A former screenwriter attached to the upcoming Rey film has come forward to share the vision he had for the project before his departure. The New Jedi Order, still officially untitled, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, will follow Rey (Daisy Ridley) as she works to rebuild the Jedi Order in the wake of the sequel trilogy. The film has seen significant behind-the-scenes turnover in the writing department, with one of the former writers recently sounding off on his big Force ideas for the upcoming film.
George Nolfi is the latest writer to take on the screenplay, following the departures of Steven Knight and original writing duo Justin Britt-Gibson and Damon Lindelof.
Lindelof recently joined the House of R podcast, where he shared never-before-revealed details on his ideas for the looming New Jedi Order Star Wars film.
The writer, best known for Lost, The Leftovers and Watchmen, was first hired to write the Star Wars film back in 2022, and one year later was fired from the project.
Speaking with The Ringer's Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson, he didn't shy away from addressing his Star Wars exit. In a moment of blunt self-reflection, Lindelof acknowledged that he was "wrong," at least through the "prism" of getting fired:
"Just to talk about the Bantha in the room, I was fired off of a Star Wars movie. They asked me, 'What do you think a Star Wars movie should be?' And I said, 'Here's what it should be.' And they said, 'Great, you're hired.' And then two years later, I was fired. And so I was wrong. At least through that prism."
Despite the outcome, Lindelof shed light on the ambitious thematic territory he and his team were trying to explore, something he described as a "Protestant Reformation inside Star Wars," pitting the "Force of nostalgia" directly against the "Force of revision:"
"But what we were attempting to do, my partners Justin Britt-Gibson, Rayna McClendon, and I, what we were attempting to do was to have this conversation in the movie, which is to say, there is a Force of nostalgia and there is a Force of revision, and they are at odds with one another. And let's do the Protestant Reformation inside Star Wars. And it didn't work."
The goal, he explained, was to engage with the fandom's own Force-debates authentically without ever breaking the fourth wall to do it:
"You have your cake and eat it too, but the conversation that the fandom is having, without winking and looking at the audience, and that didn't feel necessarily that risky."
Lindelof was also candid about just how difficult the day-to-day writing process was, with foundational questions about canon, tone, and what the film's "relationship was to Episode 9:"
"The writing was really hard. It was slow. The tone, getting it right, where it was inside of the canon, what its relationship was to Episode 9. Is it starting a new trilogy? All of those things are so massive. They're so big."
He spoke about the generations that were the "center of Star Wars," and he explained that his film would have involved another group of new characters to focus on going forward:
"That idea of like, we're looking for the center of Star Wars. And when Episode 7 came out, we all knew what it was. It was Rey, and it was Finn, and it was Poe, and then we were migrating back in Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy, and all those guys. But we got the sense that when this new trilogy was over, we were going to be launching with these new characters, and that was the center of Star Wars."
Finally, Lindelof questioned who the new center of Star Wars is at this moment, and if it's really supposed to be, or should The Mandalorian and Grogu:
"The new question is, are Mando and Grogu the center of Star Wars now?"
This question is being asked as The Mandalorian & Grogu is set to open in theaters, returning the franchise to the big screen for the first time in about seven years.
Ironically, this pre-production New Jedi Order film doesn't seem to be really on many fans' radars right now, with Mando & Grogu re-launching Star Wars in theaters and Ryan Gosling's sci-fi return happening in 2027 with Star Wars: Starfighter.
Frankly, this new movie, allegedly bringing back Ridley's Rey, is in a free fall, like a TIE fighter being blasted out of the sky.
Since its announcement at Star Wars Celebration 2023, the Rey-centered film has done anything but pick up steam. The script has seemingly been hard to crack, with The Bourne Ultimatum's George Nolfi now working on the treatment.
Over a year ago, Ridley herself admitted she had no idea when filming would begin. It seems like Lucasfilm and former President Kathleen Kennedy have no idea what they truly want this movie to be.
After reportedly being shelved, there are also indications that point to this film launching a new playground of storytelling in the Star Wars universe, like the Mando-Verse kicked off in 2019.
What's surely disappointing for Star Wars fans is that Lindelof's original ideas, which are most likely fully scrapped, seemed really cool and could have led to an awesome new movie to push the mythos forward.
Is the New Jedi Order Set Up to Fail?
Star Wars has leaned so heavily on legacy characters, callbacks, and fan service since The Force Awakens that it has arguably stunted its own growth, and The Rise of Skywalker represented something of a breaking point for many fans. Yet the answer isn't to abandon what makes Star Wars what it is.
The Force, the Jedi, and the mythology built across decades are the franchise's greatest assets, and running away from them entirely would be just as damaging as over-relying on them. It seems that Starfighter will tap into the Force once again, but The Mandalorian & Grogu does nothing to build out the mythos of the universe's invisible string.
That's what makes Lindelof's previous concept so compelling: it doesn't discard the old; it faces it head-on. A story that forces (no pun intended) characters, and by extension the audience, to wrestle with how the past should inform the future is exactly the kind of thematically rich storytelling Star Wars needs to mature.
Rey rebuilding the Jedi Order is the perfect way to take this conflict; she is, by definition, someone trying to honor a tradition she barely got to experience by taking on the Skywalker name.
Whether the current creative team is pursuing anything close to that vision remains to be seen, and Lindelof's comments make it clear that Lucasfilm is lost in regards to what they want (or need) this movie to be.
