable future while stressing it was not canceled. The project also went unmentioned when Kennedy walked through the studio’s film plans one final time. Disney’s broader retreat from the sequel era offers little comfort either, with Disneyland reportedly planning to phase out characters such as Kylo Ren from its Star Wars-themed park area in favor of classic icons. If Filoni and Brennan share that instinct, Rey’s comeback could stay parked indefinitely.
Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron
Rogue Squadron predates every other film on this list. Disney announced it in December 2020 with a late 2023 release attached, promising a new generation of starfighter pilots earning their wings. The project means a great deal to Jenkins personally, as the Wonder Woman director conceived it as a tribute to her late father, an Air Force fighter pilot.
Development sputtered almost immediately. Lucasfilm removed the film from its production schedule in late 2021 amid Jenkins' commitments to Wonder Woman 3; the release date disappeared soon after, and Kennedy floated the possibility in 2023 that the story might survive as a television series instead. Jenkins revived hopes in March 2024, revealing on the Talking Pictures podcast that she signed a fresh deal and owed Lucasfilm a new script draft, saying, "I’m back on doing 'Rogue Squadron' and we’ll see what happens."
More than two years later, nothing concrete has followed. Screenwriter Matthew Robinson admitted in February that he does not know what Lucasfilm wants to do with the movie, describing the studio as "a pretty big state of flux" after Kennedy’s departure. Lucasfilm also already has a fighter pilot picture on the calendar in Starfighter, which leaves little room for a second one anytime soon.
Taika Waititi’s Untitled Star Wars Movie
No announced Star Wars film has waited longer than Taika Waititi’s. Lucasfilm unveiled the project on May 4, 2020, with 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns attached and, at one point, a late 2023 release in mind. Six years on, it has no title, no cast, and no date.
The script alone turned into a saga. Wilson-Cairns exited by early 2023, leaving the Thor: Ragnarok director writing solo. At Star Wars Celebration Japan in April 2025, Kennedy revealed that Poor Things screenwriter Tony McNamara had joined the project while joking that "Taika is on Taika time."
Kennedy offered a parting endorsement and a warning in the same breath. She called the finished script hilarious, grouped the film with Donald Glover’s long-gestating Lando movie among the announced projects still barely alive, and made clear the final call now rests with the new leadership. After six years of development under the executive who championed it, the movie must now sell itself all over again to a team with its own priorities and an already crowded schedule.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
